By By BRIAN HAINES, Brian@wdnweb.com, Sports Writer
Washington’s chances of pulling out a Coastal Conference crown took a big blow on Friday as it fell 38-13 to conference rival South Central on the road Friday night.
Both teams entered the matchup tied for second place with a 4-1 conference record, but after the defeat the Pam Pack slipped to 5-5 (4-2) while the Falcons climbed to 7-3 (5-1).
Entering Friday night Havelock was the conference leader with a 7-2 (5-0) record.
Washington struggled early as turnovers kept the team from piecing together scoring drives and establishing its running game.
“We started off pretty flat and had a couple of turnovers and they capitalized on it,” Washington coach Sport Sawyer said. “They jumped to a quick 14-0 lead, by halftime it was 24-0.”
Washington fumbled twice on Friday with both coming in the first quarter.
The Pam Pack picked up its play in the second half as fullback Marquin Hill and tailback William Ellegor each had a touchdown run, but it was not enough to overcome South Central.
“In the second half we were able to do a couple of things and get some points on the board but they scored a couple as well,” Sawyer said. “We just came out flat and had too many turnovers and that was the difference in the game.”
Sawyer said the Falcons came out and played well against the run.
“In the first half we really didn’t have much offense at all. We kept running out of the I (formation) and straight at people but they were stopping that. Our play-action passes weren’t working,” Sawyer said. “But in the second half we started doing jet sweeps and were able to move the ball a little bit.”
The Pam Pack coach credited the Falcons running backs for their gritty effort.
“Their backs came out and hit the hole hard, their linemen stayed on their blocks,” Sawyer said. “They were good on offense and we missed some tackles at times and they took advantage of it.”
The Pam Pack will be back in action next week when it closes out the regular season against West Carteret.