Although Southampton lost 34-20 to Bruton Friday night, some things happened in the second half that made fans look forward to next season.

Backup quarterback Kendal Carwile, playing for an injured Sidney Rawls, looks like the heir apparent for next year. The 6-foot-1 junior threw 20 times and connected on 12 passes for 155 yards.

Seven of those completions were to Andre Rawls, who is also a junior. Rawls, who also plays basketball, has tremendous leaping ability, and is able to snag passes over top of defenders.

Even though he threw two interceptions, Carwile did not appear to be shaken and Southampton head coach Littleton Parker showed patience with him. Carwile was most effective with completions in the 10 to 20-yard range. His average completion was 13 yards.

Southampton’s big weakness appears to be its running game, which was a strength last year. Seven different players ran the ball Friday night, but the Indians top rusher was punter Taylor Revelle. Revelle prevented certain disaster when he took off running on a punt attempt with a Bruton defender about to block the kick. Revelle ran 37 yards, which was Southampton’s biggest gain on the ground all night. Sidney Rawls was the second leading rusher with 25 yards on six carries.

– The Windsor High School volleyball team is 15-2, according to Jane Lankford, an English teacher at the high school. More on that in a future column.

– Signs announcing the Windsor High School cheerleaders as the 2004 state champions have been placed at all four entrances to the town. Dawn Carroll, cheerleading coach, and the cheerleaders, have worked with the Windsor Town Council for two years to get those signs up.

– Speaking of cheerleading, the Tri-Rivers District cheerleading competition will be held Monday at 7 p.m. at Franklin High School. I am told if you want to get a seat, you need to be there at 6:15.

– Isle of Wight Academy dominated Tidewater Academy on Friday, as the 56-0 score might indicate.

The Chargers outgained Tidewater 334 yards to 100, had three times the first downs (18-6) and led 35-0 at halftime before pulling many of the starters.

It was Tidewater’s 22nd consecutive loss.

Isle of Wight scored on three kick returns, including the first time the Chargers had the ball.

– Surry is the only Tri-Rivers teams ranked in the Associated Press Top 10, taking the 10th spot. Franklin had been ranked as high as the top five before dropping two games.

– While I was at a football game on Friday night, I was badgered about why The Tidewater News covers certain schools more than others. After enduring this conversation about half the night, I decided to go back and count the number of stories (or standalone pictures) representing each school in the newspaper since the beginning of the fall season (that includes the newspaper and the football tab, but not this column). Our coverage area consists of Franklin High School, Southampton High School, Windsor High School, Smithfield High School, Southampton Academy, Tidewater Academy, Southampton Academy, Isle of Wight Academy, and Nansemond-Suffolk Academy (although Tidewater and NSA are generally outside of our area geographically, some athletes from our circulation area attend those schools). This is what I found:

Southampton 14

Franklin 13

Isle of Wight Academy 12

Southampton Academy 10

Windsor 9

Nansemond-Suffolk Academy 8

Tidewater Academy 5

Smithfield 5

And, since some people seem to be keeping up with this type of thing, Southampton was the first team featured in the football tab, then Franklin, then IWA. Also, Southampton had three stories in the tab. All other teams had one story.

One more note on this subject — it is hard to ignore a team that has won the state championship two years straight (IWA football), and a volleyball player who scores 1,000 points (Susan Gansor) no matter what school they play at or what league or district they play in.

It bothers me a little bit that school personnel would try to downgrade the achievements of players at other schools.

JEFFREY J. Zeigler is a contributing writer to The Tidewater News. His sports column appears weekly. His e-mail address is jzeigler@hotmail.com.