By Jeffrey J. Zeigler/Contributing Writer
jzeigler@hotmail.com

DENDRON
Trailing 14-12 early in the fourth quarter, Steve Smallwood scored on a 10-yard touchdown run to lead Surry County High School to a 20-14 win over Southampton High School in a Tri-Rivers District football game Friday night.

Surry scored the last 20 points of the game to pick up the victory. For coach Willie Gillis, it was one of the toughest losses of the season.

“This was a tough loss. One of the toughest since we’ve been here. But we’ve got to rebound,” he said. “We are getting better. “We’ve just got to get over the hump.”

The Indians (1-6) opened the scoring when Rakaun Briggs rushed 15 yards for a touchdown with 2:26 to play in the first quarter to give Southampton a 6-0 lead.

With 7:02 left in the second quarter, Southampton’s Michael Le set the Indians up with an interception. Less than two minutes later, Southampton’s Coby Williams scored on a 7-yard run and a successful 2-point conversion gave the Indians a 14-0 lead.

The Cougars (7-0) did the rest of the scoring. With 2:36 to play in the half, Surry’s Timothy Marsh, Jr., rushed 4 yards for a touchdown. Perhaps the backbreaker for Southampton came with just 36.2 seconds left in the half when Surry’s Marsh, Jr. picked up a fumble and ran 75 yards for a touchdown. Southampton still led 14-12 at the half, but the momentum had swung in favor of the Cougars.

Gillis said the Indians set the tempo early in the game.

“We were physical on the offensive line and we came out being physical in our run game. Our defense was playing lights out,” he said. “We just gave up too many opportunities. We had opportunities to score and we fumbled twice and they scored on the two fumbles.

“We have to learn how to finish off drives and finish games,” he added. “We are just going to continue to play and line up.”

The Indians host Windsor next Friday night.