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SPENCER— North Rowan’s dangerous trio of Alfonzo Miller, Marcus Lawing and Dre Byrd overwhelmed Pittsboro Northwood in the state 2A high school football playoffs here Friday.
North’s seventh-seeded Cavaliers rolled past the Chargers 44-21 at Eagle Stadium, earning a second-round trip to play Shelby, the second seed in the West. Shelby advanced with a 17-14 win over Charles D. Owen last night.
Miller, Lawing and Byrd each accounted for over 100 yards and were responsible for all six touchdowns as the Central Carolina Conference champions won their sixth straight game and improved to 8-4 for the season.
Miller, a junior who was starring at wide receiver before taking over at quarterback for the injured Graham Hosch, ran for three touchdowns, passed for another and had 204 yards total offense. He had 123 yards rushing and TD runs of 17, 52 and 1 yards plus a 3-yard scoring pass to Chris Phillips.
Lawing, a senior who switched from defensive end to running back at midseason, led the Cavaliers’ rushing with 130 yards in 17 carries and scored a 33-yard touchdown after bouncing off two Northwood defenders at the line of scrimmage.
Byrd, a senior wide receiver-kick returner, had 124 all-purpose yards, including the Cavaliers’ longest touchdown play of the season, an 85-yard kickoff return, that came when the game was still close in the first half.
Northwood (8-4), the No. 2 seed from the Central Tar Heel Conference, came into the game as the ninth seed in the West, and the Chargers had impressive offensive statistics. Secreast, however, knew his team was more talented.
“Alfonzo Miller made some big plays for us tonight. We thought his speed and the rest of our team speed would just be too great for them, and it was,” said Secreast.
Miller showed his speed often, but was most impressive on his 52-yard TD run that came on the third play of the second half. North, ahead 20-7 at halftime, served notice it wasn’t going to let up.
Miller rolled to his left on a designed running play, cut back across the field at the Northwood 40, picked up some key blocks and easily scored.
“Coach just told me to keep the ball. I knew I was going to make it, because I had big (Jarrett) Wishon in front of me and Lawing running out there with me,” said Miller. “When I saw 16 (quarterback-linebacker Justin Phillips), I knew he wasn’t going to catch me, so I just bounced to the outside and laid the ball on down right there.”
Secreast, even though he knew his team was stronger, was concerned about complacency on the part of his Cavaliers.
“I didn’t think this team matched up very well on film against us, and the conference they’re in, in comparison to ours, is just not as strong. I was afraid our kids weren’t going to come in and play with intensity,” he said.
“They’ve been talking about Shelby. Complacency was my biggest concern. It wasn’t that they were better than us physically, because I didn’t think they were. I didn’t know how we would be mentally, because we’ve talked and even I’ve talked about the next level, which is Shelby,” said Secreast.
It didn’t take long for the Cavaliers to show their coach that they were ready to play.
“When the lights came on, the intensity came on, and I didn’t worry about it after we held them the first series and our offensive line just started moving those big kids down the field.It was going to be a pretty easy night,” he said.
The final score and the overall statistics are misleading, because the Cavaliers dominated (42-7 lead) until Secreast went to his bench at the start of the fourth quarter. The Chargers scored twice in the final 4:12 to lose by only 23.
North had 412 yards total offense to 287 for the losers.
The Chargers were very much in the contest late in the first half when one of several trick plays used by coachMike Ribet got the visitors on the scoreboard.
Quarterback Phillips passed to wide receiver Avon Seymore for a gain of 7 yards, then Seymore pitched the ball back to running back Sheldon Brown on the “hook-and-ladder play). Brown went the final 18 yards on a touchdown play that covered 25 yards. North’s lead was cut to 14-7 after Aaron Horton’s conversion.
Then Byrd took the ensuing kickoff, headed down the left sideline and went 85 yards for a TD that broke the back of the Chargers with 1:22 to go in the half.
“When they kicked the ball, I got behind the wedge,” said the fleet Byrd. “They didn’t run through the wedge, so I just broke it off to the seam and got on some one-on-ones. I knew I wasn’t going to get tackled one-on-one, so I just outran the man all the way to the end zone.”
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