CHAPEL HILL - -- East Chapel Hill held Durham Riverside to 83 yards of total offense in a 38-14 PAC-6 conference football win on Friday night. The victory puts the Wildcats in a tie for first place in the conference with Durham Hillside, which had the week off.

Wildcat quarterback Ben Jones completed 21 of 26 passes for 195 yards and three touchdowns – 140 of those yards in the second half. The Wildcats also rushed for 157 yards.

“Ben had a good second half for us,” said Wildcats coach Bill Renner. “With our running game having some success, it opened up Ben’s throwing, and the offense had a good game after a slow start.”

After the Pirates committed their first turnover of the game, a fumble that was recovered by defensive lineman Masai White, the Wildcats drove 48 yards on seven plays in the second quarter Running back Colby Owens fumbled at the one, but teammate Jackson Boyer recovered in the end zone.

ECH capitalized on a second Riverside fumble with 1:11 left in the first half. The Wildcats needed just 35 seconds to go 34 yards that culminated in Boyer scoring his second touchdown from three yards out to give his team a 14-0 halftime lead.

Jones TD passes to Boyer and Arkavius Parks, for six yards and 19 yards, respectively, gave ECH a commanding 28-0 lead heading into the final quarter.

Riverside running back Darius Smiley ended the shutout on a 36-yard draw with just less than 11 minutes remaining. Smiley also scored the Pirates' second TD with a beautiful 90-yard kickoff return. He finished the game with 76 rushing rushing and over 150 yards on special teams.

“He is a tremendous back, the best I-back I’ve ever seen,” Renner said. “Whenever he touched the ball, I shuddered.”