Jerry Miller is the starting quarterback at Salisbury, but he wants to be like a former North Rowan star.

“Mario Sturdivant: He was like my brother.I used to watch him every night, and he always told me, ‘That could be you, that could be you in two years.’ And I finally did it,” said Miller after a solid performance against Albemarle in only his second varsity game.

Coach Raymond Daugherty’s Hornets defeated Albemarle 27-13 for a 1-1 record and snapped a 16-game losing streak that dated back to late in the 1998 season.

Sturdivant is the Rowan County career total offense (7,490 yards) and passing yardage(6,556) leader after a stellar career that ended last fall with the Cavaliers.

Sturdivant averaged 231.6 yards total offense last season, including 195.5 passing.

Miller wasn’t too far off those numbers on Friday. He had 202 yards total offense late in the game, but lost 32 yards rushing on the final five plays while the Hornets were running out the clock. He still finished with 170 yards total offense, including 161 passing on seven completions in 19 attempts for two touchdowns.

“I haven’t played in two years,” said Miller. “I played jayvee at North Rowan (as a sophomore), then I sat out (junior year) because of my grades. I transferred this year, because we moved.”

Miller, Jamel Alexander and Omar Jackson all transferred from North to Salisbury.

Miller is confident he can continue to put up impressive numbers.

“With the offensive line I’ve got, we can make it to the playoffs,” he exclaimed.

Daugherty said of Miller, “Jerry did an excellent job. Last week (7-6 loss to West Rowan) he didn’t have a scrimmage and he hadn’t played quarterback in two years. So last week was like his scrimmage.That was his first time under the gun, so we expected him to be a little rusty.”

Miller, who didn’t have enough practices to play in the Hornets’ preseason scrimmage, had 31 total yards against West.

“He got better tonight, and he’ll be better next week,” said Daugherty.

The Hornets play host to Concord on Friday, facing a team that’s 2-0 despite a slow start.

n

Bulldog troubles: Albemarle is expected to make the 1A playoffs, but Jack Gaster’s Bulldogs are off to an 0-2 start.

“We’ve got a young team and our effort was much better tonight as a team,” said Gaster after the Salisbury loss, which followed a 42-8 defeat at West Wilkes in the season opener. “They practiced great all week.I hope that they can keep that same intensity this week, because their intensity level was unbelievable. I really felt like we had improved a lot from West Wilkes, and I thought we had a good chance to win the football game.”

Gaster added,“I’m glad for Salisbury that they get the chance to end their losing streak. ... We’ve got a three-game losing streak (counting a 1999 playoff game). We’ve got to get better now.”

The Raider secondary got eaten up in the first half by West quarterback Jared Barnette last Friday.

Barnette completed his last six passes of the first half in orchestrating a 72-yard drive that tied the game at 14-all. Tosses to the flat, over the middle and a 34-yard bomb to Ben Hampton all worked to perfection.

The second half proved to be a different story, though. South got more pressure up front and tightened the screws in the back. Barnette didn’t add any more completions over the final 24 minutes and had three passes knocked down in the second overtime, which preserved South’s 31-24 win.

“It wasn’t a surprise,” said linebacker Joel Reyes, who had one of the knockdowns. “We’ve got some of the best defensive backs. Everybody makes mistakes. It wasn’t a big deal. We came through when we needed to.”

But head coach Scott Young also stressed how hard it is to pass in the red zone.

“When you get in the overtime situation, the defense can compress the field and you don’t have room to operate the passing game like normal,”Young said.

n

nickname: Reyes announced after the win that he and Jay Phillips had teamed in the secondary to form the dynamic duo “Thunder and Lightning.”

n

it ranks right up there: South head coach Rick Vanhoy didn’t say Friday night’s emotional win was better than what the Raiders did last season — sweep the Winston schools in the Central Piedmont Conference to make the state playoffs. The victory was impressive for other reasons, though.

“West Rowan had been touted as the best team in the county ever since last season was over,”Vanhoy said. “So if they’re the best team in the county, then we ain’t too far behind.”

Vanhoy offered plenty of praise for one of the reasons West is so highly thought of — the linebacking duo of James Francis and S.J. Culbertson.

The Falcon seniors flew all over the field, wreaking havoc as expected. Francis picked off a pass over the middle and took it 47 yards for a touchdown.

“They’ve got a great defense. Great athletes,”Vanhoy said. “Culbertson andFrancis, if we play against better linebackers than those two this year, it’s going to be a great team.”

n

tired: West couldn’t keep up its defensive intensity down the stretch. TheRaiders gradually gained momentum, then struck after a bad punt snap set South up at the 11-yard line.

That meant all 21 of South’s points in regulation followed turnovers/misplays that forced West to defend a very short field. It got even shorter in the overtime — 10 yards.

Our defense played well all night,” Young said. “We kept the defense on the field too long again. They played their hearts out. We’ve just got to get some offense to put behind it and we’ll be fine.

n

can we help? Two potential answers to West’s offensive struggles may have emerged Friday night.

Freshman Joe Jackson, who returned a punt 58 yards for a touchdown, and junior Lagrande Andrews both took turns running the ball when starter Jonathan Diggs wasn’t in. Jackson had several strong runs, finishing with 49 yards on 11 carries. Andrews added 25 yards on five attempts.

New A.L. Brown coach Ron Massey has to be wondering what the heck he did to offend Mother Nature.

The Wonders’ scheduled scrimmage with Crest last Friday was victimized by rough weather and had to be pushed back a night.

Then came Friday’s lightning bolts prior to the Wonders’ 20-6 win at Statesville.

Maybe fans who travel to Kannapolis to watch the Wonders battle South Rowan on Friday should bring their umbrellas.

n

SIDESHOWS:The overflowing Statesville press box was filled with colorful characters on Friday night.

Statesville’s public address announcer took advantage of the lengthy delay and poor weather to cheerfully push the sale of Greyhound Boosters Club ponchos, parkas and umbrellas to a throng of unsmiling Wonder fans who had showed up in shorts and T-shirts expecting a routine, hot August night at the stadium.

Also making an impression was the Wonder radio team of Frank Santore and Dave Fagg.

That duo opened its season by talking high school football throughout the entire 90-minute delay. They rounded up last season, this season and next season without a pause. Thanks to Arnold Solomon’s N.C. Prep Football News and several papers they never ran out of names, numbers and matchups.

“Don’t those two have some music they can play back at the station?” the Hounds P.A. man wondered aloud.

n

SURPRISESTAT:While Kannapolis’ offense didn’t have a good night in Statesville, it did score 20 points, something no one had done against the Hounds’ defense in Statesville’s past 14 games. That streak of stingy defense was one of the best in the state.

n

LEE’SLICKS: Some eyebrows went up when Massey told reporters in the preseason that Wonder tackle Lee Basinger was as good as any high school defensive lineman he’s seen.

But Basinger (listed at 232 pounds and growing) showed on Friday that he’s as good as advertised. He dominated the line of scrimmage and had at least three big hits for losses.

Basinger had a momentum-turning sack late in the first half, then produced another huge tackle in the fourth quarter. Down 20-6, Statesville drove from its own 24 to the Wonder 13. Then on fourth and 2, tailback Corbey Jones carried the ball in search of the fifth first down of the drive.

Instead, Jones found Basinger, who ground the Hound to the turf a good yard short of the first down. That hit came with eight minutes left and ended Statesville’s last gasp.

n

LIKELEGION: The way Statesville reps were explaining it, the Hounds’ loss to A.L. Brown was their second endowment game and won’t be counted on their record so far as seeding for the playoffs in concerned.

The game will count for the Wonders, though.

You know, sort of like some of those bizarre American Legion games this summer that counted as league games for just one team.

Next year, of course, Statesville and A.L. Brown will be conference foes under the new realignment.

n

Sportswriter Steve Hanf and assistant sports editor Mike London contributed to this notebook.