Young Warriors fall short at D.H. Conley 27-20

WINTERVILLE — A Hunt High varsity football team that is long on youth and short on experience in spots had its chances in Friday’s game at D.H. Conley but the Warriors fell short in a 27-20 loss.

The 3-A Quad County Conference Warriors, now 1-2 after their final nonconference outing, never had the lead but tied the score in the second half and had chances to go ahead.

“I think a young team is maturing slowly but surely,” said Hunt head coach Juan Jackson. “We just have to iron out the kinks and be consistent. We didn’t play bad. We just didn’t capitalize on a couple of mistakes that they made and they capitalized on the mistakes we made.”

Junior Will Doll kicked two field goals and both extra points for the Warriors. He booted a 42-yard field goal in the first half and then nailed from 49 yards in the second half that is a new Warriors record.

The 4-A Vikings of the 3-A/4-A Big Carolina Conference scored first but Hunt evened the score on a short touchdown pass from junior quarterback Carson Jones to senior Ny’Gir Alston, who injured his hand later in the contest and played sporadically thereafter.

“When he hit the ground, he landed awkwardly and dislocated his little finger,” said Jackson of the play that would have been a TD had Alston been able to hold onto the ball.

The Vikings (2-1) scored again and successfully recovered an onside kick, puncturing any hope the Warriors had for reclaiming the momentum before halftime. Hunt did hold Conley from scoring on that possession but the Vikings added another TD later in the quarter.

“That onside kick was crucial, which I have to look at the film and see if it went the distance, but that was a big play for them to have,” Jackson said.

After the Vikings took a 20-7 lead, Hunt got the ball back on an interception by sophomore Randy James. Doll buried a 42-yard field goal just before half to cut the lead to 20-10.

That little bit of momentum going into halftime manifested into a touchdown drive for the Warriors to start the second half. Senior Tylee Jones ran it in from about 20 yards and Doll’s PAT made it 20-17 with nearly a half to play.

An interception and a fumble killed two Hunt drives but the Warriors managed to move the ball far enough for Doll’s leg to do the rest. His 49-yarder tied the score at 20-all with more than seven minutes to play. It took the Vikings about half that long to reach the end zone again for a 27-20 lead.

Hunt got the ball back with 3:35 to play and managed to get inside the Conley 20-yard line but no further.

Now Hunt goes into its open week on the schedule to get ready for its Quad County opener Sept. 20 at C.B. Aycock.

“I think offensively, we’re starting to figure out some things,” said Warriors first-year offensive coordinator Cam Avery. “Some young kids are growing up. They’re starting to kind of get our identity as to who we are. We’ve just got to get a couple things ironed out — be a little sharper in the red zone, be a little better mentally in a couple things — and once we figure that out, I think we’re going to be fine. It’s just just a matter of working in this off week, iron out some kinks that we have and keep working on these young kids.”

Defensively, every snap brings valuable experience for the young unit.

“We’re very young in some key spots — linebacker, middle linebacker in particular — but these guys just need to get a chance to practice together and get a little more used to, in some cases, being in that position, being on the field,” said defensive coordinator Keith Byrum. “At one point tonight, we had probably five sophomores out on the field playing defense at the same time. Part of that is because Ny’Gir wasn’t in — and he’s a huge part of everything we do — but when he had to go out, the young kids had to go in and step up. And they didn’t do a bad job, it just was tough for them to do it play after play after play, when some of them are used to doing it in short spurts.”

Senior Keyshawn Richardson also had an interception for the Warriors.

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