East Rowan built a 7-6 halftime lead over Concord on Friday, then saw its hopes of an upset wither with a pair of costly third-quarter miscues.

The first of those mistakes resulted in a 54-yard interception return for a Spider touchdown.

The second slip-up turned into a 78-yard fumble return for another Concord score.

Before the third period was over, the Spider offense added a touchdown of its own, all of which translated into a 27-7 Concord win.

“There’s not but so much you can say to the kids,” said East coach Tom Eanes. “We showed a lot of character out there tonight. I thought we outplayed them, Concord just did what they needed to do to win.”

East (2-8 overall, 1-6 in the South Piedmont 3A Conference) showed early on it wasn’t going to roll over to the heavily favored Spiders (8-2, 6-1).

On their first possession, facing a fourth-and-1 from their own 35, the Mustangs ran Jordan Shinn up the middle for five yards and a first down. Though that drive eventually stalled at the Spider 37-yard line, it was a sign of the gutty Mustang effort that was to follow.

East’s defense also had several shining moments.

Mark Meisenheimer stopped Concord’s Josh Lott on a fourth-down draw in the early going and East’s Matt Butler had several stops for losses.

After a scoreless first quarter, East got on the scoreboard with a 20-yard touchdown pass from Cal Hayes Jr. to Matt Baker. The touchdown came on fourth-and-15, with quarterback Drew Davis handing off to Hayes who tossed a perfect pass to Baker in the back of the end zone. Brent Jones’ extra point staked the Mustangs to a 7-0 lead.

The touchdown was set up by an interception by East’s Adam Trexler, who nabbed an errant Concord throw at the Spiders’ 27-yard line.

“We wanted to set the momentum and I thought we did a good job of doing that until the third quarter,” said Trexler, who also made a number of key stops for the Mustangs.

“But the turnovers kind of killed us,” he continued.

After the Mustang score, the Spider offense sprang briefly to life, driving 62 yards in just five plays. Concord’s first score came just before halftime on a five-yard carry by Lott. The try for extra point was blocked, leaving the Mustangs on top.

East took the second-half kickoff and appeared to be driving for another score when the wheels rolled off the Mustang Express.

After East drove to Concord’s 47, Davis tossed a swing pass in the direction of Hayes. But at the last instant, Concord’s Nate Hurlocker stepped in front of the ball, grabbing it and racing 54 yards for a score.

Hurlocker said the Spiders’ game plan had been to always keep a defender in the vicinity of Hayes.

“We knew he was a threat,” Hurlocker said. “I was lucky on that play. If he’d have beaten me to the ball, we’d have been in trouble.”

Concord coach E.Z. Smith III agreed.

“It might have been a score for them if Nathan hadn’t gotten to the ball,” he said. “The field would have been wide open.”

From there, it was a case of misery loving company as far as the Mustangs were concerned.

Trailing 14-7, East, behind some heady running by Hayes, drove to a first-and-10 at Concord’s 13.

But Davis fumbled as he started to his right on an option play. The ball bounced freely until Concord’s Jeremy Norman picked it up and set sail on a 78-yard touchdown sprint.

Drew Walters’ extra point gave the Spiders a two-touchdown advantage, despite the fact that their offense had yet to set foot on the field in the second half.

“I thought we came out a little flat,” Smith said of his charges who were idle last week. “I don’t know, maybe the layoff hurt us.”

Still, Smith noted that East may have had something to do with his team’s lackluster performance.

“They ran the ball on us,” he said. “People don’t do that to us, but they did.”

East finished with 226 yards on 49 rushing attempts. Shinn paced the Mustangs with 87 yards on 22 carries.