Herald Sun correspondent
DURHAM -- Southern Durham coach Adrian Jones didn't want history to repeat.
With the top spot of the PAC-6 standings on the line, the Southern Spartans sure they had control by handing Riverside its first conference loss with a 35-0 victory Friday night.
"We are glad to be on top, and that's one of the things we wanted to come out and do," Jones said. "We control our own destiny.
"Right now, we're in the lead and we want to keep it that way."
A year ago, Southern faced against Chapel Hill for the top spot, but the Spartans fell to Chapel Hill and finished in a three-way tie for first place with Hillside.
"It was a big game because they came into the game undefeated just like we came in undefeated," Spartans quarterback Alan Lea said. "It was a big game, and it was no different. We came out hard, and we were just competing."
Southern came out attacking, with Lea leading the charge by completing 9-of-11 pass attempts for 108 yards and a touchdown pass in the first half.
"Everything slowed down for me," Lea said. "My [offensive] line did a great job. I just stepped up in the pocket, read the defense and made stuff happen there."
He converted a 26-yard pass to Tony Creecy on third-and-16, which led to a Jamal Bullock 6-yard touchdown run. After a Riverside interception, Lea connected on a 47-yard touchdown strike to Quentin Lloyd to take a 14-0 lead in the first quarter.
"Alan is in a comfort zone now," Jones said. "He's starting to relax a little bit more sitting in the pocket, and that's the biggest thing. The offensive line is doing a great job giving him time to throw the ball, and he's connected with his receivers."
But what stayed the same has been the defense, which averaged 11.7 points a game, including holding its four most recent opponents to fewer than 10 points.
"We've been preaching shutout, and penalties have been hurting us and kept us from getting a shutout," Jones said. "But the guys played their butts off tonight. I'm very proud of them."
The Pirates' offense uses a lot of misdirection runs out of the shotgun, and Jones said their defensive speed can eliminate those plays.
"It's hard to stop us when you are pulling guys," Jones said. "Speed tears up all that type of schemes. Speed of our defense really helped us tonight."
Riverside coach Todd Spell could tell, as well. The Pirates had two punts blocked and got past the 50-yard line just twice while posting 94 yards total offense.
"We just couldn't get anything moving at all," Spell said. "They shut our run game down, and we had that first turnover and that turned [the game] over a little bit."
Southern Durham 35, Riverside 0
Southern 14 7 7 7--35
Riverside 0 0 0 0-- 0
SCORING SUMMARY
SD--Bullock 3 run (Reavis kick)
SD--Lloyd 17 pass from Lea (Reavis kick)
SD--Hedgepeth 4 run (Reavis kick)
SD--Desmond Lawrence 30 run (Martinez kick)
SD--Thompson 9 run (Martinez kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING--Riverside, Evans 6-(minus 12), Burgess 18-60, Jones 8-32, Greer 1-0. Southern, Lea 3-(minus 26), Sapp 2-(minus 8), Bullock 9-61, Hedgepth 4-27, Thompson 2-14, Lawrence 2-30, Belcher 4-47.
PASSING--Riverside, Evans 2-9-1-14. Southern, Lea 9-15-0-108.
RECEIVING--Riverside, Whitted 1-9, Jones 1-5. Southern, Creecy 3-52, Lloyd 1-7, Sapp 2-21, Fogg 2-28, Everett 1-2.
Records--Riverside 4-4, 2-1, Southern 8-1, 4-0.
