By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Williams relied on its defense and a couple of second-half touchdown drives to defeat visiting Western Alamance 13-6 in Mid-Carolina Conference football Friday night at Burlington Memorial Stadium.
“Both defenses played their tails off,” Williams coach Patrick Stokes said.
Sophomores Akireon Robertson and Robbie Davis scored on touchdown runs for Williams (5-2 overall, 3-2 Mid-Carolina Conference).
“I believed in the team the whole time that we were going to find a way to get it done,” Davis said.
Western (5-4, 2-3) didn’t convert enough despite Christian Payton’s 108 rushing yards on 17 carries and Kylon Richardson’s 94 receiving yards on 12 catches.
“We had multiple opportunities,” Western coach Drew Hambright said. “We’ve just got to take advantage. . . Proud of our guys for the fight.”
The result was a homecoming victory for the Bulldogs.
“Western Alamance ran the ball really well against us,” Stokes said. “However, we liked the resiliency of our players to bend and not break.”
Williams drove 80 yards to begin the second half, with Davis’ throw to Zarrion Ramsay taking the ball to the Western 13. Robertson ran to the end zone on the next play.
“We made some plays and established our run game,” said Davis, a quarterback who a week earlier was in the concussion protocol and missed the team’s loss at Eastern Alamance.
Western also threatened in the second half, but Camden Oliveira’s 39-yard field goal attempt was wide left. Then the Warriors got a defensive stop when Jayvin Brown came up with a fumble at the Western 32.
The Warriors found a spark, with Chance Johnson’s 13-yard run on the last play of the third quarter. He followed that with a 4-yard TD run on the next snap to pull within 7-6.
But Western’s extra-point execution was out of kilter and holder Andrew Bullard’s desperation pass fell incomplete.
The Bulldogs went to work and scored on Davis’ 1-yard score. They tried for a two-point conversion, but Western linebacker Dawson Boysel stopped Davis short of the goal line.
The Warriors responded by reaching the Williams’ 25 for a first down before a high snap cost them 16 yards. Then on fourth-and-5, Grayson Smith’s pass to Richardson picked up about 4½ yards, giving the ball back with 3:37 remaining.
“Our offense continued to get yards,” Stokes said.
The Bulldogs kept the ball until Matty Poole was off the mark on a 31-yard field goal attempt with 37 seconds to go. By then, Western was out of timeouts and didn’t threaten.
The closest either team came to scoring in the first half was dashed when Williams’ Orville Pass blocked Oliveira’s 24-yard field goal attempt early in the second quarter. The next Western possession ended with Christian Booth’s interception on a fourth-down play in Williams territory.
- Southeast Alamance 56, Roxboro Person 31: At Roxboro, the Stallions clinched at least a tie for the Mid-Carolina Conference championship by defeating the Rockets for the second time this season. This one was a conference game.
Southeast (9-0, 5-0) will visit second-place Eastern Alamance (6-2, 4-1) with the outright title on the line Friday night.
The Stallions scored the game’s final 14 points. Roxboro Person fell to 2-6, 1-3.
- Southern Alamance 46, Cummings 6: At Mt. Hermon, Sincere Thompson rushed for 263 yards and three touchdowns as the Patriots won their regular-season home finale.
Southern’s Sincere Thompson
Thompson had scoring runs of 15, 49, and 57 yards.
The Patriots (7-2, 3-2) have won three in a row.
Tustin Johnson had a 1-yard touchdown run and a 30-yard touchdown pass to Abel Catlett.
Camden Whittemore finished an 83-yard drive with a 10-yard TD run. Kaden West’s 16-yard run concluded a 75-yard drive for a 33-0 halftime lead.
It took Southern two snaps to score in the second half on Thompson’s 49-yard run. On the Patriots’ next possession, he scored from 57 yards out with 4:55 left in the third quarter on his final action of the game.
Cummings (1-8, 0-6) scored on the game’s last play on Hudson Pressley’s 10-yard throw to Jayden Royal. No extra point was attempted.
