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KANNAPOLIS—South Rowan running back Keith Garrett was greeted by deafening silence as he trudged into the locker room at halftime.
“You could feel the letdown all over,” said Garrett. “The steam had gone out of everyone. No one was talking. We were down and we just neverdid get it rolling again.”
One key play made it all quiet on the Raider front and made all the difference in the world in South’s 28-7 loss to arch-foe A.L. Brown at Memorial Stadium on Friday night.
South (2-1) trailed 21-7, but had the ball at the Wonder 3 with 43 seconds left in the half. It was fourth down. Raider coach Rick Vanhoy turned down three sure points from Robby Basinger’s leg and courageously went for the touchdown.
Moments later, Garrett, an amazing player at 5-feet-7 and 155 pounds, fought his way clear of several Wonders in the end zone and Ricky Childers dropped a pass in his waiting arms. And across the field, a sea of fans attired in red and black started going crazy.
But then they saw the flag.
The call was offensive pass interference. Loss of 15 yards and loss of down. A.L. Brown ball.
“That call was tough — it was big-time,” anguished Vanhoy. “We score and we’re right in it. Instead, we go into the half with our momentum gone. Instead of a big boost, we’re down — deflated.”
“That touchdown South lost was just huge,” agreed A.L. Brown coach Ron Massey. “Obviously, 21-14 is a whole different ballgame than 21-7.”
The finishing touches for South came on the second-half kickoff. Wonder speedster Chris Carter blew by the still-stunned Raiders all the way to the South 19.
Minutes later, Josh Lee hit Carter for a 7-yard scoring play. That made it 28-7 and even though there were still more than 21 minutes to play, the outcome was no longer in doubt.
Substitutions and penalties flowed freely in the second half, as both teams pounded out the minutes in a game that began as an emotion-packed barnburner, but ended with a whimper.
The Wonders scored in electrifying fashion the first time they touched the ball.
Lee, bouncing back from a 2-for-10 outing in the Wonders’ opening win at Statesville, smoked a pass over the middle to a curling Aundrae Allison. Allison, a first-year player, did the rest, scooting for a 48-yard touchdown.
“Last week, we just had first-game jitters,” said Lee. “Tonight, we were a whole lot better. Our execution on offense picked up and Allison was really big.”
Some past South teams have rolled over after being hit with that sort of sudden Wonder brilliance.
But this one didn’t. It responded with a touchdown of its own late in the first quarter when Garrett squirmed right up the middle and then outran the Wonder secondary.
At that point, the stadium was up for grabs. Both teams were hitting fiercely and the contest seemed certain to live up to its high-profile billing.
When Raiders Anthony Rhyne and Joel Reyes pounded Eric Caldwell to the turf on a fourth-and-1 to stop the Wonders on downs at the South 27 late in the quarter, Raider fans sensed that this might be one of those special nights on which they beat the always mighty Wonders.
Instead, A.L. Brown prevailed for the 16th time in 17 years.
A key moment came with the score still 7-7 and South driving in the second quarter.
Chad Keller burst through the Raider line, putting pressure on South quarterback Tim Cook. Cook threw in desperation downfield and the Wonders’ DeAngelo Collins picked it off. The Wonders then punched in for a go-ahead score with 6:59 left in the half.
Then, barely three minutes later, after a three-and-out followed by a short punt, Carter sped past the Raiders for a score that it made it 21-7.
That led to the drive on which the Raiders were denied at the Wonder 3 by the pass interference call.
“We still haven’t seen the penalty,” said Vanhoy.
“That’s not to say that one play makes this ballgame. Kannapolis made the big plays and forced the turnovers (two fumbles and two interceptions). They really laid their ears back and came after us on defense.
“Bottom line: we made big mistakes and they didn’t. But that’s why they’re a great football team. People say they’re great and tonight they sure lived up to it.”
Defensively, the Wonders looked super no matter which combination was on the field.
Collins had two picks, while Gerrell McCrae and Lee Basinger recovered fumbles. Jason Brown forced a fumble with a bruising hit on Cook.
“Collins gives you everything he’s got,” said Massey of the 5-8, 154-pound fireball. “One of these days, he’ll pick up a fumble or interception and score for us.”
Offensively, it was a mixed bag, but Carter was incredibly explosive, the offensive line was sharper than last week and Lee was much better than his first start.
“We were definitely improved over our first game,” said Massey. “And that’s what we were looking for.”
Massey also praised the Raiders’ effort.
“I thought we beat an excellent football team,” he said. “South has real good backs and they’re very physical on both lines. They’re just not quite as quick as we are. That was the difference.”
South got 95 yards from Garrett, a boyhood baseball buddy of Lee’s, and stellar defensive efforts from linemen Randy Rigsby and Jimmy Propst and linebacker Joel Reyes, but it wasn’t enough.
“Our kids gave us the effort,” said Vanhoy. “That’s why they hurt right now, why the coaches hurt right now and why our community hurts right now. We really thought we had a chance coming here, but we just didn’t play as well as we did the first two weeks.
“I’ll say this, though. A lot of South teams have lost to Kannapolis and still gone on to have great seasons. This one can, too.”
Garrett agreed with his coach.
“We played good for awhile, but then our confidence just had a letdown ” he said. “But we’ll find out at practice Monday who wants to keep playing hard and who wants to win some ballgames.”
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NOTES:Garrett said he didn’t think the Wonders were as good as some of their past teams, but they were close enough. “They were good enough to beat us,” he said. “And that’s all that matters.” ... South’s Joel Patterson hurt his back on a Wonder extra-point attempt and was taken from the field in an ambulance. His condition was not known immediately after the game. ... Former coach Bob Boswell, now a Raider assistant, was greeted warmly by many former friends on his first visit to Memorial Stadium in a dozen years. ... The Wonders incurred a frightening number of holding penalties. ... The Wonders open conference play at Sun Valley next week, while South plays Salisbury ... South outrushed the Wonders, moving the ball well for long stretches before falling victim to big plays.
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