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HIGH POINT - After an incredibly silent first half, Andrews and High Point Central both woke from a slumber in the second half to make it an exciting game.

Central built a large lead in the third quarter only to watch Andrews cut it to seven points in the fourth quarter. But the Bison held on for a 19-12 victory at Simeon Stadium.

The Bison took advantage of two Raiders fumbles, had two interceptions and used an onside kick to turn a close game into a big lead. And the defense got the scoring started for Central (4-1) when Akeem Langham recovered an Andrews fumble and sprinted 42 yards for a touchdown for a 6-0 lead just 15 seconds into the second half.

"They came out and turned up the intensity," said Central coach Wayne Jones about his defense. "We told them at halftime to give us a short field to work with and they did that and they scored. It really helps when your defense scores."

Central's Evan Aguilar also picked off two passes that were overthrown by Andrews' quarterback Marquez Swinton. The Bison turned the first pick into a 1-yard touchdown by Al-daquan Teasley and a 12-0 lead. The run was set up by a long pass from Drew Adams to Derek Grant.

"Derek is just a great player," said Adams. "We could see that they weren't giving any help over the top. I just threw it up there and let him make a play and luckily he caught it."

The Raiders fumbled again on their next possession and once again a Bison player was there to pick it up. And again a pass from Adams to Grant, this time for 34 yards, had Central at the goal line again.

Lashuran Monk ran it in for a 19-0 lead.

"We just came out ready to play in the second half," said Langham. "The defense was able to get the first one and that really turned the momentum. We just wanted to continue putting up the goose egg."

Andrews (2-3) finally got things going in the fourth quarter. Swinton found Bryan Bostic behind the secondary for a 34-yard gain. Swinton then hit running back Vashon Dawkins for the 2-yard touchdown pass, cutting the lead to 19-6.

Andrews used two Central 15-yard penalties to get into Bison territory again and then Swinton went to the air again. A short pass over the middle to Duke commitment Quan Stevenson turned into a sprint to the end zone, which Stevenson won, making the score 19-12.

The Raiders had one last chance to tie or win the game when they got the ball back with 3:31 to play at their own 13-yard line. But after one 27-yard pass, Andrews failed to get another first down and Central ran out the clock.

"We just didn't play well enough to win and they did," said Andrews coach Rodney McKoy. "The bottom line is we moved the ball well, but then we had back-to-back-to-back turnovers. I'm not going to make any excuses. We didn't play well enough to win."

Both teams struggled to find an offensive identity in the first quarter. The teams combined for only 19 yards. They even had trouble having the correct number of players on the field, with each team having to call a timeout to correct the problem.

The second quarter was similar to the first. Even when Andrews had good field position, the Raiders couldn't do anything with it. Andrews started at the Central 46 and only moved it seven yards before punting.

HPC - Akeem Langham 42 fumble return (kick failed)

HPC - Al-daquan Teasley 1 run (run failed)

HPC - Lashuran Monk 1 run (Austin Miller kick)

A - Vashon Dawkins 2 pass from Marquez Swinton (pass failed)

A - Quan Stevenson 30 pass from Swinton (kick failed)