North Rowan’s Alfonzo Miller and Marcus Lawing were all-county football players last season. They’re having all-star type seasons again, but their roles are much different.

Miller made all-Rowan as a sophomore wide receiver in 1999 and started this season as a pass-catcher. However, an injury to starter Graham Hosch resulted in Miller’s moving to quarterback. The talented junior has been the Cavaliers’ starter during North’s current six-game winning streak that has put the team in the second round of the state 2A playoffs at Shelby on Friday.

He scored three touchdowns — one on a 52-yard run — and passed for another as the Cavaliers rolled past Pittsboro Northwood 44-21 at North’s Eagle Stadium in the first round of the playoffs last Friday.

Lawing, in his first year of high school football, earned all-county honors as a defensive lineman in 1999. Now the powerful, hard-running senior is his team’s No. 1 running back and a big reason the Cavaliers are 8-4 after a 2-4 start. He had his second-best rushing game with 130 yards in 17 carries against Northwood.

The 6-foot, 170-pound Miller was a dynamic receiver in 1999, catching 40 passes for 794 yards and 10 touchdowns.He led the county in all three categories and ranked eighth all-time in pass-receiving yardage.

Through the first six games of 2000, Miller was on pace to become the county’s all-time receiver in both receptions and yardage. He had 34 catches for 547 yards, a pass that would have given him 62 receptions and 1,003 yards.

The county records of 53 receptions and 987 yards were set by West Rowan’s Chavis Cowan in 1994.

Miller knew, after six games, he could be a county record-breaker as a wide receiver. But his team needed him at quarterback.

“Graham was out (with a knee injury). We weren’t sure what we were going to do at first. I told Coach (Roger Secreast) I’d go ahead and play quarterback,” said Miller. “Coach gave me the opportunity, and I came out here and just did my thing, what I had to do.”

Miller, in his first game at quarterback, had 158 total yards — 106 rushing and 52 passing — as the Cavaliers surprised Ledford 26-22 and showed they were a team to watch in the race for the Central Carolina Conference title.

Miller’s regular-season totals added up to an unusual 1,375 yards — 547 on receptions, 493 passing and 335 rushing.

“My goal is to win. As long as we win, I don’t worry about stats too much. As long as we get the ‘W,’ that’s all I’m worried about,” said Miller.

Teammate Hosch had 1,722 yards total offense, including 1,483 through the air, before he hurt his knee in Game No. 6 against South Rowan.

Miller thinks back to those first six games, when Hosch was throwing passes to him and admits, “I miss it and all, but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to win football games. I miss it a little bit, but I’m not going to say a lot. We’re starting to win games now, so I can’t complain.”

When Secreast moved Miller to quarterback, it gave North’s offense a different look from the pass-oriented attack the Cavaliers have had with quarterbacks like Mitch Ellis, Mario Sturdivant and Hosch.

“On all of our rollout passes, he has the option of running if the receivers are covered. That’s our version of the option,” said Secreast.

Miller has improved his passing statistics, starting with 7-for-20 for 86 yards in the first two games, then going 34-for-62 for 498 yards the next four outings.

Hosch is also getting back into shape after arthroscopic knee surgery, starting at tight end the last two weeks. He was back at quarterback in the fourth quarter against Northwood, completed three of four passes.

“I played Graham at quarterback, because he needs to take some snaps — if Miller were to get hurt or if we needed to put Miller at receiver and have somebody to throw the deep football some and not have to scramble around as much,” said Secreast. “I thought Graham played well, too. Dr. (Robert) Steele did a great job for him, because it’s only been a couple of weeks since he had that knee repaired.”

The 6-3, 205-pound Lawing started at linebacker or defensive line in North’s first four games then took over the running back job and saw less action on defense. Miller likes having the power runner in the backfield with him.

“Whoever gets the ball’s going to score with it, that’s how I feel. We can pass; we can run,” said Miller. “I feel comfortable with Lawing back there. We got two good running backs, one of them a sprinter (Aundray Russell) and one of them powerful.”

Lawing had a 33-yard touchdown against Northwood during which he bounced off two defenders at the line of scrimmage before charging into the end zone.

“I‘ve never seen anything like that. That was the play of the night,” said Miller.

Lawing is enjoying his new position.

“I get to score points now. I have fun playing offense. Either way as long as I’m helping the team out, I just want to play,” he said.

“I always wanted to play running back. I’m glad I got the opportunity to do it the first time against Salisbury,” he added.

Secreast said of Lawing’s running against Northwood, “I thought it was more than pretty solid tonight. He’s getting a little better each week. He’s a big load to bring down. He’s got more speed than people think.”

Secreast compared Lawing’s running style to that of a former East Rowan and University of North Carolina player, now the head coach at South Rowan.

“When Rick Vanhoy was in high school, the thing that we had with Rick is to stop him before he gets started, because once he gets started, he’s trouble. It’s the same thing with Marcus. When Marcus gets started, he’s a lot of trouble,” said Secreast.

Secreast was an assistant coach at East when Vanhoy was a sophomore, then coached against him the next two years when Secreast was an assistant at North.

Lawing, who now has run for 565 yards in seven contests, is excited about taking on Shelby (9-2) in the second round.

“We got knocked out in the first round last year. I’m glad that we’re going to the second round. We’ve just got to take one game at a time,” said Lawing.