FOOTBALL: Johnson -- Cougars need to 'keep striking'

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on October 24, 2016 9:57 AM

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Keep striking.

It's been Goldsboro's rally call all season on the football field.

But the Cougars haven't been able to find that one spark or knock down that wall to reverse a campaign that's resulted in seven consecutive frustrating losses.

"Nobody expected it to be this adverse," GHS head coach Bennett Johnson said.

The former record-setting quarterback told his team the story of man who, every day, used an ax to knock down a wall. Frustrated, he quit and retired for the night. When he returned the next day, the wall fell after one swing of the ax and revealed a bounty of gold.

"Keep striking, you never know when things are going to turn around for us," Johnson said. "All it takes is one play, then one game, then all of a sudden it's a whole new story. Don't wind up one strike short, which is definitely the moral of the story."

Goldsboro gets another chance to strike at the wall Tuesday evening.

The Cougars (0-7 overall) play host to Eastern Carolina 2-A Conference foe Kinston (5-2) at Cougar Stadium. Kickoff is 7 p.m.

The Vikings have won four straight in the series and 19 overall in 34 meetings. The teams played each other for the first time in 1959.

The ECC affair is also an opportunity for both communities to continue to heal after Hurricane Matthew delivered a devastating blow to eastern North Carolina. The two towns had families displaced due to rising flood waters from the Neuse River, and each county was declared a disaster-relief area by North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory.

"It'll be refreshing," Johnson said. "Everyone has been restless since Matthew arrived (Oct. 8). It's been high stress since then, and for a lot of folks the stress continues. Bringing back football and the rest of the fall sports will be a nice mental escape for a lot of friends and family.

"It won't fix everything, but it will help."

Goldsboro looks to snap a nine-game skid.

To do so, Johnson said there are two keys to the game -- tackle the Vikings in space and not give up the big play, and play a ball-control offense. The Cougars need to take care of the ball and keep the clock moving to shorten the game.

KJ Alston and Xzavior Bowden have been Goldsboro's mainstays on offense. Alston has completed 48 passes for 396 yards and six touchdowns, while Bowden has rushed for 362 yards and three TDs on 66 carries.

Ronnie Tookes and Jacob Owens have been Alston's primary targets. The duo has combined to reel in 31 receptions for 330 yards and six touchdowns.

"The last couple of weeks (before the hurricane) I thought we played better offensively and did some good things that we can build off of," said Johnson, whose team faces the league's top-scoring defense (14.3 points/game) in the conference.

Kinston meets a Goldsboro defense that needs a signature win.

The Cougars have forced 13 turnovers and are led by three players -- Bowden (53 tackles), senior linebacker RJ Dodson (50 stops) and Jaeil Ashford (33 hits). The trio will need to contain a Vikings' offense that likes to spread out an opponent and make plays in open space.

"We have to keep them in front of us," Johnson said.

And keep striking -- especially the seniors.

Four games remain in regular-season play and anything can happen. Ever the optimist Johnson believes in the Cougars, and can still see pride and determination in his group.

"I still have a ton of confidence in our guys and a ton of confidence in our seniors that we can make that turn," he said. "They're working. They're eager to get this thing on track."

And one strong swing is all that's needed to knock down the wall.