Bulldogs can't cash in, fall in state final

May 7—RALEIGH — After facing a 14-point halftime deficit, the St. Pauls football team had two big scoring opportunities early in the third quarter of Thursday's North Carolina High School Athletic Association 2AA State Championship Game.

But the Bulldogs couldn't convert in those situations, and with those missed opportunities their opportunity for a state championship faded away as well.

St. Pauls lost 42-14 to Salisbury in the Bulldogs' first state championship appearance, with those two empty third-quarter drives serving as a turning point in the game.

"We've been so many times this year on the other side of those kind of plays, and it took the wind out of our sails," St. Pauls coach Mike Setzer said. "We preach here that the ball's going to bounce the wrong way, and then it's going to bounce the right way. We had a couple bounce our way tonight, but felt like we had a couple bounce the other way."

Salisbury (9-2) received the second-half kickoff after leading 28-14 at halftime, but on the second play from scrimmage a Hornets fumble was recovered by St. Pauls' Nore McEachern. But St. Pauls (8-1) went three and out near midfield and punted back to Salisbury.

Then, after the Hornets were stopped on fourth-and-1 at their own 43, the Bulldogs drove all the way to the Hornets' 1-yard line — but were stopped there on back-to-back plays for their own turnover on downs.

"That did take the wind out of our sails," Setzer said. "We really needed to punch it in there, but they didn't quit, but kudos to Salisbury, they did a great job with the goal-line stand."

Salisbury drove 99 yards in seven plays on the ensuing drive, scoring on a 6-yard Vance Honeycutt run for a 35-14 lead with 1:47 left in the third.

The Hornets also scored on their next drive, on a 25-yard pass from Honeycutt to Jalon Walker, for a 42-14 lead with 10:28 remaining. Neither team threatened to score over the rest of the game.

Honeycutt was named game MVP after accounting for five touchdowns; he rushed for 110 yards on 17 attempts with four touchdowns, and completed eight of his 12 passes for 105 yards and a score.

The Bulldogs struggled to contain Honeycutt after defensive end Enrique Lopez-Ray was lost to injury on the first drive of the game. Behind Honeycutt, the Hornets outgained the Bulldogs 395-235, including a 290-131 rushing advantage.

"It changed our game plan up — no excuses — but it changed our game plan up with our big pass rusher," Setzer said. "We're talking about a D-I guy, and you look in the first quarter before he got hurt, it was evident that we felt like we had a good game plan for the quarterback. It changed a lot of things up, changed a lot of responsibilities."

JyMikaah Wells rushed 22 times for 144 yards with a touchdown for Salisbury.

Mikail Breeden was 17-for-29 passing for St. Pauls with a touchdown and an interception. Waltay Jackson, who was named St. Pauls' Most Outstanding Offensive Player, caught 10 passes for 72 yards with a touchdown.

KeMarion Baldwin was held to 56 rushing yards on 15 carries for St. Pauls.

Elston Powell, who had eight tackles, was named St. Pauls' Most Outstanding Defensive Player.

St. Pauls received the opening kickoff and went three-and-out on its first drive before Salisbury scored on a 4-yard Honeycutt run. The sequence repeated itself, with a Bulldogs punt and a Hornets score, making it 14-0 with 5:21 left in the first quarter.

The Bulldogs answered on their next drive as Breeden completed a 14-yard pass to Jackson to make it 14-7, which remained the score until the end of the period.

As St. Pauls was about to score on the first play of the second quarter, the Bulldogs fumbled into the end zone; Daekwon Payne fell on the ball for a game-tying touchdown.

After the teams exchanged punts, Salisbury scored on a 17-yard Wells run to take the lead with 5:23 left in the half at 21-14; they added a 10-yard Honeycutt scoring run with 30 seconds to go before intermission.

The game concluded the St. Pauls careers for Bulldogs' 13 seniors, playing their final contest on the high-school game's biggest stage, ending in the disappointment of a loss.

"Win or lose, I was proud of y'all boys," Will Ford said to his surrounding teammates after the game. "I don't want to play with nobody but y'all."

And while the Bulldogs couldn't deliver the school's first football state championship, they remain the school's first team to reach the state final — a legacy that will last long after the sour taste of Thursday's defeat.

"I'm so proud of these guys because we made history," Setzer said. "There's nothing I can say right now to make them feel better. I've been in their seat as a player, losing a state championship , and every once in a while every 20 years from now you'll probably have a dream about the game, but the one thing about it is you can always say you made a game. We did something that's never been done at our school, won the regional."

Chris Stiles can be reached at 910-816-1977 or by email at [email protected]