NEW LONDON — Salisbury scored the most points by a Hornets team in five seasons and rolled past struggling North Stanly 62-8 in a Central Carolina Conference football game here Friday night.

The Hornets struck both offensively and defensively while dominating the first half. Salisbury scored 35 second-quarter points and led 49-0 at halftime.

Junior TommyLudwig started his first game at quarterback for Salisbury and directed the Hornets to 213 total yards in that first half. Salisbury netted 334 for the night.

Coach Raymond Daugherty’s club snapped a five-game losing streak and improved to 3-6 overall and 1-3 in the CCC. North Stanly, playing its homecoming game, dropped to 1-8 and 0-4.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve won two conference games. That’s what we’re going to try to do with East Davidson,” said Daugherty. The Hornets host East Davidson next Friday.

“We had a great football game,” said Daugherty. “All the kids played well. I feel sorry for North Stanly, but we’ve seen that other side.”

Salisbury lost to HighPoint Central 38-0 the previous Friday night and has yielded 34 or more points nine times the past two years.

“I had some kids who could have had real big football games tonight, but we weren’t going to do any more than what we did,” said Daugherty, who had an opportunity to run up the score, but played reserves most of the second half. “I’m very pleased with the win. These kids deserve it. They work awfully hard. I thought we did the best job up front we’ve done in a long time tonight.I think that helped the running backs.”

One of those offensive lineman, 316-pound senior center T.J. Johnson, not only blocked for the running backs, but scored his first career touchdown on a fumble recovery.

“I’ve been wanting to score ever since I’ve been in high school,” said Johnson. “I saw the opportunity. Coach said, ‘If you score, it’s going to be on a fumble,’ and the fumble just happened to happen.”

His TD came with 4:55 left in the first half. Johnson tried to snap the ball to Ludwig, but the ball bounced back toward the center. He picked it up and ran 5 yards into the end zone for his team’s fifth TD.

“I snapped the ball, and it was a bad snap. It was my fault. It hit his hands and hit to the ground. I picked it up, and, thank the Lord, the hole was wide open. Five yards for a touchdown: That’s an amazing thing, because I’m really, really slow, and I scored,” said the big lineman.

Johnson thought back to some games the previous two seasons, when the Hornets went a combined 1-21 and gave up a lot of points.

“My sophomore year and junior year, I played on the varsity teams, and they ran the score on us and ran the score on us. We won, whether it be big or whether it be by one touchdown.It feels good that we can produce an offense like this,” he said.

“Our homecoming was disrupted last week byHigh Point Central, and we disturbed somebody else’s.I’m just happy.”

Ken Drye and Jamel Alexander each scored two TDs for the winners, while Dewayne Coward, Ludwig, Omari Holmes and Joseph Walker scored once each.

The Hornets also had eight extra points, the first three byMichael Glasgow and the last five by Amber Wingerson, the county’s first female player. Wingerson became the first female in county history to kick a field goal early in the season at Albemarle. This time she became the first female to kick and extra point. After making an impressive five in a row, her sixth try hit the upright and missed.

The Hornets’ defense scored the first touchdown. Holmes blocked a North Stanly punt, and Coward scooped up the football and ran 3 yards into the end zone.

It was 14-0 later in the quarter after Ludwig ran 1 yard for a score.

Drye, who starred both offensively and defensively, struck quickly in the second quarter, one play after Boo Blount’s fumble recovery. Drye ran 34 yards for a TD.

Several minutes later, Drye’s 48-yard run paved the way for Alexander’s 4-yard touchdown run.

Three minutes later, Ludwig’s fumble was picked up by Johnson, who ran 5 yards for the score.

Salisbury still scored two more times in the last 2:47 of the half.

Blount’s pass interception and 35-yard return set up Alexander’s 25-yard run for a score. Alexander bounced off a would-be tackler at the line of scrimmage before breaking loose.

Drye then intercepted a pass and ran it back 70 yards for his team’s seventh TD with 1:50 to go in the half.

The Hornets’ second-half scores came on a 9-yard run by Holmes and a 57-yard run by Joseph Walker.

Coach Rick Lewis’ Comets got on the scoreboard on the final play of the game. Stocky running back Jeremy Kendall powered his way for 8 yards for the TD, then Phillip Martin ran for the 2-point conversion.

“We’re having to rebuild from ground zero,” said Lewis, in his first year at the helm of the Comets. “We thought, at the beginning of the year, we would be better. Some kids have just let us down.

“We’ve got to do a better job coaching the younger kids and get them prepared. We’re just not competitive right now. We’ve been competitive in one game (win over South Stanly) all year. It’s been disappointing; it’s tough. We’re just going to try to hang in and try to take these young kids and mold them into winners over the next few years.”

Lewis said of the Hornets, “I think they outplayed us in every facet of the game tonight. But I think we made Salisbury look a lot better than they are. They beat us on the line, special teams, you name it, they beat us. How good they are, I don’t know.”

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NOTES: Drye ran for 96 yards in five carries and Alexander for 93 yards in 12 attempts. Neither player carried the ball in the second half. ... Kendall led the Comets with 62 yards in 10 tries. ... North Stanly has an open date next week before hosting North Rowan on Oct. 27.