WENDELL - A 30-0 loss to Jack Britt in the first football game of the 2009 season may not have been what fans wanted to see after a pair of low-win season in 2007 and 2008, but East Wake coach Jimmy Williams said it might have been what the team needed.

After holding the Buccaneers to just 7 points in the first half things looked on the up-and-up for the home team. Warrior faithful seemed pleased with the 24-minute showing that had East Wake trailing last year's state championship contenders by a mere touchdown.

But after the half the Bucs made light of East Wake's tender punting situation and took it to the house two more times within a two-minute, 20-second span. After failing to convert on fourth down in their own territory, the Warriors couldn't keep Britt's Anthony Riggin from a 10-yard run for 6 at 8:56. East Wake found itself in the same situation two minutes later, this time in attempting a punt, but a low snap to Warrior Taylor Griswold set up another visitor touchdown - a pass from Britt's Greg Bryant to Isaiah Moore.

Williams said things got away from his squad at that point, and that's what he hopes never to see again. East Wake's offense looked for the deep shot to Kellon Boykin on several occasions, but never could connect in the second half of play. Quarterback Chris Pernell finished the game 1-9 for 28 yards.

"We were in the red zone I think three times - at least two times - in the first half but couldn't do nothing with it," Williams said. "We dropped a couple of big first down passes, and we got away from our game plan a little and I'm not going to do that any more. We started throwing a little bit and we should've kept running, grinding and trying play action. We've got two quarterbacks and they ain't never played, so we kind of tried to play to their strengths and I think we found out in a real game situation what each other can and can't do."

Another bad snap forced the Warriors to fall on the ball in their own end zone before the third quarter ended, boosting the Bucs' lead to 23 before they regained possession just over a minute later and Britt's Eric Johnson took it in from the nine for the final touchdown of the game.

The Warriors combined for 28 passing/receiving yards and 48 yards on the ground - led by junior Jamal Davis with 26 yards and John Barnes Smith with 22 rushing. Quarterbacks Pernell, a sophomore, and Cameron Holder, a junior, never threw a pick, and the team totaled 25 penalty yards to Jack Britt's 59. The Bucs, on the other hand, tallied 125 yards through the air and 167 on the ground.

After the game Williams spoke positively to his team, telling the group he saw Jack Britt earn one touchdown on the night - the first of the game. He said the other four times the Buccaneers found the end zone or caught the Warriors in their own came either on special teams or when his squad handed it over.

"It's a long way out, but I see some good things," he said while the Warriors took a knee. "Over the next couple of weeks I promise we're going to fine tune it. We just needed to get the dots connected at halftime."

Williams said much of his disappointment came as result of what he saw to be his team's potential after seeing them play a solid first half.

"We aren't ultra-deep but we had our mistakes. Jack Britt's strong, but they're going to lose games. We had every chance to play with them - every chance."

According to the 15-year coach, it was the third-quarter Jack Britt onslaught that stifled his team's confidence, but he said the same Buccaneer assault was a priceless lesson for his team.

"I'm disappointed because I would've liked to have scored a little bit, and we had our chances, but all in all we're going to learn a lot from that. It doesn't have any bearing on playoffs so it was a good experience to play a quality program and get some people down here from Fayetteville," Williams said. "I'm just disappointed we couldn't give them a better game. We had a lot of mistakes. They had one earned touchdown by the way I look at it, so we'll just go back to work Monday and start getting ready for the true regular season."