By Gregory Bond

Herald-Sun correspondent

DURHAM — With PAC-6 competition starting next week, Southern Durham coach Adrian Jones wanted to rest some of his injured players.

Jones sat out starting running back Desmond Lawrence, who injured his hamstring a week ago, and put in Tony Creecy.

Creecy rushed for 70 yards on 15 carries, and it was just enough to get past Raleigh Millbrook for a 17-14 win in the Spartans’ final non-conference game.

“We played a decent game,” Jones said. “They wanted it a little bit more, I think, and we persevered. A lot of our guys stated cramping.

“We are lucky to get away with a win before going into the conference. That’s a good momentum booster.”

Millbrook also wasn’t at full strength. Starting quarterback Trey McFarland was out, as well, and Millbrook coach Clarence Inscore had to use wide receiver Michael Thornton at quarterback. Inscore had to rely heavily on his ground game, as they rushed for 314 yards.

“We got a good team who can run the ball,” Inscore said. “That’s one of our strengths, especially when you’ve got your starting quarterback on the sideline and the starting receiver playing quarterback. That takes your weapons out of your offense.”

It showed early in the first half as Millbrook turned the ball over four times, which led to 10 points, including Southern quarterback Alan Lea’s 26-yarder.

“We had some bad decisions,” Inscore said. “Southern has a great defense. They got into position to make some plays. We had a couple of bad reads on passes, and we dropped a couple of balls. We can’t make those mistakes and win a game.”

But the Wildcats responded. Back at their own 1-yard-line, Millbrook needed two plays to score thanks to Keith Marshall’s 94-yard run to trim the lead 10-7. But on the ensuing kickoff, Khamari Everett took the kickoff 85 yards to give Southern a 17-7 lead.

“We are not getting off the field on third downs,” Jones said. “I felt that if we got that punt we could have got them on the ropes. They had some guys playing both ways. All year we hadn’t been able to get off the field on third down. That forces us to play more.”

Southern 17, Millbrook 14

Millbrook 0 7 7 0—14

Southern Durham 3 14 0 0—17

SCORING SUMMARY

S—Reavis 39 field goal

S—Lea 26 run (Reavis kick)

M—Marshall 94 run (Bowman kick)

S—Everett 85 kickoff return (Reavis kick)

M—Gray 10 run (Bowman kick)

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING—Southern: Everett 1-9, Bullock 6-31, Creecy 15-70, Fogg 1-8, Lea 4-49, Sapp 1- (minus 2), Ragland III 2 (minus 6). Millbrook: Marshall 13-167, Thornton 8-76, Gray 15-71.

PASSING—Southern: Lea 6-15-113. Millbrook: Thornton 7-14-49-3, Gray 0-1-0-1.

RECEIVING—Southern: Creecy 2-1, Lloyd 1-26, Fogg 2-17, Sapp 1-3. Millbrook: Gray 4-22, Marshall 3-27.

Records—Southern 4-1, Millbrook 3-2.