PITTSBORO — A big night from Seaforth’s sophomore quarterback Duncan Parker helped his eldest teammates have a memorable senior night in their 41-0 victory over Jordan-Matthews Friday.
On Seaforth’s second ever senior night, Parker rushed for 137 yards and three touchdowns on 13 carries, leading the Hawks to their second-largest win of the year.
“I saw a bunch of holes just coming up everywhere,” Parker said. “The o-line played a great game, balled their butts off all game, and it was just an all-around great team win.”
Seaforth had 12 rushes go for more than 10 yards, and six of them belonged to Parker. After a rough start offensively in the first quarter, Parker extended the Hawks’ small lead to 14-0 with a one-yard score early in the second quarter.
Despite the lead and the success of the repeated quarterback keeper, offensive struggles still hurt Seaforth in the second quarter as two drives ended in an interception by Parker to Jordan-Matthews’ Eli Rodriguez and a turnover on downs.
Seaforth junior Patrick Miller stole a possession late in the second quarter with an interception at the Jordan-Matthews 24-yard line, and Parker cashed in on the turnover with a 9-yard touchdown run to put the Hawks up 20-0 just before halftime.
Parker just had four rushes in the second half, and his game-long 23-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter was the final dagger of the night.
As the sophomore had his moments, the seniors, who are the program’s first four-year class, also put in some work.
Senior running back and linebacker Jackson Powell rushed for 38 yards and scored two touchdowns, and senior linebackers Alex Hinchman and David Greenway recorded a sack each. Greenway’s sack with two minutes left in the first quarter resulted in a fumble recovered by the Hawks at the Jordan-Matthews 47.
Defensively, Seaforth had one of its strongest performances of the year with seven tackles for loss, another fumble recovery and another sack by juniors Raiden Flowers and Austin Ingram. The Hawks secured their third shut out in program history.
“Definitely a lot of communication with us,” Hinchman said. “On the defense, we’re always struggling with communicating this and that and sometimes with switching and messing up. I feel like that was really working this time, and everybody was just really doing their jobs perfectly.”
Even with the production of Hinchman, Greenway and Powell, the most rewarding senior performance of the night came from running back Alex Vargas.
In July 2023, Vargas was working in roofing to help fund a car for himself until he fell through a four-story building and broke both of his legs. The injury forced him to miss last season, and on Friday, just over a year after it happened, he contributed 45 rushing yards and his first career touchdown on five carries.
“It was tough,” Vargas said. “I had physical therapy, and I couldn’t walk for almost half a year. It was a lot of pain, but I had to tough it out. I really wanted to come back, I did this for my family. All of these people are my family, and I wanted to show them what I could do.”
On just one drive late in the third quarter, Vargas ripped off runs of 12 yards and 20 yards to help get the Hawks back in scoring position. His three-yard score at the end of the drive put Seaforth up, 34-0.
“It’s an emotion I really can’t describe,” Antonio Vargas, Alex’s father, said about his reaction to the touchdown. “To see my son overcome all the adversity he has overcome, wow. It’s an indescribable emotion. All his effort and God. That is always with him.”
Although Friday served as a symbolic end to the high school careers of Seaforth’s first four-year football class, the seniors still have work left to do.
As of Sunday, the Hawks are ranked 35th in the 2A East RPI standings, just three spots away from being in playoff contention. Seaforth has two games left to improve its playoff standing with a trip to Bartlett Yancey Friday at 7 p.m. and a makeup game with Southern Lee the following week.
Yet, the path to the playoffs doesn’t only lie in Seaforth’s hands. The Hawks will need wins in both games and numerous losses from teams ahead of them in the RPI standings to possibly keep their playoff hopes alive.
This late in the season, a bid for the playoffs is unlikely, but Seaforth will still try to play its best football regardless of how the postseason shakes out.
“We can’t do nothing but control what we do,” Gary said. “We can’t take anything for granted. Just go out there, play our best and let the cards fall where they may.”