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Morehead running back Ya’Quill Dungee makes a gain in the Panthers 9-0 win over Western Guilford Thursday night in Greensboro.
Several Morehead defenders converge on a Hornets ball carrier Aug. 18.
Panthers kick returner Dominique Hairston heads for the open in action versus Western Guilford Thursday.
MHS quarterback Braxton Carter looks for running room versus the Hornets Aug. 18. Unfortunately Carter had to leave the game due to an ankle injury. It is unclear at this point the extent of his injury.
GREENSBORO — There wasn’t much offense to speak of in Morehead’s 9-0 season opening win over Western Guilford, but solid defense by the Panthers turned out to be the true key to the victory Thursday night at Doug Henderson Stadium.
A steady rain in the second quarter made for soggy field conditions and several boggled balls over the course of the night ultimately forced both teams to shift gears to primarily a rushing strategy.
Unfortunately, Morehead had to play the majority of the game without quarterback Braxton Carter, who had to leave the game after an ankle injury. It’s unclear how serious the injury to the left ankle is, but he was taken to the hospital for x-rays. Jadan Martin, who has rotated snaps with Carter throughout the preseason, came in and did a solid job behind center.
“I’ll take that all day, every day. I’m happy with the way our guys fought. We had some injuries early and it’s very easy with a young team for things to go downhill, but our guys understood the mission and understood that it is the next man up and we played by committee at all positions. The guys stepped up. Last year helped and it is good to see that we built on last year . . . . I feel like that is one of our strengths. We’ve got multiple backs, multiple receivers and they understand that we are better together. We are better when we have multiple guys touching the football and that is how we are going to roll moving forward,” Morehead head coach Maurice Torain said.
The game was supposed to take place Friday, but officials at both schools agreed that with the threat of rain and potential storms Aug. 19, the call was made to bump the contest up to Thursday night.
This was the first meeting between the two teams since 2019 when Western Guilford defeated the Panthers 20-0 Aug. 23 of that year.
Morehead’s defense bent a few times, but never broke as they held Western Guilford scoreless for four quarters. The Panthers also did a good job of keeping the chains moving in key situations on offense while bleeding time off of the clock to shorten the game and kept the Hornets play-makers off of the field.
Western Guilford had sporadic success running the ball, but never could convert in key situations on the rare occasion they had the ball past midfield. Breakdowns at the line of scrimmage led to several tackles for losses which set the tone for the game. The Hornets passing game was not a factor, which made Morehead’s job much easier on defense due to a one-dimensional attack.
Morehead — Gavin Moore’s sack for a safety in the first quarter helped the Panthers take control early in the game. Moore was a regular in Western Guilford’s backfield along with Martin who also recorded a sack to go along with several tackles. Morehead running back Ya’Quill Dungee did a good job of keeping the chains moving and scored the Panthers lone touchdown of the night on a nine play 55 yard scoring drive following the safety and the free kick.
Western Guilford — Despite giving up the safety and the first quarter touchdown, the Hornets defense did a good job of limiting Morehead’s opportunities on offense which kept them in the game until late in the fourth quarter.
Pinned deep near their own end zone, a sack by Moore and a pair of tackles for losses backed Western Guilford to the 3 yard line. Moore came through again in the clutch, breaking through the line and wrestled the Hornets quarterback to the turf for a safety with 6:03 to go in the first quarter. The Panthers followed that up with a nine play 55 yard scoring drive for the 9-0 lead with 1:25 remaining in the opening frame, a score that held to the end.
1. Confidence breeds success and this was exactly the start Morehead was hoping for. Torain has his boys drinking his brand of Kool-Aid, and after the game, the players were voicing the sentiment that the Panthers feel they can contend for a Mid-State 2A Conference title. The passing game will have to improve dramatically, however if they truly want to have a chance at hoisting a banner.
2. In a penalty-plagued game, both teams must avoid self-inflicted injuries in order to be successful this season. A holding penalty here-and-there goes with the territory in any football game, but flagrant 15-yarders are momentum killers and hurt both programs at times over the course of the night.
3. Morehead’s bread is buttered in the trenches with their ball-control, clock-milking offense. They’ve got some size and were able to impose their collective will at Western Guilford. It did seem that fatigue on the line of scrimmage became a factor later in the game. Developing depth on both sides of the line could be the key on how good the Panthers will ultimately become.
“We understand that our job is for our defense to outplay their defense. They don’t really focus on what our offense is doing. It’s just our job to go out there and outplay them defensively. One of the things that we went into the season with is to focus on being better on the perimeter. That’s what we lacked last year, so I thought we did a good job on that, tackling on the perimeter and not giving up big plays on the passing game like we did last year. Just overall, I saw great improvement defensively,” said Torain.
“It definitely wasn’t anything that Morehead was doing to disrupt us. Like I told the boys, we shot ourselves in the foot multiple times. It wasn’t rust or anything along those lines. We just didn’t execute and shot ourselves in the foot . . . we’ve got to focus on the small things to get better,” Western Guilford head coach Anthony Timmons said.
UP NEXT: Western Guilford hosts Northeast Guilford and Morehead travels to take on cross-county rival Rockingham Aug. 26.
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Morehead running back Ya’Quill Dungee makes a gain in the Panthers 9-0 win over Western Guilford Thursday night in Greensboro.
Several Morehead defenders converge on a Hornets ball carrier Aug. 18.
Panthers kick returner Dominique Hairston heads for the open in action versus Western Guilford Thursday.
MHS quarterback Braxton Carter looks for running room versus the Hornets Aug. 18. Unfortunately Carter had to leave the game due to an ankle injury. It is unclear at this point the extent of his injury.
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