KANNAPOLIS — Northwest Cabarrus coach Glen Padgett’s body language told the tale of A.L. Brown’s viciously fought 21-7 3A South Piedmont Conference win over his Trojans on Friday night.

Padgett, who coached at Salisbury two years ago, bent from the waist, placed his hands on his knees and closed his eyes as the final minute rolled inexorably off the Memorial Stadium scoreboard.

There’s a week still to play in the 2000 campaign, but Padgett’s season is done. His team’s gallant effort to stay in the playoff fight fell short against a team with equal will and intensity and superior speed.

In contrast, across the field, the Wonders season may finally have begun on this late October night in front of a packed house. For perhaps the first time all season, the Wonders played the way new coach Ron Massey envisioned they could play when practice began in August.

The Wonders threw the ball; they made big plays on defense; they stayed together through adversity.

And now the Wonders are in the playoffs. Now they can take on Concord next Friday for the victory bell and for fun and for glory, but with no pressure whatsoever.

Massey’s smile was as wide as its been all season — like a thousand-pound gorilla had suddenly been lifted from his shoulders.

“The pressure’s off a little bit now,” Massey sighed. “But, boy, it hasn’t been easy. These last few weeks, I think the coaches have won this team over a little bit. These kids are starting to believe in what we’re doing. That means a whole lot to me.

“Tonight, our kids played like champions. We beat a great team — a team that could certainly go into the playoffs and do very well if it had the opportunity.”

Northwest (6-4 overall , 4-3 SPC) won’t have that opportunity mostly because the Wonders (9-1, 6-1) have more big-play types than Padgett does.

Massey said the difference in the game was the pressure his defense — mostly in the muscular form of linebacker Duran Lipscomb — exerted on the Trojans’ star QBRyan Woodham, who was picked off twice, sacked six times and hurried into two interceptions.

Padgett said it came down to his team’s mistakes and the flying feet of Wonder junior Chris Carter, who twice broke tackles for touchdowns, leaving in his wake multiple Trojans who were in perfect position to nail him.

“It was two good teams out there,” whispered a spent Padgett. “We made a few more errors and in a game this well-played any mistakes you make are gonna be magnified.”

Northwest began the game like it would never make a mistake. The Trojans, using up every second possible on the play-clock, marched methodically as the game began.

A handful of those Trojans had been around for the 97-0 humiliation by the Wonders two years ago. Most of them had been around for last season’s heartbreaking 21-7 loss that could have gone either way.

This time, they had come to play with a purpose — their pride on the line as much as the state playoff berth. They took five minutes off the clock that first possession, but then Wonder Chris Gibson stopped them with a leaping interception.

The rest of the first half belonged to Wonder QBJoshLee and the powerful Lipscomb.

Lee, who missed the previous week’s game with a minor elbow injury, zinged passes all over and his receivers grabbed them and hung on despite wicked hits.

The Wonders’ first score came on a freak play, with Maurice Edwards hauling in a Lee pass that would have been intercepted by Brandon Smith had teammate Phillip Jackson not collided with him.

“We’ll take it,” said Massey. “I don’t remember us getting many breaks this year.”

The second TD came after an impressive 82-yard march — certainly the Wonders’ finest of the year against a strong defense. Carter finished it from the 11 with a blinding burst up the middle on the Wonders’ patented counter.

It was still 14-0 at halftime , but Padgett’s troops were far from done.They bounced back from five brutal and demoralizing first-half sacks of Woodham to take charge immediately in the second half. The first time they got the ball, they pounded the Wonders for an 86-yard drive to make it 14-7

Joe Godwin got the touchdown, using his superior height to outleap Gibson for a Wooden toss at the goal-line.

The momentum was all in Northwest’s corner after Jackson crushed Carter on a fourth-and-three sweep at the Trojan 38 to hand the ball back to Woodham as the fourth quarter began.

But then the people who have been saying that the Wonders just aren’t that good this year, that this group doesn’t have the heart or togetherness of past teams, were proven wrong. The boys in green reached down and found whatever it is that’s been missing.

And the player who stepped forward most was strong safety Jason Brown.

Northwest fullback Josh Mauney broke through the line cleanly on the same play that had bedeviled the Wonders on the previous series and raced past midfield. But as Mauney ran by Brown, the Wonder senior tore the ball from his arms. Then, as practically every person on the field went after the ball, it was Brown who somehow dived into the pile and came up with the recovery.

“I saw it and jumped on it,” said Brown. “They tried to take it away from me in the pile, but no way that was going to happen.”

The next Northwest drive was halted by the inspired Lipscomb who barreled through and smashed Woodham to the turf once more to force a punt with under six minutes left.

Brown took that punt all the way back for a touchdown, but a penalty wiped out his spectacular return.

“But the kids still responded,” said Massey. “No one got down.”

And with 3:35 in the game, Carter took a pitch, broke tackles at the line of scrimmage and skittered down the sideline for the same sort of six-point magic that Nick Maddox once performed on this field.

“If Chris gets it enough, he’ll do that,” said Massey. “We’ve just had a hard time keeping him from getting banged up this season.”

David Henry, filling in for injured Rush Rollins, then booted his third straight PAT and the Wonders were up 21-7.

Moments later, Wonder free safety Charlie Fox picked off Woodham and it was all over.

At least for Northwest. For the Wonders, this may just be the start.

“We became a team tonight,” said Shrine Bowl-bound defensive tackle Lee Basinger. “We came back as a team when they had the momentum and we won as a team. This is the game we had to win, and we pulled together and won it.”

“I’m just speechless about tonight,” added Brown. “This was the best game I’ve played in.”

And the last words belonged to a relieved Massey.

“We’re in the playoffs,” he said. “You gotta get there before anything can happen for you. Now we can go to work.”