When Leesville Road High place kicker Bayani Jones’ extra point attempt sailed through the uprights at Leesville Stadium on Friday night, the kick gave the Pride a 27-26 overtime victory over Cary. And it also dropped the Imps, which have played two road games to start the season, to 1-1.

But away games are something Cary is going to have to get used to this season.

“We’re going to be road warriors this year,” third-year Cary coach Ben Kolstad said. “We’ve got seven [games] on the road, four out of our first five. It’s just something we got to do.”

Despite the loss, Cary did accomplish part of what it set out to do: establish the running game. The Imps owned a 206-105 rushing margin over the Pride and scored three of their four touchdowns running the ball.

“The running game is going good,” Kolstad said. “That’s what we hang our hat on. We’re pretty good up front — our linemen are good — and we’ve got a bunch of backs we can give the ball to that can get us yards.”

One of those backs is junior tailback Alex Hellard, who rushed for a game-high 100 yards on just nine carries. Hellard and sophomore Denny Feracho have the unenviable task of replacing Josh Adams, Cary’s all-time leading rusher.

“There’s not going to be another Josh Adams,” Hellard said. “He’s amazing. We’re just going to do our part and if we keep it fresh then we figure me and him put together can … maybe not do what Josh did last year, but come together and play well.”

Defensively, Hellard led the team in tackles with eight and laid a bone crushing hit on Leesville Road wide receiver James Weaver, which jarred the ball loose and put Leesville Road in fourth-and-long during its game-tying drive late in the fourth quarter.

“Alex is a good football player,” Kolstad said. “Offense or defense, he’s just a great two-way player for us. He stepped up when we needed him.”

With two games on the road under their belt, the Imps will play at home on Friday, hosting Northern Durham High. Bouncing back from a loss in which Cary gave up a six-point lead with under a minute to go and then missed an extra point in overtime will be a tough chore, but something Kolstad said the Imps have to do.

“We played hard and lost a tight one,” Kolstad said. “But we don’t have a lot of kids with experience. They don’t know how to pull out a win like that — they came close and they were right in there.

“We’ve got Northern Durham next week. So it’s another tough one on the plate for us and we’ve got to get ready for them. We’ve just got to put this game behind us and get better.”

Cary lost to the Knights last year, which Hellard said serves as motivation for this year.

“We had a tough game against Northern Durham last year,” he said. “And now we’ve got a little chip on our shoulder. When we come out to play we’ll be just fine.”