Written by Laieke Abebe

While Eastern Wayne began the game strong, the Warriors were unable to stop the New Bern offense on Wednesday.

The game was placed in a lightning delay with 15 seconds left in the first half with Eastern Wayne trailing 50-12. After a 45 minute delay, the game was called off making the Warriors’ loss official.

“Our defense stayed on the field too long,” Eastern Wayne head coach Leander Oates said. “We wanted to at control the clock and move the chains, but we didn’t do our part offensively. Their offense began to wear us down and we weren’t able to recover.”

Things seemed to be going well for Eastern Wayne (1-3) early despite struggling defensively.

New Bern (3-1) scored touchdowns on its first two possessions, but senior J.J. Murray responded with back-to-back kickoff return touchdowns of his own to tie the game at 12.

However, the Bears would put their foot on the gas in the second quarter outscoring the Warriors, 30-0 in the second period. This was led by running back Will Lovick and quarterback Kahmaad Scriven, who gashed the Eastern Wayne defense throughout this contest.

This was Eastern Wayne’s first game in 19 days after their game against J.H. Rose was canceled last week.

That contest will not be made up and the Warriors’ next game will be at D.H. Conley on Monday. The Warriors follow that up with their final regular-season contest against county foe C.B. Aycock.

“Our offense has to be better,” Oates added. “Conley plays with a lot of pace, so we have to force turnovers and get them out of rhythm. If we do that, we’ll have a good shot against a really good team.”