Fuquay-Varina football has no trouble with Harnett Central

It took three Fuquay-Varina plays for the Bengals to score in Friday’s high school football opener. Three more Fuquay-Varina plays on Monday, after the game was resumed, the Bengals scored again.

It was that kind of evening – on both nights. The Bengals rolled to a 40-13 victory against Harnett Central, leading 7-0 before lightning postponed Friday’s action, then 27-7 at halftime on Monday.

The Bengals ran for 196 yards but also had big plays in the passing game.

Quarterback Brycen Braswell threw for two scores and split time with Chris Canada under center. They combined for 7 of 12 attempts for 141 yards and one interception apiece.

“I thought they made some really good reads and some really good throws,” Fuquay-Varina coach Jeb Hall said. He added that wanted to get Canada reps in real game action, and that going up 21-0 quickly allowed him to do it early.

Fuquay-Varina fullback Isaac Morgan had 13 carries for 84 yards.

Tyrus Townsend had a touchdown run (63 yards, his only carry) and catch (24 yards from Braswell). Tyrees Davis added a 1-yard score. Michael Roberson took a screen pass 58 yards for a touchdown and Trey Thorton capped off the Bengals scoring with a 39-yard interception return.

“I had to put the sauce on ‘em,” Thorton said of his winding return down the sideline. He added that film study was a big part of the defense’s successes on the night.

For Harnett Central, quarterback Mai’Son Adams had a touchdown run nad completed 11 of 16 passes but most of them were short-yardage (51 total yards). Kameron Surles had the final score for the Trojans, a 4-year run.

“We’ve just got to work on eliminating big plays. They just had too many long runs or long pass plays where they’re scoring from 50-plus yards,” Central coach Dave Thomas said. “I thought the kids played hard throughout the game. I thought they didn’t quit. There were spurts on both sides of the ball where we did a pretty good job, we’ve just got to be more consistent.”

Harnett Central travels to old rival Western Harnett on Friday while Fuquay-Varina, which moved up a spot to No. 10 in The N&O rankings, hosts No. 25 Sanderson.

“I told our guys, you’re going to play one of the best-coached teams you’ll face all year,” Hall said.

This story was originally published August 22, 2016 at 11:59 PM with the headline "Fuquay-Varina football has no trouble with Harnett Central."