North Pike freshman quarterback Alijah Martin and sophomore running back Larry Dillon had not played a full game before taking on Florence on Friday, but the two new starters had an immediate impact on the Jaguars’ offense.
But it was not enough to secure a victory, as the Jaguars (3-5, 0-2) fell 48-34 at Florence in Region 6-4A action Friday night.
Martin played for junior quarterback Tez Fountain, who was out with an ankle sprain, and had 16 rushes for 117 yards including a 25-yard touchdown. He was 6 of 12 passing for 77 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
Dillon had eight carries for 97 yards with a long of 43.
Jabari Jackson and Marquez Lee were North Pike’s top receivers. Jackson had two receptions for 48 yards, one of which was a 43-yard touchdown. Lee had three catches for 27 yards. Dylan Adams had 123 yards in three kickoff returns, and one was for an 84-yard touchdown. Reagan Ivey was 4 of 5 on extra points. Trey Nobles led North Pike with nine tackles, while Jace McCoy and Austin Wanzo who each had seven each.
The Jaguars have three district games left as they look to keep their playoff hopes alive.
“We’ve just got to come ready to practice Monday and keep working on trying to put pieces together,” North Pike head coach Chris Smith said. “Every time we get something together we get injuries. I think we’ve got a couple more tonight. I know that Ronnie Bates is going to be injured. Dylan Adams has got a shoulder injury tonight.”
With the injuries, the Jaguars will continue to look to underclassmen to step up.
“These young guys have to get ready to play,” Smith said. “We still control our destiny to get to the playoffs.
“We’re going to have to do it with a bunch of young guys. We have Alijah, the ninth-grade quarterback, and I was proud of him. He played a great game, he did everything we wanted him to do and some. I thought he played real well, especially for a ninth-grader. Larry Dillon is a 10th-grader. He had a good game tonight. Those guys have been on the sidelines waiting their turn and they were ready when it came their time.”
Many Jaguars are playing through injuries.
“We have several of them that are playing injuries,” Smith said. “It’s just tough. They’re trying to suck it up, they’re trying to play and they’re trying to play hard. You can only do so much. They’re not backing down from it by any means; they’re trying to fight through it. Hopefully, we’ll get a couple of them back who didn’t get the chance to play tonight.”
Although injuries have been a problem, North Pike’s defense was unable to get the job done giving up 48 points.
“We didn’t do a really good job of stopping them on defense,” Smith said. “We busted some coverages, and we didn’t play as well as we have on defense. A lot of that was due to some circumstances, but we’ve got to get past that. We can’t use that for an excuse, but that was the difference. You can only take so many shots before you start getting frustrated.”
The close game was tied 27-27 at halftime before the Jaguars got ahead and scored in an impressive eight-minute drive in the opening of the second half. Florence retaliated by scoring as well, and the game remained tied until the fourth quarter when they scored twice more.
A key factor to Florence’s victory was their quarterback.
“The quarterback did a good job at running the ball. He threw the ball pretty well. He was a big factor tonight,” Smith said. “Their star of the game — I guess it would be their quarterback. He was very versatile and I felt like he played a very good game.”
