Fike falls to Knights in home opener

The Fike High varsity football team preaches the same game plan for every week — run the football, complete passes and don’t have turnovers.

First-year head coach Rocky Lewis indicated his Golden Demons struggled in all three aspects on a hot Thursday night before a few hundred fans in falling 31-6 to neighboring 3-A heavyweight Northern Nash on the Fike turf.

The Demons, 2023 co-champions of the 3-A Quad County Conference,dropped to 1-1 with another rugged test next Friday night at Southern Nash, another 3-A power.

The Knights of head coach Andrew Farris climbed to 2-0 with their second win against a Wilson County foe. In the previous two seasons, Northern Nash of the 2-A/3-A Big East Conference, has amassed 28 wins, playing in the NCHSAA 3-A East finals in 2022 and 2023 and the state 3-A championship contest in 2022.

Junior Fike quarterback Cam Pittman, often forced to scramble, connected on 14-of-21 passes for 188 yards. Virtually all of the offense occurred the last three quarters. The Northern Nash defense, with good size up front, limited Fike’s ground game to 49 yards and the offense and kickoff teams limited their hopes of staying in the game with five turnovers — four on lost fumbles.

Falling behind 17-0, the Demons drew no closer than 17-6. Both teams squandered scoring opportunities. Turnovers totaled three for Northern Nash.

Fike demonstrated offensive punch after winding up with a dismal minus-9 rushing yards the first quarter.

“We had trouble running the ball,” Lewis explained, “and we had to open up and throw the ball. That gave us a chance the first half.

“We showed we can play with them. We expected a hard, tough game, and if we don’t turn the ball over, we play a good, representative game.”

Northern Nash piled up 66 rushing yards its first two possessions. But the Knights truly harassed the Fike defense once senior Triston Sigers, a left-handed thrower, took over at quarterback, replacing lanky senior JC Lewis. Both Lewis and Sigers spent most of their snaps handing off to backup tailback Myles Eatmon, a transfer from Wilson Prep who thundered for 181 yards on 20 rushes.

Farriss explained the key along with stationing Sigers under center was returning senior Kadafi Hill, injured in the win against Fike, to center.

“We were kind of struggling with subs,” Farriss noted. “When we put Kadafi back in, it helped. (Sigers) scrambled for first downs, kept the chains moving and held onto the football. Scrambling is usually not his strength, but he did a good job.

“Fike did some good things early, but we were sloppy. We’ve got to clean it up; we’ve got to improve the passing. The defense, for the most part, was pretty decent, but we’ve got to cover better.”

Lewis reasoned the turning point for his Demons occurred early in the second quarter. The Knights stretched their lead to 14-0, but Fike, on the strength of Pittman passes, threatened, driving to Northern Nash’s 27-yard line before a fourth-down pass fell incomplete.

Fike forced a punt and proceeded to drive 40 yards for a TD to cut the deficit to 17-6. Pittman scrambled for 17 yards and passed to senior Josiah Artis for 19 yards before stepping the final two yards with 4:55 left in the half.

On the strength of a 41-yard Pittman bomb to senior Jerimiah Peart and 14 more yards to Artis, the Demons threatened. However, the Knights’ Kaleb Staton, a senior, intercepted. Northern Nash capitalized with a 32-yard field goal from Tristan Murray with nine seconds before halftime. Fike then fumbled away its second kickoff reception, but Northern Nash was unable to capitalize.

“It took a couple of possessions for the defense to get its feet under it, but I thought we did a better job in the second quarter (behind senior linebackers Kam Barbee and Jamari Hill along with linemen Eric Downing, a senior, and Braylon Boykin, a junior. But in the third quarter, we reverted back to the first half. And it’s hard to win games when you turn the ball over (five) times.”

Thus, the Knights took command by crunching to a pair of third-quarter TDs by Eatman on a two-yard plunge and senior Damante Adams on a 15-yard end-around trot. Murray kicked both extra points.

Fike halted one drive on junior Will O’Neal’s fumble recovery. Senior Xzavion Barnes intercepted a Knights’ pass in the Fike end zone, and Artis ended the Knights’ second possession with an aerial theft at the Demons’ 2-yard line. Fumble recoveries by senior Torrence Porter Jr. and junior Joshua Ricks of the Knights spoiled Fike hopes.

“We have a whole lot of potential,” Farriss mentioned of a Northern Nash team that returns but nine starters on both sides of the football. “But we are very young and we’re showing it. We’ve got to grow up in a hurry. I thought, after two weeks, we would know what we’ve got. But I still don’t know.”

Fike ended the scoring midway the final quarter on Pittman’s 28-yard strike to junior Ti’Quise Williams.

The nonconference game was pushed back a half hour because of 90-degree heat. Lewis pointed out the heat issue troubled the Demons the entire short week.

“We weren’t able to practice this week because of the heat,” Lewis reported. “We practiced in the gym, the auditorium and the cafeteria. It was hard to replicate what we were going to see from Northern Nash. And we certainly want to be able to run the football.”

Cramps were again a problem, but Lewis reasoned: “It’s hard to get into game shape when you’re not out in the heat.”

Northern Nash 31

Fike 13

NN      F

First downs           21            16

Yards rushing      289            49

Yards passing 23             188

Att-Comp-Int 19-5-2 21-14-1

Punts-Avg        2-24.0     4-40.3

Fumbles-Lost         1-0           5-4

Penalties-Yards      4-37        4-35

Score by quarters:

Northern Nash   7  10  14   0—31

Fike 6    0    0   7—13

Scoring summary

NN — Myles Eatmon 4 run (Tristan Murray kick), 0:22, 1st.

NN — Damante Adams 24 pass from JC Lewis (Tristan Murray kick), 11:47, 2nd.

F — Cam Pittman 2 run (run failed), 4:55, 2nd.

NN — Tristan Murray 32 FG, 0:09, 2nd.

NN — Myles Eatmon 2 run (Tristan Murray kick), 9:47, 3rd.

NN — Damante Adams 15 run (Tristan Murray kick). 4:04, 3rd.

F — TiQuise Williams 28 pass from Cam Pittman (Micah Foula kick), 5:50, 4th.

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