On the ugly scale, Friday night's Smith-Southeast Guilford game came a little too close to Fred Sanford's sister.
Yet the truth is that any win is beautiful to a coach and his team, and Smith registered a 13-7 NCHSAA football victory over Southeast at Manzi Stadium. Still the Golden Eagles' fourth-year head coach was doing a lot of head-scratching after this one while finding a context for the six-point win over a team his squad beat by 45 points a year ago.
"I guess this shows where we've come with this program," a not-too-satisfied BLS coach Tony McKee said afterwards. "Two years ago I would have been doing cartwheels with any win. Now we are extremely unhappy with our performance, especially on offense, in a win. We've come a long way."
The reason Smith won was pretty simple: its defense. The Golden Eagles (2-1) held the Falcons (1-1) to seven first downs, 90 total yard and no points. Yes, that's right: Southeast's offense didn't score a single point.
The Falcons' only score came when Smith quarterback Duane Taylor fumbled on a busted play on the first play of the game and David Dunnuck recovered in the end zone for an early 7-0 Southeast lead. That would be the extent of Southeast's scoring on the evening.
Smith's defense never allowed the Falcons to get untracked. A 20-yard pass play late in the game produced Southeast's only real offensive display of the night. But then BLS tackle Ray Reid slammed the door on the Falcons with a pair of sacks that effectively sealed the contest.
Smith did move the ball, to the tune of 311 yards. But the Golden Eagles were extremely inconsistent.
"We couldn't sustain anything," said McKee. "We kept shooting ourselves in the foot with penalties."
Smith's best march of the night came in the first quarter, when it drove 80 yards in 13 plays. Mike Able did the honors with a 14-yard run. Brian Woodward added the PAT kick to tie the game at 7-7.
But the rest of the night was a matter of dancing just out of step when it really seemed to matter, and the Eagles looked like they were headed to that prep football Russian roulette called overtime with the determined Falcons.
But three things made the difference on Smith's late-game scoring drive: (1) the punting of Taylor, (2) the running of fullback J.J. Thompson and (3) the clutch pass-catching of Brandon free.
First, Taylor kept the Falcons stymied inside their 10 throughout the fourth quarter with several clutch kicks, including one that was downed by Brian Burgess at Falcon 1-yard line. Then Thompson ran 26 yards to the Southeast 6-yard line midway through the final quarter. Although Smith didn't score then -- because Thompson fumbled on the next play -- the net effect was as good as one of Taylor's best punts.
When it came crunch time, McKee went to his senior wideout to seal the deal. Taylor hit Free twice on crossing patterns and Smith finally broke the tie with 1:14 left on Taylor's fourth-down sneak.
"It wasn't there on his first thrust, so Duane broke it to the outside a bit and found a hole," McKee said. "The kids wanted to run the sneak. We don't always do what the players want, but if they are convinced it's the right call, we like to go with their instincts. I'm glad I listened to them tonight. It was the right play.
"We initially thought about kicking the field goal, but it was actually too close and the angle was bad, off to the left hash mark."
After that 20-yard pass play moved the ball to Smith's 48-yard line, Reid came up big with his two sacks.
"I talked to him a little at halftime," McKee said. "I'm not saying that had anything to do with those last two plays. But I think he came out to start the second half with a new attitude."
Reid had plenty of help on defense. Joseph Shields added a sack and two tackles from the other tackle spot. Linebackers Shamaree Brown and P.J. Southerland had their usual yeoman's nights. Brown, the team leader in tackles, had 11 hits and Southerland had 10. Southerland also recovered a fumble.
Senior Brandon Summers returned an interception 56 yards for a touchdown, but it was nullified by a roughing-the-passer call.
"It's pretty tough to take right now, but we showed improvement," said Southeast coach Ken Helms. "We have come a long way from 52-7."
"Coach Helms has instilled a sense of confidence and discipline in his team," McKee said. "Southeast did not get rattled tonight like they did last year when we moved the ball so well. They battled tonight until the end."
Smith, ranked 13th by the Greensboro News & Record, plays at No. 2 High Point Central this Friday night at 7:30 (EDT) at Simeon Stadium. Central is ranked No. 1 in 2-A state-wide.
"This won't be a holiday weekend for our coaching staff," McKee said. "We go to work on Central tomorrow."
Extra points -- Carver, which bombed West Forsyth 41-9 for its third straight blowout win, faces 4-A powerhouse West Charlotte this week. The Yellowjackets will be facing a team coming off an 87-0 win over Charlotte Harding. Carver's Lashun Peoples had five carries for 103 yards and two TDs against West Forsyth. He also caught a 42-yard touchdown pass from Jason Brayboy ... Parkland tailback Brandon Isaiah had 200 yards on 29 carries in the Mustangs' 21-20 win over Asheville.
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