KENLY - The last time Louisburg came to Kenly for a football game, the stakes were higher. But after a grueling 28-26 North Johnston defeat at the hands of the Warriors, the impact of the 2-A Northern Carolina Conference game seemed just as important.

After a three straight weeks on the road, North Johnston was denied a chance to up its record back to .500 in front of its home crowd when the Warriors blocked an extra point in the fourth quarter.

Friday's was the first meeting between the two since they met in the second round of the 2005 1-AA playoffs where North won 42-14 on the way to the Eastern Regional Final.

Louisburg (7-1 overall, 2-1 conference) won its third straight, with a mid-season hiccup to Roanoke Rapids the Warriors' only loss on the season.

After going ahead 20-14 midway through the fourth quarter, the Panthers (3-5, 1-2) had an extra point blocked by Deandre Blacknall that haunted them for the remainder of the night.

With 86 yards and three touchdowns, Blacknall was part of a Warrior rushing attack that mounted 219 yards total with Ervin Hunt amassing 95 to lead the team.

North had problems on offense in the first half as it was shut out. The Panthers only earned nine yards of total offense through their first three drives.

"I thought offensively we came out very flat," North Johnston coach Tom Nelson said. "We played terrible the first half offensively. Fortunately after one letdown, our defense played great. It kept us in the game."

A shift in momentum occurred in the first two plays of the second half. It started when Cody Fitzgerald recovered a fumble on the initial snap. Jacques Alston then ran 43 yards into the end zone as North tied it at 7.

Alston, a junior, had one of his better rushing nights of the season with 141 yards on 23 carries. The 5-foot-7, 160-pound halfback shined early in the fourth quarter, scoring on a 10-yard splurge to give North Johnston its first lead of the night. Blacknall came around the left corner on the point after, timing the snap perfectly, and dove across the middle to block Harrison Grady's kick.

After an errant kickoff gave Louisburg the ball at its own 45, Blacknall found the end zone on first-and-goal from the 3 en route to a 21-20 advantage with 4:07 to play.

The senior scored again on a critical third-and-nine with a 32-yard scamper with 1:25 left to put the Warriors up by eight.

With no timeouts left, North Johnston broke into its two-minute offense with Cox completing three passes, including a 43-yard strike to Alston to put the Panthers inside the 10 with 42 seconds left.

"We work on that two-minute drill twice a week every week," Nelson said. "It finally paid off for us. I'm glad our kids fought back. I just wish we could have got those two points."

After Cox found Kody Barbour in the corner of the end zone with 35 seconds left, the Panthers got one final shot to tie it on the two-point conversion.

Cox went to Barbour again on a throw in the flat, but Louisburg linebacker Shtone Sutton deflected the pass. Louisburg recovered the onside kick to hang on.

"You look at our scores and this has been our M.O. all year," said Louisburg coach Chris Lee. "We play tight ball games and we've been on the plus side seven times so we feel real fortunate to get a win down here."

It was the Warriors' fourth win by seven points or less.

Meanwhile, it was shades of last year for the Panthers, who dropped four games by just a point in 2008.

Now in his fourth year at North, Nelson found losing by two points was just as gut wrenching.

"At some point," he concluded, "we've got to find a way to win one of these games."