Vikes struggle against Moore County

Cody Pierce (11), Jesse Cooper (12) and Austin Lees of Community shut down a Moore County runner. (T-G Photo by Jasen Richardson) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

The long, painful road to a victory continues for the Community football program. Amidst the bone chilling air and misty rain Friday night, the Vikings weren't able to capitalize on much against visiting Moore County's Raiders in a 43-7 District 9-A loss.

Community (0-8, 0-0 9-A) has two remaining chances this season to carve a notch in the win category. The frustration has nearly subsided and Community is focusing on building for next season.

"We still have to learn how to respond to adversity," Community coach Johnnie Frost said. "It's part of being a young and inexperienced team. We don't know how to respond sometimes to situations that (disable our momentum). This, among other things, is something we need to work on for the future."

Moore County (4-4, 1-3) came out with a strong running attack in the first half. The Unionville crew, for the most part, was able to make the Raiders work hard for their yardage. With the exception of a few huge plays due to blown coverage, the Purple and Gold were able to stay close enough to Moore County and still stay in the game.

"We played a pretty good first half," Frost said. "The offense was a little stagnant, but we had our spurts. The things we have worked on offensively and defensively seemed to work pretty good. Once again we proved that we could make people drive the field and we had some good things happen."

Raiders running back Montrell Berry set up Moore County in the red zone with 11:10 to go in the first quarter, but a fumble in the end zone was recovered by the Vikings for a touchback.

A 55-yard touchdown run up the middle by Raiders' running back Daniel McGee with just under nine minutes to go ended Community's momentum. Quarterback Hunter Case connected with Kohl Rogers for the two-point conversion.

Five minutes later, the same duo added another six with a pass from 10 yards out for a 14-0 lead. The PAT failed.

The Vikings came out strong defensively in the second stanza and stopped the Raiders on fourth and 11 at the Viking 20-yard line.

Community reached its 24 before the drive was stopped by a penalty.

With just under 10 minutes to go in the half, Community's Albert Irwin snagged a high snap on an attempted punt, shook off the first Moore County defender and made a quick decision to tuck and run. Irwin then scurried to the left, hit the sidelines with tremendous speed and scored on a 76-yard return at the 9:33 mark, then tacked on the PAT.

Community's Cody Pierce finds some room to get around some Raiders on a kick return. (T-G Photo by Jasen Richardson) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

The Raiders scored once more in the second half with 41 seconds to go on a 5-yard run by McGee for a 22-7 lead.

The second half proved to be very different from the first as the Lynchburg boys came out running and passing. The shift in strategy and a poor officiating call were detrimental to what the Vikings had built in the first 24 minutes of the game.

The Raiders blocked a punt at 9:28 in the third quarter to add more salt to the Vikings' wounds.

"We had an odd situation where the refs made a weird call," Frost said. "We punted and they roughed or ran into the punter. The refs lost the spot and didn't have the spot marked where the ball had been downed on the punt.

"Then they didn't allow us a 5-yard penalty, which would have made it fourth and 3. They wouldn't let us take the ball where it was, so we had to punt over. The punt was blocked and they ran it in for a touchdown. It seems like that was the momentum change that kind of brought our kids down a little lower."

Community will cap off their fourth season as a varsity squad soon.

"It's a situation where the whole entire team, players and coaches, have to stay on that same page we started with at the beginning of the week," Frost said. "We need to continue to push forward with our game plan. We've got to realize when we make adjustments at the half that that is something we have to learn to do.

"We've tried as coaches to make that easier and better. It's just a work in progress. If the kids stay faithful and people stay supportive, as we move forward each week and into next year, these things will slowly begin to happen."

Community stays home for another district matchup Friday night against Forrest. Kickoff is at 7:30.