ANGIER - There weren't any UFOs, Air Force squadrons, mosquitoes or raindrops flying over the heads of Smithfield-Selma's football team Friday night.

Well, there were raindrops, but not until late in the fourth quarter of their Greater Neuse River 4-A Conference game with unbeaten Harnett Central.

What it was, with apologies to Andy Griffith, was footballs.

Ten of them, to be precise, during the first half as Trojans quarterback Brian Taylor led Central to sole possession of the GNRC lead in a 38-7 rout of the Spartans.

Taylor, who completed 11-of-14 passes on the evening for 232 yards, enjoyed a near-perfect first half as he shredded the Spartans defense for 227 of those yards on 10-of-12 passing including two touchdowns.

More impressively, Taylor hit all 10 of those passes in succession, driving Central to touchdowns on its first four possessions, while the Trojans defense held SSS in check for its first five possessions.

"He [Taylor] did a good job tonight," said Trojans coach Marc Morris. "You have to give credit to Smithfield-Selma, they did a few things to stop our running game early and forced us to throw the ball."

On the Trojans' fifth and final drive of the first half, Taylor and Jerrod Spears used their legs to set up a 22-yard field goal by Taylor.

"They dominated on both sides of the ball," said Spartans coach Anthony Barbour. "Offensively and defensively, they did everything they wanted to - that's what undefeated teams are supposed to do to 3-6 teams."

After misfiring on his first pass of the night, Taylor couldn't miss as he found wide-open receivers in the Spartans' secondary for double-digit chunks of yardage.

And when the receivers were covered, and appeared to be stopped for little or no gain, they shook off tackles and made the big play. "Brian did a good job of throwing the ball," Morris said. "And [Brian] Baker, Torin [Walker] and the others did a great job of receiving the ball."

Twice on the Trojans' opening possession, Taylor came up with the big pass completion on third down to keep the 65-yard, 10-play march going, culminating it with a 13-yard scoring strike to Reggie Patterson.

Keeping the Spartans off-balance on its second possession, Central mixed the run and pass to move 78 yards in 10 plays, with Jerrod Spears going the final 15 to give the Trojans a 14-0 first-quarter lead.

While Taylor and the Trojans moved the ball, SSS couldn't get anything going offensively, with four three-and-out possessions as Central keyed on the Spartans' standout back, Josh Snead. Snead, who finally broke through in the second half, including a 46-yard scamper in the fourth quarter for the Spartans' only score, was held to 30 first half yards. He finished with 138 yards on 20 carries.

Snead's biggest first half run came on a direct snap on a fake punt, which netted 36 yards to the Trojans' 25-yard line, but the Spartans, trailing 14-0 at that point, couldn't capitalize.

Central took over at the 27, and two plays later, Taylor hit Baker over the middle for a 68-yardtouchdown.

Using a 26-yard completion on their next possession, Central moved the ball 69 yards on their next possession, with Taylor dashing the final 13 yards for the score and a 28-0 lead.

"Sometimes, it takes the running game to open up the passing game," Morris said. "And tonight, the passing game opened up our running game."

The Spartans got their offense in gear in the second half, after being limited to 27 yards total offense in the first 24 minutes.

With Central concentrating on Snead, Barbour began utilizing other backs, particularly Marquel Gathers, who gained 42 yards on seven carries.

The strategy enabled Snead to get going, although it was too little too late.

"We need to find some help for Josh in the backfield, and were able to do that a little tonight," Barbour said. "Now, we have to set our sights on winning our final two games [against West Johnston and Clayton] if we hope to make the playoffs."