Photo by William “Bud” Hardy / Neuse News

The Jimmy Smith Cup will again remain with Kinston High School, but it wasn’t an easy get for the Vikings.

Visiting North Lenoir gave Kinston all it wanted Friday night before the Vikings rode the legs of quarterback Caleb Gooding to a pair of 4th quarter scores and a 19-6 victory over the Hawks at Viking Field.

Kinston (6-4, 3-2) also defeated South Lenoir earlier in the season to earn the de facto Lenoir County Championship.

“A tremendous win, hard-fought, just like we knew it would be,” Kinston coach Ryan Gieselman said. “North Lenoir has an outstanding team. They’re very physical, and we talked all week in practice that we were going to have to match their physicality to have a chance.”

For three quarters the Hawks (7-3, 2-3) won the line of scrimmage, even thought the scoreboard showed a 6-6 deadlock.

Over the final 8 minutes, Kinston decided to put the game in the hands of quarterback Gooding, who completed an 11-yard pass to Iverson Ward on the first snap of the fourth quarter, and then didn’t attempt another one.

Instead, Gooding won the game with his legs.

The fleet 5-9, 165-pound junior ran the ball 14 times for 92 yards in the final frame alone, including 7 consecutive carries as the Vikings marched 54 yards to grab a 13-6 lead on Gooding’s 4-yard TD with 9:33 left to play.

After forcing a punt, Kinston got the ball back with 5:39 to play and used all but the final 22 seconds to drive 64 yards in 11 plays and put the game away on a 6-yard keeper by Gooding on 4th-and-1.

“I had a lot of big holes to run through,” Gooding said. “I knew I had to step up for my team, and the offensive line did a great job of making things easier for me.”

Of Kinston’s 19 offensive snaps in the 4th quarter, Gooding either carried the ball or threw a pass on 15 of them.

Even when the Hawks knew what was coming, they couldn’t stop it.

“Kinston made some nice adjustments and I think we just got tired on defense,” North Lenoir coach Jim Collins said. “I’ll have to look at the film to see exactly what happened, but we just seemed a step out of position in the fourth quarter.”

For three quarters, the game was a story of North Lenoir domination and some tough luck.

The Hawks outgained Kinston 228-79 over the first 24 minutes but only had 6 points to show for it.

After falling behind 6-0 when Kinston’s Josh Holloway returned the opening kickoff 90 yards for a touchdown, NL turned the ball over on an interception at the Kinston 17, was stopped on downs on 4th and goal from the 7, and was forced to punt late in the first half after driving to the KHS 37.

The Hawks finally found the end zone with a beautiful 5-play, 92-yard march that culminated in Ny’jai Koonce’s 19-yard, game-tying TD burst with 3:50 left in the third quarter.

“We moved the ball well, but we were a little snake bit,” Collins said. “Our running game was very efficient (251 yards on 45 carries). We just failed to cash in too often when we had the chance. Still, I’m very proud of how hard we played and the effort we gave. We have nothing to be ashamed of.”

Despite allowing Kinston to roll up 112 yards in the fourth quarter, the Hawks still won the total yardage battle 251-191.

“Bottom line, we found a way to get it done,” Gieselman said. “We’ve got one more game in the regular-season (at Ayden-Grifton to decide 3rd place in the Eastern Carolina 2A Conference standings,) and it’ll be another tough, grind-it-out game like this one. It’s the type of game we now know we can win. We’ll be ready.”

The Hawks host rival South Lenoir to end the regular season.

“South Lenoir whipped us pretty good last year, so it won’t take a lot to motivate our players this week,” Collins said. “Looking for revenge against a rival on senior night. It doesn’t get much better than that.”

North Lenoir       0             0             6             0—6

Kinston                 6             0             0             13—19

First Quarter

K—Josh Holloway 90 kick return (kick blocked), 11:48

Third Quarter

NL—Ny’jai Koonce 19 run (kick blocked), 3:50

Fourth Quarter

K—Caleb Gooding 4 run (Diego Patino kick), 9:33

K—Gooding 6 run (kick blocked), :22

                               NL          K            

First Downs        14           11

Rushes-yards      45-251  31-157

Passing                 0-4-1     4-9-1

Passing yards      0             34

Total yards          251        191

Punts-avg.           3-26.7   5-31.8

Penalties              6-30       5-45

Fumbles-lost       2-1         3-0

Individual Statistics

RUSHING: North Lenoir: Ny’jai Koonce 13-90, Malik Jones 11-89, Jaden Kilpatrick 10-38, Filipo Sualevai 9-28, Tre Olds 2-6. Kinston: Caleb Gooding 20-126, Will London 3-23, Iverson Ward 5-20, Josh Holloway 1-(minus 2), Calvin Holloway 1-(minus 9), Team 1-(minus 1).

PASSING—North Lenoir: Sualevai 0-4-1 0. Kinston: Gooding 4-9-1 34.

RECEIVING—North Lenoir: None. Kinston: London 2-22, Ward 1-11, Khari Pitts 1-1.