RED SPRINGS — The Red Springs football team is still in search of its first win this season after Friday’s home game against Lakewood, when the Red Devils could not have come much closer to finding the win column in a 27-26 loss.

Trailing 27-20 with a minute remaining, Red Springs (0-5) drove down the field and scored with T.J. Ellerbe’s touchdown reception on a screen pass from Chase Boone. Now within a point, the Red Devils went for two; the try was initially successful, but a penalty for illegal procedure negated the score.

Red Springs led the game 20-7 at halftime; Lakewood (4-1) tied the game at 20-20 in the fourth and took a 27-20 lead with 2:30 remaining. The Red Devils turned the ball over on downs on the next possession and got a defensive stop to get the ball back with about a minute left before Ellerbe’s score.

“The first half, we played a really clean ballgame,” Red Springs coach Tim Ray said. “The third quarter, we started getting a couple of penalties, two fumbles on back-to-back drives. I think they ended up scoring on one of them, which put them in good position. T.J. had a 90-some yard kick return called back. Two turnovers that, if we just stay clean, without penalties and turnovers, we would have stayed in control of that game.”

Ellerbe also scored a receiving touchdown earlier in the game from Nasir Blackmon; the Red Devils also got rushing touchdowns from Jakelsin Mack and Chase Boone.

Red Springs now enters a bye week before kicking off its Southeastern Athletic Conference slate Oct. 4 at Fairmont.

“We’re constantly getting growth, even if the win-loss column may not describe it,” Ray said. “All our nonconference games were against solid ball teams. That’s a deep playoff team in 1A in my opinion, and I think they’re going to be really good in their conference. They’ve played our conference opponent (Midway), who I think we’re going to battle with in conference at a high level, played them just as tough last week.

“We’ve just got to keep learning, get better, clean some things up, get better each week and go into conference with some positivity. … I think today we had a whole lot more positive plays than negative, it’s just when you lose the negative gets amplified.”

Bulldogs fall at Charlotte Latin

The St. Pauls football team lost 19-14 in a nonconference duel at Charlotte Latin Friday after the Hawks took the lead in the fourth quarter and the Bulldogs couldn’t take advantage of a late scoring chance.

Charlotte Latin (6-0) took a 19-14 lead after a touchdown with 6:07 to go. St. Pauls (3-2) drove down the field before fumbling the ball into the end zone for a touchback.

“We were up the whole game until (a few) minutes left,” St. Pauls coach Mike Setzer said. “We drove down, controversial call, but we fumbled the ball into the end zone. Too many turnovers today, three interceptions and we fumbled in the end zone. And we didn’t capitalize offensively.”

St. Pauls had other missed opportunities, including multiple drives deep into Hawks territory that came up empty.

“We were plagued with a lot of laundry on the field,” Mike Setzer said. “The last drive a touchdown was called back. … We just didn’t capitalize.”

Theophilus Setzer had two rushing touchdowns for the Bulldogs.

St. Pauls scored first midway through the first quarter; Charlotte Latin answered moments later, and the score remained 7-7 into the second quarter. St. Pauls scored again to go up 14-7 with 3:33 left in the first half, and maintained that advantage at intermission.

Charlotte Latin scored a touchdown with 24 seconds left in the third quarter to pull to a 14-13 deficit before the Hawks’ went ahead with their next score in the fourth.

St. Pauls has a bye next week before opening Southeastern Athletic Conference play Oct. 4 at home against West Bladen.

Gray’s Creek dominates Rams

The Purnell Swett football team struggled to stop Gray’s Creek’s prolific offense in a 38-7 loss to the Bears Friday in Hope Mills in the United-8 Conference opener for both squads.

Gray’s Creek (3-1, 1-0 United-8 Conference) took a 14-0 lead in the first quarter and led 31-0 at halftime.

“Their offense is hard to stop,” Purnell Swett coach Josh Deese said. “They played extremely well, firing on all cylinders. The first play we had a (tackle for loss), and the second play was a long run for a touchdown. They just kept their foot on the gas the whole night, so hats off to them for that.”

The Bears added a third-quarter touchdown for a 38-0 advantage; Purnell Swett (2-2, 0-1 United-8) got on the scoreboard with a touchdown with 1:23 left.

“We were moving the ball, we moved the ball decent,” Deese said. “We just, little mistakes, shooting ourselves in the foot. We’d gain eight yards, then lose three; just one of those nights. We did what we’re trying to do, it’s just on critical downs we couldn’t execute. It hurt us in the long run.”

Jedidiah Wilkins scored the Rams’ late touchdown; he has typically played wide receiver, but took some snaps at running back and had a good night for the Rams.

“We know what he can do at receiver, but he showed some promise at running back, so that may be a move we’re going to stick with, moving him back and forth,” Deese said. “We’re going to see how this unfolds.”

Purnell Swett plays at Cape Fear on Friday.