Cal Hayes Jr. won’t finish off his football career as Rowan County’s all-time leading rusher.
But he won’t miss by much, either.
Hayes enters his final game this week against West Rowan as the career rushing leader at East. After a 201-yard performance Friday night against A.L. Brown, Hayes stands at 2,525 yards for his career. (He was incorrectly credited with 2,686 career rushing yards in Saturday’s paper.)
His total is good enough for seventh place in county history, although a pair of athletes remain in reach with a great effort against the Falcons: North Rowan’s Nathaniel Hyde is sixth all-time (155 yards away) and South’s Michael Ramseur (195) is fifth.
Perhaps the most amazing thing about Hayes’ march through the record book is the fact that, as a freshman, he ran one time for minus-4 yards. Former head coach Jeff Safrit used Hayes solely as a receiver during that ninth-grade year, which he finished with 21 catches, 361 yards and four TDs.
With any kind of positive yardage that first season, plus a full slate of games this year —Hayes was suspended for the North Iredell contest thanks to a disputed ejection against Robinson — first place could be his.
Instead, North’s Mark Sturgis and his 3,259 career yards (734 more than Hayes)remain safe.
n
waiting game: Hayes gained most of his yards Friday night at A.L. Brown from the quarterback slot.
East Rowan’s triple-option Hambone attack became a “shotgun snap to Hayes, let him do something” offense.
“I didn’t know how it would work because I know they have a lot of good athletes,”East head coach Tom Eanes said. “It presented them some problems, I guess.”
You could say that —like on Hayes’ runs of 71, 43 and 13 yards for touchdowns.
“I was just sitting there watching the blocks, figuring out a hole to pick. It’s great,”Hayes said. “I give all the credit to the linemen. If it wasn’t for them, I couldn’t be where I am now.”
n
play on: Eanes finally managed to get Hayes out of the game on East’s last series, with the score 69-28. He had tried to remove Hayes earlier, but with little success.
“Cal didn’t want to come out and I was so scared he might get hurt,”Eanes said. “His dad (an assistant coach) and everybody kept saying, ‘Let him play, he’s having fun,’ so we let him.”
Every snap Hayes took in the second half made life hard on the Wonders, who were forced to keep some of their top players in just in case a Hayes-led comeback put the victory in doubt.
“He’s a good athlete, man,”remarked A.L. Brown senior Dale King. “We knew he’d make some big plays tonight, so we were respecting that.
“But he’s fast.”
n
MUSTANG MASH: Eanes has a special roster printed on pink paper — but the injury report could be red-cross red.
More than a dozen Mustangs entered Friday’s game hobbling or out. Making matters worse, tough-as-nails linebacker Julian Scott had to leave the game with a concussion.
Whenever possible, though, the Mustangs play on to the best of their abilities.
“They refuse to come out,” a frustrated, albeit proud, Eanes said. “They’re out there on one leg … these kids, whatever it takes, playing with injuries …”
n
POINT OF NO RETURN: The 69 points the Wonders scored against East Friday were the most ever allowed in a game by the Mustangs.
The previous high surrendered by the Mustangs came in 1986 in a 60-19 thumping at the hands of Forest Hills.
Fans of Wonder football howled this season when their beloved team opened with a 1-3 record.
With one game remaining in the regular season, though, A.L. Brown finds itself 7-3 overall and 5-0 in the North Piedmont Conference.
That’s good enough for the league championship, the NPC’s top postseason berth and a whole lot of momentum —and tradition —heading into the state playoffs.
“If we can keep doing this every week, we can take it all the way,”senior running back Dale King said. “It feels good. Everybody thought we were done and we’ve kept fighting. It’s going to take us a long way.”
The Falcons (5-5, 2-3) have suffered two heartbreaking defeats in the last two weeks and are left with a game against East Rowan that has no playoff implications.
“It’s been terrible because it’s been a long, long time since we’ve played a game with no conference playoff berth or conference title on the line,”West coach Scott Young said. “It just seems like it’s been forever.”
That doesn’t mean Young doesn’t think the game is important.
Young is motivated by the fact that a West win would give the Falcon program three winning seasons in a row for the first time in school history.
“It’s about pride, it’s a county rival,”Young said.
Four teams, including East, are tied for third in the NPC with 2-3 conference records, but there’s a good chance a West win would give the Falcons third all to themselves.
North Iredell faces A.L. Brown, and Statesville travels to Mooresville.
n
THEY’RE MONEY:Last Friday night was a productive one of the Hampton family. Ben rushed for 210 yards against Mooresville, and his dad won the 50-50 drawing at halftime.
n
MOVING ON UP: In the Mooresville game, Hampton, who leads the county with 1,369 rushing yards, broke Lamont Smith’s 1994 school record (1,342) for rushing yardage in a regular season.
Hampton needs a career-best 245 yards Friday to eclipse the Rowan County mark for rushing yardage in a regular season. That mark’s held by North Rowan’s Mark Sturgis, father of Hampton’s teammate of the same name. The original Sturgis rushed for 1,613 yards in 1975.
The county single-season rushing record when playoff games are included belongs to the late Ramseur of South Rowan, who piled up 1,773 yards in 1981, before heading to Wake Forest.
North quarterback Alfonzo Miller has already put together the third best total offense season in Rowan County history with the Cavs’ regular-season finale and playoff games still ahead.
Miller’s 2,720 combined passing and rushing yards place him behind only fellow Cavalier QBs Mitch Ellis (3,138 yards in 1994) and Mario Sturdivant (2,779 in 1999).
Miller’s 414 yards of total offense last Friday in the Cavs’ romp over Central Davidson was a career high and the fourth best T.O. night in county history.
n
NUMBERS GAME:The Cavaliers are going to finish second in the CCC to Ledford, but they’ve certainly run up some stats.
North’s scored 40-plus points five times this season, something the Cavs haven’t done since 1994 when they posted a 12-2 record and reached the third round of the state playoffs.
How low can you go?
As reported Saturday, South’s dramatic 6-3 win over North Davidson marked the fewest points the Raiders had scored and still won a ballgame since a 6-0 victory over Forest Hills in the middle of the 1979 season.
Friday’s game also featured the fewest points scored by both teams combined in a South game since the Raiders topped West Rowan 7-0 in a 1989 headknocker.
The game marked the fourth time in Rick Vanhoy’s six years as head coach that the Raiders had limited an opponent to as few as three points. South beat East Rowan 18-3 in 1996; stopped West Rowan 21-0 in 1998; and routed Salisbury 31-0 in 1999.
Friday also marked the fewest points South’s allowed against a conference opponent (or a 4A team) since a 20-0 shutout of South Stokes to end the 1993 season.
n
DRAWING CARD: If Friday’s CPC games result in a three-way tie for first place, South’s got a secret weapon in reserve — just to make sure a drawing doesn’t leave them out in the playoff cold the way it did last season.
Word is that assistant coach Jason Rollins, considered one of the luckiest men on the face of the earth, will accompany Vanhoy if a drawing becomes necessary.
“Rollins has been at five wrestling drawings and won them all,” said a fellow Raider assistant. “He ain’t lost yet.”
n
ZACH ATTACK:The Raiders lead the county in interceptions by a wide margin.
Part of that is positioning. Part of it’s luck.
Consider the Raiders’ most unexpected interception of the year — one turned in by center Zach Overcash, who was helping out on the defensive line against R.J. Reynolds.
“Zach fought free from his block and as it usually happens, the ball just fell right in his hands,” chuckling South coaches explained. “The big thing is Zach caught it. Not everyone does.”
n
HAMMERING HENRY: South’s leading rusher Henry Norman hurt a knee in the North Davidson game. Coaches indicated Norman’s definitely out for tomorrow’s home game with South Iredell.
“We hate it for Henry, but fortunately we’re pretty deep in backs,” said Vanhoy. “We’ll use Brent (Dendy) and Ted (Thomas) more. It’s not like those two guys haven’t been in there.”
n
BRUISED BRANDON:South’s leading receiver Brandon Yow was shaken up on a play against North Davidson but returned to action.
“I couldn’t leave my teammates hanging,” said Yow.
Yow has bruised ribs and missed Monday’s practice, but expects to be OK by Friday.
For Shrine Bowl linebacker Patrick Lowery, it was a case of déja vu all over again in Davie’s Friday night rout of R.J. Reynolds.
“Exactly the same as last year,” said Lowery. “Reynolds runs Wing-T with two slots and they run this play where one of the slots takes off and they try to hit him real quick.”
But Lowery read the play perfectly just as he did last season and picked the ball off just as he did last season.
Only difference was this time he toted his prize to the end zone.
“I got in there this year,” said Lowery. “There wasn’t any Derrele Mitchell (Reynolds’ all-world receiver from last season) around to run me down.”
Today's News
