New Bern Runs Through Havelock 42-7

Two years following the first matchup between Coach Nowell's Bears and Coach Wooten's Rams, New Bern came out on top of the Rams again in the second and final game for the Bears against Craven County competition. The Bears advanced to 5-0 on the young 2021 season with a physical win over the now 2-1 Rams.

In the rivalry's first game since 2019, when New Bern beat Havelock 27-13 in only the second game under Nowell’s direction, the Bears offense pretty much picked up where they left off riding the backs of their highly explosive running attack that was responsible for all five of the Bears’ touchdowns.

After a holding penalty backed the Bears up from the doorstep of the Havelock endzone on the first drive, the Rams would pick off D’kwan Bradley’s only pass on a fourth and long to set up the Rams on their own 20-yard line. However, two penalties would see the Rams offense stall out and unable to produce points off the turnover.

The Bears would roll from that moment on, scoring 35 unanswered points to end the first half with a commanding 35-0 lead over the Rams. The second quarter was crucial to New Bern’s lead as they answered Havelock’s earlier turnover with an interception of their own; this time, New Bern returned it for a touchdown. Daquan Pate would come up with the second interception for the New Bern defense in the ensuing Havelock possession.

With the defense not backing down from the challenge of a dangerous spread offense, Aronne Herring and Zykeem Brooks took over the New Bern rushing attack. The pair accounted for 293 of New Bern’s 363 rushing yards. Herring, who ECU recently offered, rushed for 207 yards and three touchdowns on 18 carries.

Following the statement 42-7 victory, Coach Nowell’s post-game interview backed up the product that was put on the field, saying, “We just wanted to be physical on defense and offense. Offensively we knew that our offensive line had to be really good at making checks and calls in the game,”

Nowell would give credit to the three offensive line coaches on staff for working with a unit that was instrumental to victory on Friday night, “Coach Curlings, Coach Ben, and Coach Reddick do a great job with those guys; they work really hard with the offensive line.”

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