Coach Sims rebuilt his team with tough practices and drills in the August heat like the one above.

"6-3 at 11:30".

The Winston Patriots opened the 2007 season last Friday and almost finished their first game the next day!

After a one and one half hour rain delay, the Patriots and Patriot fans exited the Oak Hill Raider Field House, after a lightening storm and pounding rain sent everyone to cover, prior to the 7:30 kickoff.

But just before midnight, the Patriots finished the mud bath event with fight to the finish, 6-3 victory. AAA Oak Hill and AA Winston, both faced major graduation losses last year, but it was the Patriots that seemed to rebuild the best unit as the new faces in the empty spots stepped up and made an impressive first showing. Winston opened the game with possession on the water soaked turf and found no ball advancement and was forced to punt, but Oak Hill found the same situation and punted it right back.

On the following series, new quarterback Tyler Dalton suffered his first turnover of his starting career with an interception at the Winston 26 yard line. Failing to make the first down, the Raiders had to settle for a 27 yard field goal with 3:50 remaining in the opener to give the home team a 3-0 lead.

Both teams would then slip and slide for the remainder of the first half and punt back and forth to each other to bring the first half to an end with the score remaining at 3-0.

The ground conditions saw both teams with low first half offense as Oak Hill only had 53 yards in total offense with the Patriots trailing with only 50.

As Oak Hill began with second half ball possession, the punting show continued. With Winston starting at their own 20, Kyle Harriman quickly turned the ball back over to the Raiders on a fumble. But the ball bounces both ways, as Tyler Moffitt recovered a Raider fumble on the first play at the Winston 2 yard line to stop the scoring threat.

Starting with their backs against the wall, the Patriots moved the ball out to the 5 yard line but disaster quickly struck again when Harriman was caused to fumble to put Oak Hill only 5 yards away from the end zone. It was then that Coach Cody Upton put his new linebackers and defensive front to the test as they dug deep and held the Raiders to take over on downs at the 2 yard line with 2:46 left in the third quarter.

Finding no first down yardage, the Patriots were forced to punt from their own 10 yard line as the third quarter came to and end with the score remaining at 3-0 in favor of Oak Hill.

The Raiders likewise, were put in a punting situation and the Patriots started again backed up at their own 2 yard line. After moving the ball out of the danger zone behind the running of Kyle Harriman, Tyler Dalton found Dylan Morgan open down field for a 65 yard pass play to put the Patriots on the Raider 23 yard line.

A pass interference play gave the Patriot good field position and a first down at the Raider 5 yard line with 8:16 remaining on the game clock. It was on the next play that the door was almost shut on the Patriots as a fumble before the goal line, rolled into the end zone. As players from both teams were diving on the slippery pigskin, it was Winston's Austin Harrison that finally managed to hang on to the little joker to give the Patriots the go ahead score of 6-3. With the PAT failing, it was now up to the defense to hang on for the victory.

After Oak Hill moved it out to their own 39 yard line, Brett Estes sealed the victory for the Patriots with his fumble recovery with 2:52 remaining.

The offense struggled for both teams as expected on wet fields, but Winston was lead by Kyle Harriman's 73 yard rushing and followed by Tyler Dalton's 24 rushing yards. Dalton also was credited with 85 yard in passing. The defense was led by Harriman with 13 tackles, followed by Dalton with 12 and Carlos Black with 10.

So as head coach Brian Sims opens his third season under the controls, he has proven that teams can rebuild with hard work and dedicated players. The Patriots will only improve as the season grows. Winston will open their home season this week at Patriot Field when Sylva Bay, from Bay Springs pays a visit.