RALEIGH – Middle Creek was not surprised by Southeast Raleigh's gameplan to run the football, but they were certainly unable to do anything it Friday night at John Baker Stadium in the second round of the NCSHAA 4-A state playoffs.

The Bulldogs – behind the explosive play of senior tailback Kevin Howell – ran all over the Mustangs en route to a convincing 47-17 win, bouncing their cross-county foe from the postseason in the process.

"Obviously, we couldn't figure out to stop Howell," Middle Creek coach Sean Crocker said. "He's one of the best backs we've faced all year."

Monday, in the first round, Howell rushed for 231 yards against Cary. Against the Mustangs he nearly duplicated the feat, piling up 229 yards and four touchdowns on 18 carries.

"He imposed his will on us," Crocker added.

Defense dominated early on. Neither team was able to muster a first down until the fifth possession of the game when Southeast broke through late in the first quarter to take a 7-0 lead.

After that, the offenses took over.

The Mustangs (6-7) took advantage of a 53-yard Stephen Sladek run deep into Bulldogs territory to pull to within four on a 20-yard Matt Frongello field goal early in the second quarter.

Unfortunately for Middle Creek, Southeast (11-2) answered with two quick scores to take a 21-3 lead. The Mustangs did, however, put together a late scoring drive just before the end of the half, capped by a 3-yard Tre Nesbit touchdown run.

Middle Creek trailed 21-10 at the break.

Both teams traded touchdowns to begin the third quarter with the Mustangs' coming on a 48-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Garrett Leatham to Nesbit. Most of Middle Creek's offensive success came in the passing game.

"Southeast had a good blitzing scheme and kept getting pressure on me," Leatham said. "But we were able to take advantage of it throwing the ball because of how well our offensive line played and Tre Nesbit made a lot of big plays for us."

Nesbit finished with four catches for 81 yards, while Leatham was 14-for-24 for 177 yards and a touchdown.

"Garrett played good," Crocker said. "He didn't force anything. He took what the defense gave him. We just couldn't get enough stops on defense to be effective on offense."

In the second half, turnovers were a problem for the Mustangs.

Twice, fumbles stopped promising drives – once in the third quarter and once in the fourth. The Bulldogs capitalized on both to pull away late.

"Turnovers kill your momentum," Crocker said. "They're morale busters. When you turn it over, you can't get anything going. It put a damper on what we were trying to do offensively."

No. 2 Southeast will now move on to the third round and host No. 6 Hillside, who knocked off third-seeded Southern Durham on Friday. For No. 7 Middle Creek it was a disappointing end to a season that was anything but a failure, according to Crocker.

"We've got a young team," he said, "We've got a lot of guys who will move up for us next year and have an impact. And this season, we felt like if we played well we had a good chance at having a great year. We kept growing as the season went along. And even though it ended like this, I'm proud of the way the guys played all year."