Jets season comes to an end in loss

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Playing in heavy mist and foggy conditions before a large Homecoming/Senior Night crowd with a 2A state playoff berth at stake, Carrboro scored in every quarter while outgaining Jordan-Matthews 440-169 in total yards of offense as the Jaguars managed to throttle the Jets 34-7 Friday evening in the non-conference regular-season finale for both teams.

The triumph allowed Carrboro to conclude the regular campaign with a record of 6-4, with the six victories enough to qualify the Jaguars for post-season play.
Although Carrboro defeated J-M for the second year in a row to register its first winning season since 2012, Jordan-Matthews still holds a 4-2 advantage in the all-time series that began in 2013.

Meanwhile, the Jets, who last posted a winning ledger in 2011, dropped their seventh straight contest to finish at 1-10 overall for the second consecutive year.
Jaguars’ freshman Ti’Von Byrd rambled for a game-high 138 yards on 18 carries and tallied once, Chandler Alston scored on a pair of short runs and Carrboro quarterback T.K. Paisant completed 14-of-24 passes for 275 yards and one touchdown in addition to rushing for another, while Chris Thompson caught five passes for 102 yards.

Jerell Brooks topped J-M ground-gainers with 38 yards on seven totes, while QB Xavier Woods connected on six-of-18 aerials for 100 yards and a one touchdown but was intercepted three times. Jai Mason was on the receiving end of four tosses for 90 yards, including Jordan-Matthews’ lone score.

“Tonight’s win was a complete team effort,” related Jaguars’ coach Ken Lathan.
“We pushed hard in practice this past week hoping to take a big step for our program by making the state playoffs, and the result was we cleared the last remaining hurdle to accomplish our goal.”

“Ti’Von Byrd has been productive for us all year, and he ran extremely hard this evening while T.K. Paisant did a good job following our game plan and executing on offense. Credit our receivers for also making some great catches considering the wet conditions.”

Jets’ coach Marty Scotten admitted Carrboro was a little too much for his club to handle this night, making big stops on defense while noting their quarterback made good throws to complement a strong rushing attack.

“We had our chances tonight but failed to capitalize on some good drives in the first half,” said Scotten.

“While the scores might not indicate it, I thought we got better the last month of the season, but we were hampered by a lack of depth.”

“The numbers just weren’t there in terms of personnel and we were forced to play a lot of young guys due to injuries. We only had four seniors on the field this evening, and all of them have had to play both sides of the ball.”

Gaining possession of the pigskin at their own 10 following a J-M punt three minutes into the contest, the Jaguars covered 90 yards in four plays to grab an early 7-0 lead.
With Carrboro facing a first-and-10 situation at its own 21, Jamil Elbahlawan hauled in a Paisant pass in the right flat, broke a pair of tackles and sped down the near side 79 yards to pay dirt – marking the Jaguars’ longest reception of the year – prior to Sammy Rodriguez booting the extra point through the uprights with 7:42 left in the opening period.

Elbahlawan’s interception of a Woods’ aerial at the Carrboro 45 three minutes later led to a five-play, 55-yard scoring march capped by Alston dashing wide left the final yard to the goal line before Rodriguez’s point-after increased the Jaguars’ advantage to 14-0 with 3:20 remaining in the first quarter.

Taking over on downs at its own 33 with just over seven minutes to go in the second stanza, Carrboro launched an eight-play, 67-yard scoring drive climaxed when Alston bulled his way over left tackle the last four yards into the end zone prior to Rodriguez’s conversion that stretched the winners’ lead to 21-0 with 4:49 remaining until intermission.

The Jaguars received the second-half kickoff and promptly moved 52 yards in eight plays to extend their lead to 27-0 when Paisant burst over left guard the last four yards to the goal line with 8:12 to go in the third period.

Following a failed fourth-down gamble by Carrboro at the Jordan-Matthews’ 33 with 6:58 left in the game, the Jets ended a 16-quarter scoring drought one play later when Woods found Mason behind a pair of defenders at the Jaguars’ 20 and hooked up for a 67-yard touchdown strike before Jamonie Williams added the point-after to trim J-M’s deficit to 27-7 with 6:27 remaining in the contest.

But Carrboro would have the final say when Thompson picked off a Woods’ pass – his second interception of the evening – at the Jaguars’ 41 with 3:07 showing on the clock to set in motion a three-play, 59-yard scoring march culminated by Byrd sprinting the last 23 yards up the middle prior to Rodriguez’s placement with 1:44 to go.

Jordan-Matthews, football