Connor Lee is headed for the end zone on a 40-yard TD reception for South.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

There was a brief scare of inclement weather when the junior varsity scrimmage was cut short due to lightning in the area, but the storm passed and, after a short delay, the varsity scrimmage proceeded as planned with Harnett Central hosting South Johnston on Wednesday evening.

The varsity scrimmage consisted of each team getting two sets of 10 plays on offense that started at the opponent’s 40-yard-line, before moving on to a game simulation with down and distance.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do, especially up front,” said first-year Harnett Central coach Cory Barnes. “I didn’t really like what we did in the run game. We’ve got to get better. Defensively, we had some good moments. We had some stops. We had some good plays. But, we also got out of position some. Aiden (Taylor) looked pretty solid at quarterback on some throws, but on some other stuff, we didn’t. We also ran some great routes. We also ran some wrong routes. It’s all parts of the process of growing. We have some room to grow. We’re going to do some growing. I believe in our kids. We just have to toughen up, especially at the line of scrimmage.”

South Johnston coach Lee Webb said he wants his team to continue to strive for improvement.

“We’re getting better,” Webb said. “But we’re not where we want to be. We’ve talked about it all offseason, people keep telling us how young we are. That’s something that we’ve kind of set a tempo to, because not a lot of people know who the guys on the field are anymore. We talked about not being satisfied. And tonight we had a good showing, but we’re not satisfied with what we did.”

Offensively for the visiting Trojans, quarterback Riley Adams completed three touchdown passes and ran for a touchdown, Aiden Williams had a touchdown reception and ran for a touchdown and Zack Sellers and Connor Lee each had a touchdown reception. Defensively, Israel Bullock recovered a fumble in the red zone for South.

Webb said his linemen on both sides of the ball performed well in the scrimmage.

“That’s something that, as an O-lineman and an O-line coach in the past, that we pride ourselves on is our O-line and our D-line,” Webb said. “We’ve got great coaches that harp on them during practice and they probably get fussed at more than anybody else on the field, but we tell them all the time that without them, we can’t do anything. It starts up front with those eight guys on the offensive and defensive line.”

Webb was also pleased with the play of Adams at quarterback.

“Riley’s had a great offseason,” Webb said. “He was unable to do some things in the offseason, but as much as he’s practiced physically, he’s practiced mentally. Going through his reads. Going through his progressions. Being able to read people to run the ball. Riley has done a lot preparing himself mentally as much as he has physically.”

The homestanding Trojans did not find the end zone during the scrimmage. Defensively, Davion Carroll had an interception for Central.

Barnes noted that Taylor, in his second year as Central’s starting quarterback, has made good progress adjusting to a new offense.

“Compared to what he was asked to do last year, I’m asking him to make reads in the pass game and RPO (run, pass option) game,” Barnes said. “He’s starting to get comfortable with it. Once he keeps mastering it and we get our receivers in the right spot, because at times tonight, they weren’t, he’s going to be successful. But we’ve got to be able to run the football to be successful and take pressure off of Aiden and take pressure off of our pass game. We’ve got a ways to go, but we can get there.”

Both teams have another scrimmage on Friday night. South Johnston will scrimmage against Midway at Clinton and Harnett Central will scrimmage against Douglas Byrd at Westover.

Both teams begin regular season play on Aug. 19. South Johnston is at home against Western Harnett and Harnett Central travels to West Johnston.

Davion Carroll gets an interception for Harnett Central.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

South Johnston’s Aiden Williams scores on a 1-yard run.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

Jack Wilson goes up to make a grab for South Johnston.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

Noah Rhodes (49) and Deon Malik make a stop for host Harnett Central.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

Lucas Layman gets a sack for South Johnston on Wednesday evening.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

Aiden Taylor throws on the move for Harnett Central.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)

Tay’shawn Moore hauls in Taylor’s pass from the photo above.
(Dunn Area Sports Photo/John Lucas)