Southern Lee squanders chance at football conference title, falls to Terry Sanford
The Southern Lee football team missed out on a chance to force a three way tie for the Cape Fear Valley 3A Conference championship on Thursday, falling to host Terry Sanford 33-21.
The Cavaliers (8-3, 4-2) spotted the Bulldogs 27 points on Thursday, and just weren’t able to come all the way back despite a spirited second half effort. Terry Sanford finished with an identical record as Southern Lee, and both teams will await their playoff seeds this weekend.
The loss opened the door for either Lee County or Fayetteville’s Westover High to win the conference. Lee County owns the tiebreaker for the top seed with a win against Westover earlier in the season.
Southern Lee scored three times in the third quarter. The trio of Noah Terhune, Ishois Times and Wendell Hill led the comeback attempt. Terhune threw for 166 yards in the second half, and connected on touchdown passes to both Times and Hill.
Times also recovered a Southern Lee fumble in the end zone.
The Cavaliers struggled to stop Bulldog quarterback Christian Jayne, who led four scoring drives in the first half to give Terry Sanford a 27-0 advantage at intermission.
THEY SAID IT
“Our motto is to start fast and finish faster, but we weren’t able to do that today,” said Southern Lee head coach Don Simon. “Terry Sanford is a great football team and any time you struggle to come out of the gates they will make you pay for it.”
TURNING POINT
Southern had the momentum heading into the fourth quarter, but after the Bulldogs got a stop, they chewed up nearly nine minutes on a 14-play drive.
THREE TO KNOW
Wendell Hill, Southern Lee: Hill caught 5 passes for 127 yards, including a 53-yard touchdown bomb from Terhune.
Demarius Hooker, Southern Lee: The junior linebacker made numerous tackles, and also posted two sacks.
Montrell Williams, Terry Sanford: Williams caught two of Jayne’s four touchdown passes, and his elusive running on screens extended Bulldog drives all game
This story was originally published November 10, 2016 at 11:27 PM with the headline "Southern Lee squanders chance at football conference title, falls to Terry Sanford."