Late comeback for Warren County not enough against South Granville
Mar. 6—WARRENTON — Fresh off a dominant 40-7 season-opening victory over J.F. Webb last Thursday, Warren County looked to continue their momentum against a South Granville program coming off a loss to begin their year.
Inefficiency on both sides of the ball in the first half forced Warren County to come back from a three-touchdown deficit, but a late surge proved to be futile as South Granville held on for the 29-20 victory on Friday evening.
"We definitely got off to a slow start," head coach V.J. Hunt said. "We haven't played a lot of big games and tonight was a big game. For the first half, our guys were a little bit starstruck and they had to adjust. Once they realized they could play with this team, they started making the plays they weren't making.
South Granville's rushing attack proved to be too much for Warren County's defense at the start of the game. They immediately surrendered a touchdown to go behind 7-0 after only a few minutes.
Following a three and out from Warren County, South Granville knocked off two big runs to put themselves deep in their opponent's territory once again, but a strong defensive stand from Warren County's defense resulted in a turnover on downs.
Despite this, Warren County's freshman QB Najah Williams failed to decipher South Granville's defense and he was forced to punt the ball away at the end of another short series. South Granville answered with another touchdown to go up 13-0 at the end of the first quarter.
Williams put together his best drive of the game in the opening minutes of the second quarter with short passes and big runs. He capped off the possession with a touchdown pass to senior wide receiver Elijah Boyd to cut Warren County's deficit down to 13-6.
Warren County forced South Granville to punt the ball away at midfield, but a neutral zone infraction gave South Granville a fresh set of downs and allowed them to methodically drive down the field for another rushing touchdown with just over a minute left in the half.
Senior defensive back Wesley Hawkins gave Warren County great field position on the kickoff return, but South Granville's defense prevented them from gaining many yards. On fourth down, Williams escaped pressure and found a wide open receiver in Camren Hogan, but he ended up dropping the pass.
With less than 20 seconds remaining and deep in their own territory, South Granville elected to run one last rushing play against Warren County's defense. Junior running back Micah Wilkerson found an opening on the far side of the field to add one last touchdown, much to the chagrin of Hunt and his staff.
Warren County's offense came out strong to open the second half by gashing South Granville's defense to get into the endzone, but they prevented Williams from doing anything with his arm or leg and were able to get the ball back by a turnover on downs.
Another opportunity for Warren County to score came moments later when the defense recovered a fumble deep in South Granville territory. Williams ended up finding himself facing another fourth down that ended in another turnover after he was unable to connect with junior fullback Jamel Moss for the touchdown.
The final quarter for Warren County opened with Williams finding Hogan on a deep touchdown following a blown coverage from South Granville. A deep, 55-yard bomb from Williams to sophomore Jareim Melendez on the next possession set up a short receiving touchdown to Hogan that cut South Granville's lead down to just nine points.
South Granville took the air out of the ball in an attempt to quell Warren County's surge, but ended up turning the ball over on downs. Williams managed to get Warren County into the red zone on a deep connection to Melendez, but an incomplete pass to Boyd in the endzone with over a minute left ended any chance of a Warren County comeback.
While Hunt believed that Wilkerson's touchdown at the end of the first half ended up deciding the game, he praised his defense for stepping up their performance in the second half, along with Williams' ability to move the offense through the air and on the ground.
"Najah is a freshman, so to ask him to come out and be Tom Brady would be unfair to him," Hunt said. "I'm proud of him for taking on this challenge. He's a special kid and he's going to be extremely great."
Now 1-1 on the year, Hunt wants his players to be there for another and display an extreme amount of discipline in practice as they prepare for next week's matchup against Bunn, which is a team that Warren County has not defeated in football since the late 1990s.
"We have to come out and handle business early," Hunt said. "We can't be a doormat in the first half and then a stand up guy in the second. We have to come out and play four quarters of Warren County football, which is hard-nosed and hitting you in the mouth."
Warren County will hit the road next Friday night for a 6:30 p.m. matchup against Bunn as they try to break a losing of over two decades against them and improve to 2-1 on the year.
