Herald Sun Correspondent
DURHAM -- Not even Mother Nature could slow down Southern.
On the muddy field, the Spartans showed No. 16 seed East Wake why they were the top seed in the NCHSAA 4-A.
Southern had 253 total yards of offense and forced three turnovers as they cruised to a 34-20 win in the first round Saturday.
The Spartans (11-1) will host Athens Drive, who defeated Person 35-17, at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the second round.
The biggest concern for Southern was its field. The remains of Hurricane Ida drenched the field for almost a week, making it unplayable Friday and leaving it dramatically affected Saturday.
"That's a blessing that we got speed," Southern head coach Adrian Jones said. "We practiced on our practice field and it's kind of bad anyway. That helped us out because we are used to this. I didn't think we were going to be as fast as we were tonight. It didn't look like they slowed us down much."
Southern showed its speed quickly on the opening kickoff as Khamari Everett ran it 80 yards to East Wake's 11-yard line. It needed only one play for Desmond Lawrence to score to take the early lead.
"That was one of the things we wanted, was to get good field position on the first kickoff and score on the first drive and [East Wake] will get their heads down and that was basically what we did," Jones said.
After a quick possession by East Wake, Southern needed only two plays to score when quarterback Alan Lea connected with Tony Creecy for 44 yards for the second touchdown.
"He's been my starting quarterback for three years, and him and TC [Creecy] and the other guys have been together for three years and I expect nothing but the greatest from them," Jones said.
The Spartans' defense also seemed unaffected by the muddy field. As Warriors quarterback Chris Pernel threw his third pass of the game, Everett dropped back in a zone and snagged the pass, running it back 46 yards to take a 21-0 first quarter lead.
Even with Pernel's 36-yard pass to Tyler Horton to trim the lead 21-7, Lea continued to attack East Wake's secondary. He found Sapp open from 36 yards and hooked up with Alonzo Hedgepeth from 10 yards for his third touchdown pass.
"They got to the outside a little bit," Warriors head coach Jimmy Williams said. "Most of it was blown coverage and blown assignments on our part. They are very fast. The first touchdown they threw down here was a blown coverage and our safety got hurt and we played with a backup guy."
Southern 34, East Wake 20
East Wake 0 7 0 13--20
Southern 21 7 6 0--34
SCORING SUMMARY
S--Lawrence 11 run (Martinez kick)
S--Creecy 44 pass from Lea (Martinez kick)
S--Everett 46 interception return (Martinez kick)
EW--Horton 50 pass from Pernel (Rice run)
S--Sapp 36 pass from Lea (Martinez run)
S--Hedgepeth 10 pass from Lea (kick failed)
EW--Davis 1 run (kick blocked)
EW--Williams 6 run (Rice kick)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING--Southern: Lawrence 9-26, Hedgepeth 7-30, Creecy 1-33, Lloyd 1-2, Thompson 4-32, Belcher 1 (minus 7). East Wake: Cosme 3-34, Williams 7-47, Davis 5-(minus 1), Smith 2-10, Bingles 12-75.
PASSING--Southern: Lea 7-14-0-137, Belcher 0-1-0-0. East Wake: Pernel 7-11-2-111.
RECEIVING--Southern: Creecy 2-51, Sapp 2-40, Lloyd 1-30, Hedgepeth 1-10, Fogg 1-6. East Wake: Williams 1-7, Davis 1-16, Bingles 2-22, Horton 3-66.
Records--Southern 11-1, East Wake 4-8.
