South Columbus flanker Dakota Piver (25) comes up with a 40-yard pass from quarterback Justin Duncan to set up the Stallions’ first score in its 20-0 scrimmage victory over Jacksonville in Friday’s BB&T Football Jamboree at Wilmington’s Legion Stadium. Eric Erlandson is the Jacksonville defender.

Staff photos by Mark Gilchrist

By DAN BISER
Sports Editor

WILMINGTON - The South Columbus High running game got off to a roaring start Friday, putting together scoring drives of 70 and 89 yards on its first two possessions against the Jacksonville Cardinals in the opening scrimmage of the 21st BB&T Football Jamboree at Legion Stadium.

The Stallions emerged with a 20-0 victory in their 24-minute scrimmage and helped ignite a 38-27 victory for the “visitors” side in the rain-shortened event.
Play was halted in the final minutes of the fourth of the five scheduled scrimmages by a heavy thunderstorm.

Buster James, Justin Smith and Rashawn Grate led a solid Stallion running game, and the SCHS defense, paced by Andrae Jacobs, T.J. Richardson, Jonathan Buffkin and Dakota Piver, limited the 3A Jacksonville squad to only two first downs.

“I’m pleased with the effort,” said veteran Stallion coach Joey Price. “Our kids came to play. There were some mistakes, some of the little mess-ups here an there that you see a lot in pre-season, but we got off the ball pretty well and went after people on defense.”

South Columbus got touchdown runs of five and four yards by Smith and a five-yard blast by Jacobs. The Stallions also got a two-point conversion pass from Justin Duncan to Derrick Clay. The big play of the night was a 40-yard pass from Duncan to Piver to the Jacksonville 19 on the initial scoring drive.

Whiteville High took the field against New Hanover in the second scrimmage of the evening and came out on the short end of a 20-10 score after holding leads of 3-0 and 10-7. New Hanover returned a late Wolfpack fumble 34 yards to gain the upper hand in the scrimmage.

The Whiteville effort against the 4A New Hanover squad was paced by senior running back Jarrod McKinney, who rushed for 80 yards on nine carries. WHS scored its touchdown on a 25-yard pass from Ben Deans to E. Brown. Zack Stanley put the first Wolfpack points on the board with a 26-yard field goal and added the PAT kick.
The New Hanover offense was led by quarterback Colton Benford, who threw a 17-yard scoring pass to Travis Middaugh. Cameron Clinton and Jamar Barnett bolstered the Wildcat running game. Barnett scored the first NH touchdown on a 10-yard run.

Wildcat linebacker Austin Lancaster picked up a fumble at the WHS 34 and ran it in for the final score. Thomas Trexler connected on two of three extra point tries.
“I thought our kids did okay,” said WHS head coach Mark Little. “New Hanover does a lot of things on offense and they have some very good skill people. We’re disappointed with the score, but not the effort.

“I thought we did a pretty good job of moving the football with our running game, and we got our touchdown on a well-executed pass play,” Little added. “We just need to get more consistent.”

In the third scrimmage, Wallace-Rose Hill stormed to a 28-0 decision over Ashley, and Laney held a 7-0 advantage over South Brunswick when play was halted with 4:09 left.

The Hoggard-West Brunswick scrimmage was cancelled.

In tuning up for the Jamboreee, South Columbus and Whiteville hosted scrimmages on Thursday.

On Thursday morning, South Columbus dominated West Brunswick, scoring eight touchdowns while holding West Brunswick to a single TD.

Whiteville played host to Ashley on Thursday evening. The Wolfpack posted four scores while holding Ashley to one.

South Columbus will open its season this Friday night at St.Pauls, and Whiteville will have its season opener Friday at West Bladen. Both games will begin at 7:30 p.m.