James Tart and Paige Lockamon, the homecoming king and queen.
What may be known is next week’s game will be nothing like the Yellow Jackets homecoming rout of the Eagles, who only moved the ball once past midfield.
“It was a very young, inexperienced team we played tonight,” the coach said. “They made some mistakes that gave us really short fields. We were on their side of the field the entire first half and we had some easy scoring opportunities. Being as experienced as we are, our kids took advantage of it early on. It just kind of got away early.”
Weinstein said the Jackets must put tonight’s game behind them and focus on the upcoming game against Bunn. “It’s a huge conference game. It’s going to have big time playoff implications as far as seeding purposes. It’s a huge game and I just hope a lot of people from Roanoke Rapids will make that trip down to Bunn to support these kids next week.”
Weinstein said Warren County’s inexperience showed in their blocking. “We were able to get good pressure on their quarterback. He was under duress most of the night.”
The coach’s thoughts on Bunn take him back to last year’s game. “There were two huge plays in that game last year that decided it. One of them was an interception return by Terrell Luter early in the first half where they returned a touchdown against us and he answered it with that pick six.”
Then, he said, in the fourth quarter Kareem Martin ripped the ball out of the running back’s hand and saved a score. “I think what you’re going to have is two high powered offenses going at it next Friday night.”
Tonight the Jackets scored on their first possession after receiving the opening kick, effortlessly moving the ball from their own 34 and scoring seven plays later when Justin Rawles ran 6 yards for a touchdown at 9:26.
The second touchdown came at 7:31 in the first when D.J. Epperson returned a Warren County punt 50 yards. The extra point attempt failed but the Jackets led, 13-0.
After another Eagles punt, Rawles, on the first play, hit Grey Jones for a 42-yard pass and the successful extra point made the score, 20-0, at 6:17.
Stymied by defensive pressure throughout the game, Warren County punted again, the ball landing on their own 36. Two plays later, Rawles hit Tyrell Everette for a 17-yard pass and the score was 27-0 at 3:13 in the first quarter.
Warren County fumbled on the first play following the Everette touchdown and Everette scampered across the end zone to make the score 34-0 with 2:51 left in the first.
Penalties plagued the Eagles and Jackets on the next possession and after six plays Warren County punted again. On second and 2 with 26 seconds left in the first, Rawles connected with Everette for a 21-yard pass play that made the score, 41-0, as the first quarter ended.
On Warren County’s first play of the second quarter at the 9-yard-line, Derrick Bonner stripped the ball and Temere Rountree fell on it in the end zone at 11:50. The score was then 48-0.
After another failed Warren County drive, Roanoke Rapids, with A.J. Alston in at quarterback, advanced the ball to the 3-yard line and settled for an Owen Bridges field goal to make the score 51-0 at 8:49.
Warren County’s only trip across midfield and its only chance to score came on its next possession when the Eagles took the ball to the Roanoke Rapids 9 after a Ronald Kennerly run.
The Eagles got the ball to the 4 but failed to score.
At the end of the first half the score was 51-0 and Roanoke Rapids would score again at 6:40 in the third when Epperson returned a punt 60 yards to make the score 58-0.
Epperson recovered a Warren County fumble at the Eagles 21 and two plays later Alston ran the ball for 19 yards with 1:44 to go in the third to make the score 65-0.
The Jackets final score of the evening came with 2:46 left in the game when Epperson intercepted a Warren County pass. A 10-play drive ended with Matt Wood getting in the end zone on a 1-yard run, making the final, 72-0.
“We just came out ready to play, taking care of business,” Epperson said. “We just had to do what we had to do.”
Epperson said while Warren County has some athletes on its team, “We just came out and took care of business.”
While he didn’t want to look ahead to Bunn, Epperson said, “To me, that’s the conference championship right there.”
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