SNOW HILL — Daniel Dennie and Jordan Crawford never imagined they'd step into the "next man up" role Thursday evening.

Each did.

The two sophomores played major minutes after running back Knowledge Branch exited with a left knee injury during the second quarter of Greene Central's 40-24 loss to C.B. Aycock.

Branch re-injured an already gimpy knee on a short-yardage play. His teammates took a knee and watched in angst as trainers attended to their leader. Greene County EMS personnel lifted the junior onto a gurney and transported him to UNC Wayne in Goldsboro for further evaluation.

First-year Rams head coach Jay Wilson hustled over to Branch, removed his headgear and spoke briefly with the Eastern Carolina 2A Preseason Offensive Player of the Year.

"I told him he was a warrior and we were going to do it for him," said Wilson, whose team trailed 15-6 at the time.

"He had kind of been battling a little knee stuff during the week. We felt like we had kind of rehabbed him and got him where he wanted to be, but unfortunately it just kind of went out on him a little bit."

Greene Central never recovered.

Once play resumed, the Rams (0-2) fumbled and Aycock converted the miscue into a touchdown.

One possession later, GC muffed a punt and Zakvil Smith's pass fell incomplete. The Golden Falcons, who snapped a five-game skid in the long-running series, easily scored again and led 31-6.

"They get the ball on the short field," Wilson said. "That's what killed us all night long. They didn't have to go to the length of the field. It's hard to win like that."

Halftime allowed Dennie, Crawford and the rest of the Rams to breathe and regroup. The duo helped slow down a bruising running attack in the second half, while the secondary prevented CBA junior gunslinger Clay Matthews from completing passes all over the field.

The Rams stopped the Golden Falcons twice on fourth down.

"We wound up playing sophomores with very little varsity experience and one of them [Crawford] had no varsity experience at the linebacker position," Wilson said. "That also hurt us defensively, not having one our leaders and a guy who puts us in position on defense as well."

GC climbed to within 34-18 on Quantavious Horne's pick-six barely 90 seconds after intermission.

The Rams' tandem of Cole Dawson and Smith tallied the final touchdown, a 9-yard scoring pass. Dawson completed 8 of 14 passes for 215 yards, including five strikes to Smith that totaled 155 yards.

"There were a lot of opportunities for them to give up and quit," Wilson said. "There were a lot of opportunities for them in the second half to lay down, but they didn't. We just played hard-nosed defense."

Extra points: Thursday’s game marked the 56th consecutive year Greene Central and Aycock have met; despite the loss, GC still leads the overall series 39-16-1. … The loss was the first for GC vs. Aycock since 2013, which was also the last time the Rams started a season 0-2. GC started that season 0-7 in Allen Wooten’s first season in Snow Hill. … The 16-point loss to CBA was the worst against the Golden Falcons since a 36-7 setback in 2012. … GC has given up 69 points in its first two games of the 2019 season, the most points ever in the school’s history after two games. The previous record was 65 points surrendered in the first two games of 2016.

CBA    8         26        6          0 — 40

GC      6         6          6          6 — 24

First Quarter

CBA — Shepherd 21 pass from Matthews (Robinson run), 9:38

GC — Murray 5 run (run failed), 1:42

Second Quarter

CBA — Moore 35 interception return (Matthews run), 8:29

CBA — Moore 1 pass from Matthews (Sasser kick), 7:10

CBA — Jackson 8 pass from Matthews (Moore pass from Matthews), 4:58

GC — Horne 38 pass from Dawson (run failed), 2:40

CBA — Jackson 28 FG, 0:00

Third Quarter

GC — Horne 40 interception return (run failed), 10:41

CBA — Jackson 18 run (pass failed), 2:42

Fourth Quarter

GC — Smith 9 pass from Dawson (pass failed), 6:03

CBA                GC

First downs                 20                   8

Rushes-yds                  40-188             26-16

Passing                        15-29-1            8-14-1

Passing yds                 149                  215

Total yards                  337                  231

Punts-yds                    0-0                   2-28.5

Fumbles-lost                2-0                   4-2

Penalties-yds               5-55                 8-50

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — Greene Central: Knowledge Branch 6-25, Cole Dawson 8-(minus-39), Hezekiah Pagan 4-(minus-11), Laquarius Murray 5-45, Jaden Tyson 1-0, Team 1-(minus-2), Debo Pigford 1-(minus-2). C.B. Aycock: Tae Jackson 14-85, Clay Matthews 4-0, Alijuan Moore 2-(minus-5), Elisha Davis 2-49, David Reid 5-15, Seth Shepherd 1-2, Troy DeLeon 8-33, Chris Ellis 3-10, Team 1-(minus-1).

PASSING — Greene Central: Dawson 8-13-1, 215, Zak Smith 0-1-0, 0. C.B. Aycock: Matthews 15-29-1, 149.

RECEIVING — Greene Central: Smith 5-155, Quantavious Horne 1-38, Pagan 1-9, Pigford 1-13. C.B. Aycock: Shepherd 3-43, Hunter Robinson 2-21, Jackson 2-16, Tyler Horton 1-14, Moore 5-24, Jamar Best 1-26, Styles Kendall 1-5.

Neuse News Editor Bryan Hanks contributed to this report.