Holly Springs football scores 23 unanswered to come back on Fuquay-Varina
Broderick Taylor could hardly contain himself after Holly Springs’ 23-14 football victory over rival Fuquay-Varina Friday night.
The Bengals could hardly contain him during the second half.
“This feels fantastic,” said Taylor, who racked up 113 of his 124 total yards after halftime. “First time beating them in three years and to beat them like that … that’s Holly Springs football.”
“Like that” was a reference to the 14-0 first-quarter deficit overcome by the Golden Hawks (3-3, 2-1 Southwest Wake Athletic 4A), the 23 unanswered points put up by Taylor and the rest of the Holly Springs offense and the shutout pitched by the defense over the final three quarters.
What Holly Springs coach Robert Furth described as “one of the biggest wins in the last few years” looked like it may be one of the biggest defeats.
The Bengals, who entered the contest ranked No. 12 in the N&O rankings, found the end zone on each of their first two possessions, including a 35-yard hook-and-lateral touchdown on fourth-and-10 from backup quarterback Chris Canada (filling in for the injured Brycen Braswell) to receiver Kyle Mott and finally to Michael Roberson, who took it the rest of the way.
Fuquay-Varina (5-2, 3-1) then took advantage of a short field on its second possession and David Honeycutt scored from seven yards out for a quick 14-0 lead.
“We knew we had to get on them early. We just didn’t stay with it. I think we kind of wore down a little bit,” Bengal coach Jeb Hall said.
It was all Hawks after that.
Six-yard touchdown runs by sophomore quarterback Austen Wiegers and Taylor in the second and third quarters, respectively, knotted the score. Wiegers and Taylor then hooked up for a 13-yard touchdown pass with under eight minutes to play in the game to take a 20-14 lead.
“We hadn’t been finishing games and that’s what we wanted to do and we did and I was proud of them,” Furth said. “They got on us 14-0 and I thought the game might get out of hand but our kids fought back and didn’t show any signs of giving up.”
THREE THAT MATTERED
Michael Roberson, Fuquay-Varina: The senior was the recipient of all six of Canada’s completions, good for 76 yards.
Broderick Taylor, Holly Springs: The do-it-all Taylor carried 20 times for 93 yards and reeled in four catches for another 34 yards.
Austen Wiegers, Holly Springs: The sophomore completed 5 of his 7 throws including a touchdown and also ran for a score.
BY THE NUMBERS
4: Number of offensive plays run by Holly Springs before Fuquay-Varina led 14-0.
50: Yards gained on Taylor’s first two carries of the second half (27 and 23 yards) after being limited to just 14 yards on seven first-half carries.
5: Number of turnovers-on-downs the teams combined for.
4: Consecutive meetings that have been decided by single digits.
42: Days since Holly Springs’ last home game following four straight weeks on the road.
THEY SAID IT
“There was no getting down on ourselves or anything like that. We were here to win and that’s what we did.” – Broderick Taylor on his team falling behind 14-0 just eight minutes into the game.
This story was originally published September 30, 2016 at 10:25 PM with the headline "Holly Springs football scores 23 unanswered to come back on Fuquay-Varina."