Senior Receiver Nick Jones Photo Courtesy of Bernard Thomas

By Briana Gorman : The Herald-Sun

DURHAM -- For the second week in a row, it took a big defensive stop by the Southern defense at the end of the game to secure a Spartans victory.



Up by a touchdown with 35 seconds remaining against Northern on Friday, Desmond Lawrence sacked quarterback Andrew Peacock on fourth-and-goal from the 4-yard line and the Spartans escaped County Stadium with a 35-28 win Friday.



"Coach just told me to blitz the gap and it was wide open, so I just made the play," Lawrence said.



The Spartans are 2-0 in the conference, but the underdog Knights fought every inch of the way.



Southern started the game sluggish, and for a majority of the first half, Northern was in control and in the lead.



Even though Reese Wiggins returned the opening kickoff 87 yards for a touchdown, the Spartans offense sputtered after that.



Northern marched down the field to score on its first possession -- a 7-yard pass to Donovan Rasberry from Peacock -- and its defense held the typically explosive Southern offense in check. The Spartans turned the ball over on back-to-back possessions, which the Knights turned into scores and a 21-7 lead.



"That was a good team out there," Southern coach Adrian Jones said. "I think we came out a little bit lackadaisical, kind of took them for granted."



But with roughly a minute and a half remaining in the first half, Southern quarterback Alan Lea raced 18 yards into the end zone to give the offense its first score of the night and inject a little energy into his team.



The Southern defense forced Northern to go three and out on its next possession, and the Spartans got the ball back with 47 second remaining in the half. Lea then orchestrated a 49-yard drive, including a 10-yard run on fourth-and 10, capped by a 15-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Tony Creecy in the back corner of the end zone to tie the game at 21 headed into the half.



"When we scored real quick, we went to defensive coordinator and told him get us the ball back because we've been working on that fast-tempo offense all week and we looked real good running it," Jones said. "They couldn't stop it. We wore them down. They had a lot of guys playing both ways, and that played into our hands."



Southern looked like a different team in the second half and used the momentum to score on its first possession of the third quarter. Lea threw his second touchdown of the night, finding Reese Wiggins for a 22-yard strike and a 27-21 Southern lead. Lea finished the game 16-of-30 for 189 yards along with 69 yards rushing.



"That was the difference in this whole game -- one play, one block, one tackle," Northern coach Anthony Sullivan said.



But Northern wasn't done and regained the lead at the end of the third when Peacock marched his team 64 yards down the field, capping it with a 21-yard touchdown pass to Quashon Bagley. Peacock finished 18-of-29 for 117 yards and three touchdowns and led his team with 71 rushing yards. But Southern responded on its next possession for the final score of the night and held off Northern for its second come from behind win in as many weeks.



"I wasn't nervous," Lea said. "I knew [the defense] would get a stop for me in a certain way; I didn't know how. I just had confidence the defense would stop them and that's what they did."



Southern 35, Northern 28



Southern 7 14 6 8--35



Northern 6 15 7 0--28



SCORING SUMMARY



S--Reese Wiggins 87 kickoff return (Travis Savage), 11:47 first



N--Donovan Rasberry 7 pass from Andrew Peacock (kick fail), 7:56 first



N--Jerone Holman 4 run (Andrew Peacock run), 9:18 second



N--Cliff Edwards 13 pass from Andrew Peacock (Pierce Hoover kick), 7:03 second



S--Alan Lee 18 run (Travis Savage), 1:24 second



S--Tony Creecy 15 pass from Alan Lea (Travis Savage kick), :00 second



S--Reese Wiggins 22 pass from Alan Lea (kick fail), 9:01 third



N--Quashon Bagley 21 pass from Andrew Peacock (Pierce Hoover kick), 1:27 third



S--Kelvin Walker 4 run (Tony Creecy pass), 10:17 fourth



INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS



Rushing--Southern (Alan Lea 8-69, Tony Creecy 3-22, Lamont Pettiford 7-19, Kelvin Walker 3-8); Northern (Andrew Peacock 20-71, Jerone Holman 15-67, Anthony Thorpe 1-2).



Passing--Southern (Alan Lea 16-30, 189 yards); Northern (Andrew Peacock 18-29, 117 yards).



Receiving--Southern (Reese Wiggins 7-79, Tony Creecy 6-78, Nick Jones 2-37); Northern (Donovan Rasberry 10-51, Quashon Bagley 4-38, Cliff Edwards 3-26, DeAndre Melvin 1-2).