PEMBROKE — The Purnell Swett Rams football team picked up a hard-fought 21-7 victory over the Red Springs Red Devils in nonconference action Friday night in the Rams’ home opener. After a quick start to the game, the Rams battled late to hold on to the lead and pick up the win.

“Well, first off man, I wanna commend Red Springs,” Purnell Swett coach Josh Deese said. “They played very well. They played hard. Coach Ray is gonna do good when the conference rolls around, hats off to them. Our boys, we played decently. We still had a few penalties, but overall played hard. We had a couple of boys step up. We had a freshman score a touchdown tonight coming up from JV so the future is bright for him.”

The Rams (2-1) scored on their opening drive with an 8-yard touchdown run from that freshman, Richard Lyon, to make it 7-0, capitalizing after the Red Devils (0-3) were picked off by Nikolai Lambert to set up that drive. The Red Devils went back to work on offense but saw their drive end after a fumble was recovered by Charles Wilkes to put the Rams back on offense.

“The energy at the beginning of the game was great, and you know I just wish we could capitalize on it more, but overall can’t take anything negative away because at the end of the day, it was a win. So, hats off to our team,” Deese said.

In their second possession of the night, the Rams drove down the field and scored on another rushing touchdown, this time from Devon Jacobs up the middle to make it 14-0 heading into the second quarter.

The Red Devils managed to find the end zone halfway through the second quarter as Jakelsin Mack punched it in on a scoring run to cut the lead down to 14-7.

“Yeah, we made big plays and a couple of our big plays got called back on penalties,” Red Springs football coach Tim Ray said. “We had two touchdowns called back on penalties. We held them on defense. I think we had some third-down breaks that they got a break on a couple times and, you know, it kind of cost us.”

The Rams added on to their lead late in the third quarter on a quarterback keeper from Raymond Cummings to make it 21-7. Both sides would go quiet as the Rams kept the Red Devils from scoring as Purnell Swett held on for the win.

For the Rams, Lyon led the way on the ground rushing for 67 yards on 10 attempts with one touchdown. Jacobs followed with 29 yards rushing on nine attempts and a touchdown. Cummings finished 6-for-8 passing for 83 yards, while rushing for 12 yards and a touchdown.

“It was mainly the run game and more of inside passing routes like digs and slants. They were more on outside coverage and the run game was going strong. It hurt us a few times, so we had to go to the screens,” Cummings said. “Defense did a great job, turned the ball over. Nikolai with the pick helped us gain momentum throughout the game”.

Mack led the Red Devils on the ground rushing for 87 yards on 18 carries and a touchdown.

Purnell Swett will have a bye week before getting ready for United-8 Conference play, opening at Gray’s Creek on Sept. 20. Red Springs will host Lumberton next Friday at 7 p.m.