Tyler Woods ran for 115 yards on 19 carries including a 40 yard blast. And Trevor Bush tallied an 11 yard TD run as the Rams of Northeast Guilford rallied for a 14-7 win over the Page Pirates Friday night in front of a near capacity crowd at Marion Kirby Stadium.
Standout senior tailback D.J. McNeil sat out the game for the Pirates with a pulled hamstring and his game breaking ability was missed as the Pirate offense struggled much of the evening.
Initially Lenny Gordon got the ground game going for the Pirates as Page drove 61 yards in 14 plays getting all the way to the Rams six yard line before the drive bogged down. The Pirates would be turned away entirely when a Northeast player came clear off the corner to block Matt Milsor’s 23 yd FG attempt.
After an exchange of punts Northeast finally drew first blood as Woods 40 yard burst with 11:08 to go until intermission completed a 3 play 49 yard drive that took just over a minute. The Pirates decided at that point that turnabout is fair play as Page blocked the ensuing point after. Will Newman and company responded with their best drive of the night as Page went 67 yards in eight plays taking just over three minutes off the clock as Newman himself completed the march by sneaking over from the one as Page took a 7-6 lead at intermission.
Page actually had chances to increase the lead with a couple of takeaways. But Page was unable to handle the prosperity of their good fortunes as a fumble recovery at the Northeast 18 was cancelled out by a Will Newman interception. And moments later a 40 yard touchdown toss by Newman was called back due to offensive pass interference.
The Pirates would be made to pay in the second half for their failures in the first as the Rams defense did not allow the Pirates further than the Northeast 25 in the second half. Northeast took the lead for good on the 11 yard run by Bush as Kendall Bratcher added the two point conversion to conclude the scoring.
Page starts a three game road trip next week with a trip to Sanford to face Southern Lee. While Northeast returns home for the first of two home games as surprising Eastern Guilford will pay the Rams a visit.