Late in the first quarter Friday night, the Fuquay-Varina football team found itself without senior linebacker, Eric Powell who had to leave early with a shoulder injury, without the ball and the lead following a fumble that led to Clayton High’s tying touchdown, and pretty much without momentum as the Comets (1-1) celebrated. It looked like this game, like the last two since the decades-old rivalry resumed in 2008 would be another old fashioned Fuquay-Clayton, down-to-the wire slugfest.



Then everything changed.



The Bengals defense showed its claws and junior wing back, Ricky Ferguson found a few gears that no Comet could match.



Senior, Cory Hunter who rushed for 80 yards and two touchdowns and also spent time at safety on defense, said he and his teammates just had to make some mental adjustments.

“As soon as that turnover happened, we just kind of brought everybody over to the sideline and told them we’re going to get back into this game and get a bit more focused,” Hunter explained. “That was the goal this week and the motto - everyone to be focused in the game all the time. We got away from it a little bit, but after halftime we came back out strong.”

Hunter looked strong as he scored a second quarter touchdown on a tackle-breaking, 20-yard run to give the Bengals a 14-7 halftime advantage. Ferguson set up that score taking off from the Bengals’ 16-yard line for a 56 yard run. Ferguson finished with 162 yards on 12 carries as Comets were tackling air whenever he carried the ball.



The Bengals defense rallied to fill the sizable hole left when Powell was sidelined. He could miss this week’s trip to West Johnston, but should likely return before the start of Tri-9 conference play.

Fuquay forced a fumble early in the third quarter to set up another scoring drive, capped by Hunter’s 2-yard touchdown run. Ferguson found the endzone at the end of the third quarter on a 5-yard scoring dash.

Junior quarterback, Evan McNeil threw a 35-yard touchdown pass to Malcom Thaxton in the first quarter to open the Fuquay scoring.

“I’m just proud of the way our kids responded when it was tough and to keep battling and come out in the second half and keep running,” Fuquay coach Ryan Habich said. “It’s great to get the chance to coach these kids with the character that they have here in Fuquay.”

The Bengals finished with 313 rushing yards and 42 yards through the air from McNeil.

Fuquay (2-0) will travel to West Johnston (1-1) this Friday night. The Wildcats are coming off a last second 23-21 loss to South Johnston. Their new coach should be a familiar face to Fuquay. Randy Ragland was a standout quarterback at Fuquay-Varina during his high school career and most recently, Ragland was the offensive coordinator at Tri-9 rival Middle Creek.