WILSON—Opening game mistakes and then some doomed Greene Central in its 2013 season debut Friday at Wilson Beddingfield.
The Rams turned the ball over four times, mishandled a punt deep in their own territory, and committed 11 penalties in falling to the Bruins 46-20, their 10th consecutive loss dating back to last year.
“It’s tough to beat anybody when you make as many errors as we made,” first-year coach Allen Wooten said. “The good thing is that all of our mistakes are correctable, and we actually played pretty well otherwise. All in all, the game was much closer than the final score indicated.”
The Rams actually outgained the Bruins by a 337-251 margin. Beddingfield returned a fumble and an interception for touchdowns and had a pair of scoring drives that covered just 17 and five yards, respectively following GC miscues.
“We dug ourselves a big hole early and that kind of deflated us,” Wooten said. “But we cut down on the mistakes in the second half and basically played them even.”
GC trailed just 14-7 when quarterback Austin Batchelor’s arm was hit as he attempted a swing pass from his own 14 yard line. The ball floated and was picked off by Beddingfield’s Savonte Hillard, who scampered 10 yards untouched into the Rams’ end zone less than two minutes into the second quarter.
Two possessions later, Batchelor was sacked and fumbled at his own five yard line. It took the Bruins three running plays to make the score 26-7.
But the nightmare wasn’t over for the Rams.
With 3:26 remaining before halftime, a bad shotgun snap led to another GC fumble. This time the loose pigskin was scooped up by Kelvin King, who raced 29 yards to give Beddingfield a 32-7 advantage heading into the locker room at halftime.
“About an 8-minute stretch where everything went wrong that could possibly go wrong,” Wooten said. “That was the difference in the game. But we came out in the second half and played hard and didn’t quit. That’s a building block for next week.”
Batchelor completed 12 of 24 passes for 193 yards but was picked off twice, the other time in the Bruins end zone.
He also connected with Daryn Parker on GC’s first TD, a beautifully-executed 85 yard scoring strike.
Ronshon Bullock rushed for the Rams’ other two, scored and collected 85 tough yard on 20 carries.
GC will open its home season next Friday when they host Pikeville Aycock at the James Fulghum Athletic Complex.