Southern Wayne comes back from down 20 points vs Eastern Wayne! Breaks 12 year losing streak!

It was a thrilling contest between two Wayne County Rivals that came down to the last play. Eastern Wayne got up 20-0 in the second quarter behind a strip and score by Jamen Kornegay to start with in the first quarter. Antonio Houpe joined the scoring party with a short touchdown run in the second quarter. Izeiah Oates hit a long TD pass to Trondell Smith in the second quarter to put the Warriors up 20-0. Southern Wayne’s Lamontez White ran in a short one to put Southern Wayne down 20-8 heading into halftime. Both teams were scoreless in the turnover-filled third quarter. Southern Wayne got some momentum heading into the fourth. On the second play of the quarter, White took it from a few yards out after setting up a goal line trip with a long pass to Ell’a Boykin the play before. The two teams traded possessions before Southern Wayne made a big stop on fourth down in their own territory. Southern Wayne got the ball back from their own 31 with a little over 5 minutes on the clock, but only had one timeout. On the third play of the drive, Southern Wayne benefitted from a late hit out of bounds to give them the ball from the 46. Three plays later, it was 4th and 19. As the pocket collapsed, White stepped up and ran; he was tackled but got the first down by the nose of the football. After a few short runs to get them in position to take some shots, Southern Wayne faced third down from the 31 yard line with under a minute left. White threw a dart into triple coverage over the middle to Boykins who scored with 50 seconds left. White would score on a QB draw to put them ahead on the two-point conversion. On the ensuing drive, Eastern got a first down after starting from their own 40, but were faced with third down with under 25 seconds left. Oates threw big shot to Smith, who laid out for the catch at the five yard line. Eastern Wayne called their final timeout with 9 seconds left. Out of the timeout, Eastern Wayne decided to run it up the middle with Houpe but Boykin got in their to make the tackle for loss as time ran out. It’s the first time Southern Wayne has beaten Eastern Wayne since 2010. It’s also the first time Southern Wayne has won their season opener since 2011. Southern Wayne will travel to Goldsboro next week looking for their third straight win over the Cougars. Eastern Wayne will be traveling to Aycock, hoping to avenge last year’s 44-8 loss to the Golden Falcons.