Warriors' defense grounds Eagles

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on November 30, 2013 11:03 PM

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Eastern Wayne undoubtedly proved that offense sells tickets and defense wins championships Friday evening.

The Warriors held Eastern Alamance's juggernaut spread attack to less than 300 yards of total offense during a 12-7 triumph in eastern semifinal-round action of the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 3-A football playoffs at Little Big Horn.

Top-seeded and unbeaten Havelock entertains Eastern Wayne, which is enjoying its best season in program history on the gridiron, next Friday. Kickoff is 7:30 p.m.

But back to the Warriors' 'D'.

"They played real well," EW defensive coordinator Phil Gray said. "We're teaching to them to go out and play hard every play, and give all they've got because you never know when it's the last down (of the game) or your last play (of the season)."

The sixth-seeded Eagles entered the game with an offense that produced a 1,000-yard passer (Joey Lanier) and 1,000-yard rusher (Malcom Summers) during the season. Summers grinded out 86 yards on 15 carries against the Warriors.

Lanier completed just six passes for 40 yards and threw a game-ending interception to Dayshawn Pridgen in the end zone.

The Warriors forced four turnovers.

Eastern Wayne held to Eastern Alamance to 4.4 yards per offensive play, and permitted just three third-down conversions. The Warriors forced three turnovers on downs, including a fourth-down pass that ended up short on a fake field goal attempt to start the final quarter.

"I wasn't surprised (about the fake) because they were down five and I knew they had a decent kicker," Warriors head coach Bubba Williams said. "We talked about that during the quarter change and I'm glad that happened so we could talk about the possibility of them doing that.

"It was big."

As a team, the Warriors logged 11 tackles that resulted in either zero or lost yardage, and sacked Lanier twice. Six-foot-1 lineman Ramello Hamilton lined up in the gap and created havoc all evening. He finished with six tackles.

"From everything that we saw (on film), they really wanted to run the ball first so that would open up for them to throw the ball," Gray said. "Every week we practice pass patterns on our defensive day and just try to get the kids in the right position. We try to get at least nine or 10 hats to the ball every play."