CHOCOWINITY — In a game that started with bold plays right from the start with a Northside onside kick recovery, the Panthers were not able to keep the momentum going for the entire game, as Southside emerged victorious and claimed the Anchor Bowl postseason rematch, 44-12, tonight.

“Honestly, I know I can talk for me and Coach Boyd, and we’re not too thrilled (with the matchup of playing each other again). We see them a lot and we know we’re familiar foes and we know what we’ve got,” Southside head coach Jeff Carrow said. “We’d love to play someone different in the first round of playoffs, but this has happened the past two years and this is what we’ve got, but we’ve been fortunate to be on the good end of it.”

After the onside kick recovery, Northside (4-8, 1-5 1A Coastal Plains Conference) running back Tyler Modlin took a dump pass from quarterback Zachariah Green for a 28-yard score to claim the early lead. After a failed two-point try up the middle, the Panthers led 6-0.Their lead didn’t last long though, as Southside (5-7, 2-4 1A CPC) answered with a rushing TD from Jaheem Carter from 35 yards out a less than two minutes later.

After putting together some quality runs on their opening drive, the Panthers struggled getting positive rushing yards for most of the game, with many attempts being stopped once they reached the line of scrimmage. Northside head coach Keith Boyd intensified his adjustments on the line midway through the second quarter, after doing a little reshuffling throughout the game to that point, but couldn’t find the right combination all night, causing his team to send the ball back to the Seahawks time and time again.

“They came out and played with a lot more fire, like they wanted it a little bit more than we did,” Boyd said. “I don’t think it (the 15 days off) really affected us either way. It should’ve helped us, but we just didn’t get off the bus ready to roll.”

Southside made it a 9-point game with just over two minutes to go in the opening quarter after running back Jonquil Haywood ran it in for a 4-yard score. The Seahawks took over at the Panthers 30 after a bad snap on a Northside punt resulted in a fumble by the punter.

A long slant pass to wide receiver Campbell Barnes set up Carter’s second score of the night on an 11-yard TD rush to push the lead to 22-6 in favor of the Seahawks. Again, less than two minutes later, Southside got on the board, this time with a dart from Will Warren to the front right corner of the end zone, as he connected with tight end Hunter Tyler for the 11-yard score.

Middle linebacker Shantez Clark recovered a punched-out fumble at the Northside 28-yard line to allow Southside to pile on another score, as running back Hayden Mayo scored from five yards out to give the Seahawks a 31-point lead with 5:34 to play.

“We were focusing on us playing a full game for the first time all year, I feel like we’ve battled ourselves a lot,” Carrow said. “Earlier in the year the defense was struggling a little bit and the offense was rolling, and then more lately we’ve been struggling offensively and the defense has got around. To come out and actually put a full game together feels good for us.”

Northside would add another TD, Modlin’s second score of the game, a four-yard rushing score to get the Panthers into double digits.

The final score of the game came after Northside put up an outstanding defensive stance with stopping three plays from within its own 10-yard line. Southside, who had trusted its kicker all night, sent out kicker Luke Matthews, who has been battling a hamstring injury he sustained during soccer season, to attempt a short field goal. However, a Panther lineman got a hand on it and smacked it back to the Northside 30, but no one from the Panthers could fall on the slippery ball. Southside’s Richard Shavender scooped up the ball and ran it back to the two, before taking a leaping dive over the left pylon for the score.

Southside accounted for 274 yards in the game, 233 of them coming on the ground, while holding Northside to 112 total yards on 50 plays. Although the Panthers seemed to get tangled up at the line of scrimmage when rushing, they still eclipsed 84 yards on the ground in the game. Southside went 50 percent on its passing, 3-for-6, picking up one TD, while Northside attempted the same number of passes, but completed just one of them for 28 yards.

Carter was the leading rusher for Southside, as he ran the ball 13 times for 182 yards and two scores. His partners in Haywood and Mayo tacked on 24 and 21, respectively, with Mayo adding another TD. Carter got rolling early and Carrow continued to favor him throughout the contest. Modlin led the Panthers in rushing, as he rushed 12 times for 46 yards and was the only player to score for Northside in the game.

“You know, we got to get all of our young kids in,” Boyd said. “They got to experience what it’s like (to play) on Friday and get a little bit of experience here.”

While Boyd and his young team end their season with the loss, Carrow and the Seahawks will head to Bayboro to take on Pamlico County in yet another rematch.