It may not always stand out, but any good offense in football starts with a good snap.
It’s the ignition to any hot car, the prologue to any good book, the backbeat to a flawless band.
Without a good backbeat, the band sounds like Maroon 5. And without a good snap, an offense looks like the New York Jets.
That’s where Orange found itself far too often in the most unique season opener in team history.
In the final game between the two rivals in the Big 8 Conference, Southern Durham defeated Orange 20-0 on Friday night at Auman Stadium. The Spartans (2-0, 2-0 in the Big 8) defeated the Panthers for the second straight time and finished 7-3 against Orange in their eight years as conference rivals.
Southern quarterback Omari Smith, a four-year starter, threw two touchdown passes as the Spartans claimed its eleventh consecutive Big 8 Conference win. Wide receiver Cinsere Clark had five receptions for 82 yards.
Orange, in its season debut, took the Spartans out of its offensive pattern for the meat of the game. But the offense, with only two returning starters, could only muster 65 yards total offense and three first downs (not counting two pass interference penalties against Southern).
The biggest part of the problem stemmed from a practice last week. Orange’s starting center broke his right thumb, which was the hand he uses to snap. Ethan Fortner played on Friday night, but was forced to use his left hand. That led to repeated snaps that went over the head of 6-foot-5 senior quarterback Nigel Slanker.
Orange coach Van Smith inserted two other centers, but Southern’s pass rush kept the Panther offense in second gear. Orange crossed the 50-yard line only twice.
“You have to have consistency,” said Orange Coach Van Smith. “We weren’t very consistent and that hurt us quite a bit.”
Southern scored touchdowns on its first two possessions. Smith found Clark for a 37-yard reception to invade the Orange red zone, then Clark caught a touchdown pass two plays later from 15 yards out. Alex Phelps ran in a two-point play on a trick play to put Southern ahead 8-0.
Bad snaps cost Orange 30 yards in field position on its second drive, which forced Slanker to put from his own end zone. After Smith hit Clark on a 22-yard gain on a jailbreak screen, Ariyon Page crossed the goal line off a jet sweep.
From that point forward, the Orange defense largely took Southern out of the game. On its next seven drives, the Spartans were shut out and held to four first downs. Smith completed six of his first seven passes, but completed just two of his next six and was sacked twice.
“I was so proud of the defense,” Smith said. “Last year, we opened against R.J. Reynolds, and they played the opening week while we had a bye. It was the same thing in this game. It’s hard to have a bye and then play a team that’s already had a game. You can’t simulate game speed in practice. You need to iron out little things, like bad snaps.”
Orange’s best chance to score came on its final possession of the first half when Slanker found Elliott Woods for a 33-yard gain. Southern free safety Shawn Chappell saved a touchdown after he tackled Woods at the Southern 7-yard line. After J.J. Torres was wrestled down for a one-yard loss, Orange was hit with a personal foul penalty. The Panthers eventually shanked a 38-yard field goal wide left.
Orange had more opportunities in the third quarter, opening two drives near midfield. They both ended in turnovers.
Orange committed four turnovers, all in the second half.
Smith broke Southern out of its doldrums in the fourth quarter when he hit Jawalace Holmes for a 57-yard gain. Jaybron Harvey, a starting forward for Southern’s basketball team, scored the Spartans’ only touchdown of the second half on a 7-yard pass from Smith.
There was a sense of finality in the postgame, where Southern Coach Darius Robinson and Smith embraced at midfield. It was a moment of respect in a rivalry the had plenty of contentious moments over the past eight years, which is to be expected with two teams full of competitors.
It wasn’t long ago that the Orange-Southern game would determine the Big 8 Conference champion. For six straight years, it did, featuring names like Kendall Hinton, now with the Denver Broncos. Or Payton Wilson, possibly the best linebacker in the ACC. Or Bryse Wilson, who earned a victory in the National League Championship Series last October for the Atlanta Braves. Or Maurice Trowell, Hinton’s favorite target on Southern’s 2013 3-AA State Championship team who went on to play at N.C. State.
Through the 80s and 90s, Southern and Orange fought to become the kings of Orange-Durham County football, only to always get knocked down the hill by Northern Durham, who captured 17 consecutive PAC-6 Conference championships. That domination ended when Southern claimed the state title. Later, Orange won three straight Big 8 titles from 2016-2018, beating Northern each year.
The shared respect between Robinson and Smith, in the culmination of the final conference game between the two rivals, was a reminder that as tense seemed to be between Southern and Orange over the years, it really was a civil war after all.
Civil being the key word.
And they both benefitted.
SOUTHERN 20, ORANGE 0
SOUTHERN 14 0 0 6-20
ORANGE 0 0 0 0-0
SOU-Cinsere Clark 15 pass from Omari Smith (Alex Phelps run)
SOU-Ariyon Paige 5 run (kick failed)
SOU-Jaybron Harvey 7 pass from Smith (run failed)
RUSHING-SOUTHERN 31-79 (Phelps 8-38, Smith 10-22, Takes Brickous 6-14, Kerry Turner 4-14, Paige 1-5 TD, Tayshawn Smith 2-(-14)
ORANGE 23-25 (Elliott Woods 5-39, Nigel Slanker 5-9, Eric Brooks 2-9, J.J. Torres 9-0, Ethan Fortner 2-(-32))
PASSING-SOUTHERN (Smith 13-22 149 2TD)
ORANGE (Slanker 5-19 40 2 INT)
RECEIVING-SOUTHERN (Clark 5-82, Paige 2-8, Brickous 2-6, Romello Mungo 2-2, Jawalace Holmes 1-57, Harvey 1-7 TD)
ORANGE (WOODS 3-30, Brooks 1-7, Torres 1-3)