State bound: East Duplin tops Wallace-Rose Hill 28-26 to earn spot in state final
BEULAVILLE – This was more than just a trip to the state championship for East Duplin.
The Panthers’ 28-26 win over Wallace-Rose Hill on Friday night in the NCHSAA 2-A East Regional final meant “everything,” senior Kade Kennedy said, and it was a cause of major celebration.
“We have been beaten down so many times, but we don’t quit,” he said. “We persevered.”
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And then the Panthers celebrated their second trip to the state championship game in program history and first since 2017. The regional title was made even sweeter given it came over rival Wallace-Rose Hill, which defeated East Duplin 21-17 last year in the third round en route to the state final.
But thanks to a two-point conversion stop with 35 seconds left, the Panthers earned their second heart-stopping win over the Bulldogs. East Duplin topped Wallace-Rose Hill 13-12 earlier this season on a two-point conversion stop with 3:14 left.
“We’ve had a tough road to get here,” East Duplin coach Battle Holley said. “We’ve played Wallace twice, James Kenan twice, Clinton and Whiteville and our guys have kept fighting. It means a lot.”
Second-seeded East Duplin (14-1) will play top-seeded Reidsville (14-1) on Saturday, Dec. 10, at 11 a.m. in the state championship game at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill. Reidsville defeated third-seeded Burns 32-14 on Friday.
“I don’t know what to say. It's crazy to think about it,” senior Brecken Bowles said. “I know for a lot of these guys, they have dreamed about this since they were playing in the yard.”
East Duplin made one final play against No. 12 Wallace-Rose Hill (12-3) in a back-and-forth regional final between Duplin County rivals.
Moments after Xzavier Pearsall threw a 71-yard touchdown pass to Irving Brown with less than 40 seconds left, the Panthers stuffed the Bulldogs on a left-side run on the two-point conversion. Elam Moore then recovered the onside kick to help East Duplin secure the victory.
“After we gave up the touchdown, I looked in our guys’ eyes in the huddle and knew we would stop them,” Holley said. “Then I saw 11 Panthers go to the football to make the stop.”
Bowles agreed that the Panthers didn’t fret after giving up the long scoring play in the final seconds.
“It would have been easy to drop our heads, but we didn’t,” he said. “We knew we had to stop them.”
Kennedy called his defense relentless.
“We don’t quit,” he said. “That goes a long ways.”
That wasn’t the only big play by East Duplin.
With East Duplin leading 28-20, Teyshawn Johnson’s interception at the Wallace-Rose Hill 23 with 2:35 left helped the Panthers melt the clock down and force the Bulldogs to take their remaining timeouts.
“But we knew the game wasn’t over,” Johnson said.
It sure wasn’t.
Wallace-Rose Hill got the ball back at its own 26 with 1:29 remaining. While the Bulldogs scored on their long pass play, they were forced to go for two because earlier, Bowles’ blocked extra point kept the Panthers in the lead at 21-20 with 11:50 left.
“It is easy to look at the block itself, but it would have never happened if the guys on the line were not working and opened the door for me to block it,” Bowles said.
East Duplin had taken the lead for good at 21-14 on Kennedy’s 79-yard touchdown run with 9:27 left in the third quarter.
“It was real simple,” Kennedy said. “I just saw the hole. It was wide open.”
Senior Avery Gaby led the way with 139 yards and two touchdowns on 24 carries, including a 43-yard scoring run that tied the game at 7 in a first quarter that set the tone for the game.
And in the end, East Duplin was the one celebrating.
“It is amazing,” Gaby said. “In tough moments, we can drop our heads, but we have faith and that is what helped us tonight.”
Chris Miller can be contacted via email at chris.miller@jdnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @jdnsports.
This article originally appeared on The Daily News: East Duplin defeats Wallace-Rose Hill 28-26 to advance to NCHSAA final
