Hot start powers Pender football into 1A East Regional Final

Steve Barnes
·2 min read
Pender's Antonio Bea scores one of his four first-half touchdowns Friday night during the Patriots 34-26 win at Northside-Pinetown in the fourth round of the NCHSAA 1A Playoffs.
Pender's Antonio Bea scores one of his four first-half touchdowns Friday night during the Patriots 34-26 win at Northside-Pinetown in the fourth round of the NCHSAA 1A Playoffs.

PINETOWN -- The Pender Patriots jumped out to a four-touchdown lead midway through the second quarter, then held off Northside-Pinetown for a 34-28 victory in the fourth round of the NCHSAA Class 1A state playoffs Friday night.

The Patriots (10-3) advance to the East final at top-seeded Tarboro (12-1) on Friday for a chance to play for the state championship.

Senior quarterback Antonio Bea sparked the Patriots with a 67-yard touchdown run on the first possession.

After a blocked punt deep in Panther territory, he scored from a yard out on the next possession. The defense then recovered a Northside fumble and Bea capped a short, 20-yard drive with a three-yard scoring run for an 18-0 first-quarter lead.

“Our start was huge and ended up winning the ballgame for us,” Pender coach Tom Eanes said. “Our defense came up with two big plays that gave us great field position and we managed to hang on.”

After the defense held Northside on downs early in the second quarter, Bea burst 57 yards on the next play, then scored from five yards out for a 26-0 advantage. He had 134 yards rushing in the first half.

Northside scored late in the first half, then added two more touchdowns in the third quarter to cut the lead to 26-21, before junior Kelvin Robinson scored from six yards out after Bea kept the drive alive with a fourth-down completion.

Northside answered with a touchdown, then stopped the Patriots to have a chance to tie or take the lead with eight minutes left. Northside had a touchdown called back on a penalty and dropped a wide open pass deep in Patriots' territory before senior Tim Randolph iced the win with an interception on fourth down and 1:27 to play.

“We got lucky a couple of times on that last drive,” Eanes said. “It turned out to be our night against an outstanding team."

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Hot start powers Pender football past Northside-Pinetown in 1A fourth round