By Randy Capps
For the second year in a row, the Quad County 3A finale between West Johnston and South Johnston was a de facto playoff game, with the winner getting a spot in the 3A bracket and the loser getting an early start on basketball season.
In 2023, it was South that prevailed, making the postseason at the expense of its rivals. Last fall, a 30-27 loss at West Johnston meant that the Trojans would be the ones who missed out on the playoffs.
Entering his fifth season at the helm of his alma mater, Lee Webb is taking a positive view of last year’s 5-5 season.
“I think I left South about five o’clock that morning,” he said. It was tough. … The outgoing seniors did a great job. I had a lot (of them say) at the end of the season, ‘coach, that was a lot more adversity than we’ve ever faced.’ I said, ‘but it’ll make you better.’ I had one come up to me a couple days later. He said, ‘coach, I think that made us better men.’ I said, ‘well, that’s that’s the hope.’”
A 4-1 start to the season turned with an injury to quarterback Tyler Williams early in the fourth game against Smithfield-Selma. He missed the rest of that game, and then the next two against Fike and C.B. Aycock.
“Probably two of the biggest games of the start of the conference,” Webb said.
Williams returns for his junior season after throwing for 1,110 yards, six touchdowns and eight interceptions in eight games while completing a little over 58 percent of his throws. He also rushed for 241 yards and six more scores, and figures to be the focal point for the Trojan offense.
Senior Holt Langston was the team’s leading rusher last fall (842 yards, 15 TD), but the top five leading receivers from last year’s team have all graduated.
Defensively, senior Mason Weaver led the team in tackles with 109 and tied for the team lead with three sacks and three interceptions. Despite the roster attrition and the loss of quite a bit of senior leadership, Webb is excited about this year’s team.
“There are some teams, year to year, that mesh well, and then there’s some that just mold and they fit together just like any piece of clay. And they’re just together,” he said. “It seems like they all have the same expectations.”
Those expectations include competing in the newly minted Carolina Pines 6A, which features Harnett Central, Lee County, Southern Lee, Triton, Union Pines, West Johnston and Western Harnett as league foes.
“Just like in the previous four years, it’s going to be tough,” Webb said. “Anybody we play is going to be tough. We know that. The guys expect it. … I think that’s what separates us from a lot of different teams is we don’t expect to go into every Friday night and beat a team 32-0. So, we work like we are playing to win every Friday. There are no days off for us. We kind of take the stance that we’ve been taking for the last four years: Work Monday through Thursday, play on Friday and let them know what you’re made of.”
South Johnston opens the 2025 season at Smithfield-Selma on Aug. 22.
