KANNAPOLIS — A.L. Brown coach Ron Massey is well aware that undefeated South Point, top seed in the 3A West playoffs, looms just around the corner.
But Massey could care less about South Point at this point. He’ll let Wonder fans sweat about playoff brackets and potential future foes all they want to. But he’s already learned his lesson the hard way. He won’t look past anyone.
“I fell into all that stuff when I was at Kings Mountain in 1996,” said Massey. “We were undefeated in the regular season and we were looking at brackets and who we’d play and when we’d play’em. And then we lost to Pisgah and it was over.
“Since then, I don’t waste time worrying about brackets. I look at the game at hand. If we can win Friday, then five minutes after that one’s over, I’ll start worrying about our next game.”
A next game would be with South Point (a rival from Massey’s old Southwestern Conference) or with the Wonders’ arch enemy, Concord, the No.16 seed.
But first things first. All Massey is worried about right this minute is tomorrow night’s home game that pits his eighth-seeded Wonders (10-1) against No. 9 seed Fred T. Foard (7-4).
Wonder fans will recall that Foard visited Kannapolis for a first-round game two years ago when Brown was seeded much higher (after an undefeated regular season) and the Newton school out of the Western Foothills Conference was seeded much lower. In 1998, the Wonders wrecked Foard 42-18 on the scoreboard, although it was really closer than that. It was only 21-12 at halftime and the Tigers piled up 259 rushing yards on the night.
“We played good ball last time we were down there for 212 quarters,” said Foard coach Allen Gorry. But they had that good running back, (Nick) Maddox, and they broke it open on us in the second half.”
Yeah, that Maddox guy was pretty good. He had his standard night against the Tigers — four TDs, 169 rushing yards, 44 receiving yards and a few thousand oohs and ahs. But the cruncher in that game was a fumble that Marcus Rivens scooped up on the dead run at the Wonder 28 late in the third quarter and hauled all the way to the Tiger end zone. Foard had been threatening to close the gap to 28-20. All of a sudden, Rivens’ return made it 35-12 and Foard was ancient history.
Still, Gorry’s team acquitted itself well on that visit and his Wing-T offense understandably has the Wonders concerned. The Wonders saw two Wing-Ts early this season — Statesville and Sun Valley — and limited both foes to a single touchdown. But Foard presumably has better personnel than Sun Valley’s and at least as talented as Statesville’s.
“Worried? Sure we’re worried,” said Massey. “They’re really good. They’ve got a heck of a fullback (senior Jerrel Walton, who’s older brother B.J. pounded out 159 yards against the Wonders in ‘98). And they’ve got a quick little wingback who reminds me of South Rowan’s Keith Garrett.”
That wingback is Cassidy McCorkle, who rushed for 167 yards last week in Foard’s 44-12 hit-and-run win over South Caldwell that capped a 6-1 conference season. But the Wonders’ ferocious defense, which gives up just 10.6 ppg, bears faint resemblance to 1-10 South Caldwell’s stop unit.
Foard has certainly gotten better as the year’s gone on. It didn’t fare well in early nonconference play, losing to East Burke, Maiden and Bandys. But it’s only conference loss was to champion Mooresville. It knocked off a good 9-2 East Lincoln team 21-20 in a battle for second place in the WFC.
“We weren’t expected to do much this year,” said Gorry, who returned only six starters from a 4-7 team and was pegged for fourth in the WFC in the N.C. Prep Football News’ preseason report. “But our young kids got better each week and the last two games we’ve played well enough to get some momentum going.
“We didn’t make the playoffs last season, so our kids are excited about being back in. We hadn’t really thought at all about playing Kannapolis in the first round, but then some people got beat that we didn’t expect to get beat and here we are.”
Gorry says Wonder fans who saw the Tigers get mauled by Maddox at Memorial Stadium in ‘98 are going to see a 2000 team that looks very similar. “But on film, Kannapolis looks a whole lot different,” he added.
Gorry’s right. The Wonders are different than they were two years ago. Massey’s made a lot of changes on both sides of the ball. There is no one like Maddox around, but at the same time, there is no obvious weakness. The defense, led by Shrine Bowl tackle Lee Basinger and a secondary with 20 picks, is as good as its stats indicate. The offensive line is fine and so is quarterback JoshLee. Chris Carter, Eric Caldwell, Dale King and Lee have combined for over 2,300 yards and the receiving corps is starting to pick up steam.
Massey is understandably concerned that placekicker Rush Rollins will miss the rest of the season after suffering a soccer injury. But he’s pleased that David Henry has stepped into the breach with seven straight PATs.
“Rush gave us a threat anytime we got to the 30,” said Massey. “David doesn’t have Rush’s length, but he’s doing a nice job.”
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It shouldn’t come down to a field goal this Friday. The Wonders have played great ball the past two weeks in outscoring solid Northwest Cabarrus and Concord teams by 49-7. And Massey says his players showed remarkable focus at Monday and Tuesday practices after a weekend of ringing the Victory Bell and hearing from their classmates how great they were against the Spiders.
Look at it this way. Mooresville (10-1) is the closest thing in the WFC to the Wonders and it crashed Foard by 36 points. South Rowan beat Mooresville by 7 and the Wonders beat South by 21.
So, will the Wonders cream Foard by 64 (36+7+21)?
Hardly. These are the playoffs, and as both Gorry and Massey quickly remind anyone who phones, every squad that makes the postseason is a quality team. Still, the Wonders should advance by, oh, 28-7.
And five minutes after it’s over, Massey can start worrying about South Point like everyone else is doing.
But then again, maybe he’ll get to worry about Concord.
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