Not only did Thursday night’s football scrimmage at Kinston High School feature a sneak peek at two of the east’s traditional 2A powerhouses, it was also a homecoming of sorts for one coach.
East Duplin’s Battle Holley, beginning his fourth year at the school and third as head coach, led the Kinston program to 22 wins and a pair of state playoff berths in 2008 and 2009 before leaving to return to his Duplin County roots.
“It’s always good coming back here,” Battle said. “I made a lot of friends at Kinston and the school will always hold a special place in my heart.”
While at Kinston, Holley even engineered a victory over his current school when the Vikings topped the Panthers 17-14 in the 2009 state playoffs, the last time the two teams have met.
And though Thursday’s clash didn’t count in the standings, it was just as competitive as that 2009 matchup.
“We knew having East Duplin come in would better prepare us for the upcoming season,” Kinston coach Ryan Gieselman said. “They’re talented, well-coached and very good at exposing your weaknesses.”
As in any preseason scrimmage, there was plenty of good and bad on both sides of the ball.
On the plus side, Kinston’s speed on offense caused the Panthers’ defense tons of problems. The Vikings passing attack was especially productive.
Junior quarterback Raquise Bellamy missed just three passes and extended several plays with his scrambling ability.
During the first half of the scrimmage, as the teams worked on basic half-field situations, Bellamy torched the Panther defense for 5 touchdowns, 3 to senior standout Tiquan Canady, who proved nearly unstoppable.
Bellamy also connected with Qwari Ham and Anthony Pitts for scores.
Kinston also moved the ball on the ground, particularly with the option pitch to Raheem Freeland, although the rushing attack was not as consistent as the air barrage.
“Overall, I’m please with the way our offense played,” Gieselman said. “We gained yardage against a good defense; the only downside is that we made too many penalties.”
The second half of the scrimmage featured timed, full-field game situations.
Kinston reached the end zone three times on four possessions, failing only when Bellamy was picked off near midfield. Bellamy and Canady also hooked up for a beautiful 38-yard TD.
East Duplin managed two TD’s on five possessions. They were forced to punt once and turned the ball over twice. Even so, the Panthers experienced success with their renowned power running game.
“We’ve got to do a better job of tackling,” Gieselman said. “We forced a couple of turnovers, which was nice, but we definitely had problems with their misdirection. We need to get better at stopping the run; there are a couple of teams in our conference that run similar offenses.”
On the other sideline, ED’s Holley was pleased with what he saw.
“Overall, we did a pretty good job,” said Holley, who is 18-6 in his first two seasons at the Panther helm. “Like any team at this stage we’ve got a lot to work on, but I think we’re progressing like we should and that we’ll be fine. You don’t want to be playing your best football at this time of the year anyway.”