GARNER — —Garner used a three-pronged rushing game to dash past Smithfield-Selma 34-0 in a Greater Neuse 4A Conference game that was stopped in the second period because of unsafe playing conditions.
Nyheim Hines, Tyler Hinton and Raevon Smith quickly put the Spartans in a big hole as the trio combined for 169 yards on the ground and four rushing touchdowns through the first 22 minutes of play as Garner built its lead..
The game was stopped with 1:25 remaining in the second quarter due to lightning but was then deemed to be an official final after coaches for both teams met with officials and agreed to call it a night.
“The officials said if it’s in agreement with both coaches the game can be terminated,” Garner coach Nelson Smith explained of the decision to call the game. “The field right now is unplayable and nothing good was going to come out of playing in this (bad weather).”
There was a lot of good to be found, however, for the Trojans as they dominated play from their first drive onward. Smith found the end zone for the first of his two rushing scores when he capped off a 65-yard, four-play drive with a seven-yard burst to put the Trojans up a touchdown just 88 seconds into the contest.
Nyheim Hines ran around the left side for a 11-yard touchdown run and Tyler Hinton got in on the action with a six-yard score of his own as the Trojans found little resistance thanks to the punishing play of the Garner offensive line.
“We could have played better,” added Smith on his team’s brief performance. “We had some situations where we weren’t focused. I think we came around there after we made some mistakes on the second drive and we stalled.”
Helping the Trojans (7-0, 3-0 in GNRC) out was senior kicker Kenneth Perkinson who nailed a pair of field goals from 27 and 23 yards out. Perkinson also added four touchbacks on kickoffs.
Smithfield-Selma was never able to get anything going as the stout Trojan defense effectively nullified its running game.
The Spartans lost a total of 12 yards on 15 carries and completed one pass for five yards.
Hassan Yates led the Spartans (0-7,0-3) with five tackles from his linebacker position.
Smith led the Trojans with 93 yards rushing on six carries. Hinton added 55 yards and Hines pitched in with 21 additional yards on the ground.
