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KANNAPOLIS — The legal quagmire that postponed the first round of the 3A West playoffs for a week wasn’t exactly greeted with open arms by football coaches.
Except those at re-instated and rightfully vindicated East Lincoln.
The unfortunate pause in the playoffs proceedings (the primary culprits were an ineligible North Gaston player and a Gaston County judge) was especially unwelcome at A.L. Brown where coach Ron Massey’s Wonders (9-2) were on a remarkable roll and didn’t need any court cases interrupting their mountains of momentum.
Since an on-field loss to Concord has been changed to a forfeit win, the Wonders are now the official victors in nine straight. And in their last 10 quarters of football prior to last week’s delays of game, the Wonders had destroyed opponents 173-39. That’s a 69 points per game pace.
That’s serious offense, which is something the fifth-seeded Wonders have delivered most of the season.
The Wonders have also produced relatively serious defense lately. They’ll need to do that again Friday when they host 12th-seeded Asheville at 7:30 p.m.
Asheville (6-4) was the Wonders’ opponent when the original 3A brackets were announced. Asheville was briefly pre-empted by South Point when legal wrangling led to bracket mangling and tangling. But now the Cougars are once again the main course on the North Piedmont Conference champion Wonders’ menu.
Massey and Wonder defensive coordinator Aubrey Hollifield compare Asheville, the second-place team in the Mountain Athletic Conference, to West Rowan, in terms of having fine athletes and in terms of what they like to do.
“Asheville’s a strong, I-formation team with a real good quarterback and a real good fullback,” said Hollifield.
Massey adds a familiar West Rowan name to the conversation, even though the memory isn’t necessarily pleasant for him.
“Asheville’s quarterback (senior Jordan Phillips) reminds me a lot of (Jared) Barnette,” said Massey. “He’s not a great runner, but he’s got an accurate arm and he’s mobile enough to escape the rush and then come up with a big play.”
Barnette, of course, made enough plays last year to hand the Wonders’ a conference loss and knock them out of the West’s top seed. That remains the only league game Massey’s dropped in his two years in K-Town.
It’s hard to find a positive in last week’s travesty, but if there is one it could be veteran Wonder defensive tackle Chad Keller, who was questionable a week ago with a leg injury. A week off had to help one of the team’s key run-stoppers.
It could also help its key runner. Chris Carter’s been banged up, but likely got re-energized by the unscheduled pit stop.
Perhaps the biggest concern for the Wonders is that they haven’t been involved in a reasonably competitive game since they played at Mooresville on Oct. 26. Prior to realignment, the Wonders always finished the regular season with Concord, an event which got everyone in a playoff frame of mind.
“You do worry about the games we finished with,” said Massey. “You worry about the focus and intensity dropping and you don’t want to let any bad habits creep in. We’ve stayed on the kids about that.”
One thing’s for sure, the Wonders pre-conference schedule should have them prepared for the playoffs. Six regular-season Wonder foes are still alive in various classifications.
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Massey isn’t taking Friday’s game for granted by any means, even though the Wonders have the higher seeding, the bigger reputation and their intimidating homefield advantage.
“I just hope our kids understand the kind of football tradition Asheville has,” he said. “You hate to play mountain teams sometimes, because kids will assume they don’t have speed. But Asheville’s not a typical mountain team. They have speed and athletes.”
Massey should know. He scrapped with Asheville several times when he was the coach at Kings Mountain, including 1998, the year Kings Mountain reached the state finals. Massey’s Mountaineers beat Asheville 21-13 in a second-rounder the week before they eliminated an undefeated A.L. Brown team, 26-21. Massey says that Asheville squad might have been even better than the Nick Maddox-led Wonders.
In 1999, Asheville was awesome. It beat Concord in the state semifinals before losing to Burlington Williams in Chapel Hill.
The last two seasons, Asheville’s been good, not great, with a 13-8 cumulative record.
Asheville also comes in off a disappointing loss to rival Asheville Erwin, a 5-5 team. The Cougars yielded better than 300 rushing yards in that downer, so look for Carter (24 TDs) to have a productive night.
One more thing to consider is that taking on Asheville could be a good omen for the boys in green. The last time the Wonders played Asheville was in a first-round playoff game in 1997. That game took place on a frigid night in the mountains and the shivering Wonders spent the first half turning the ball over. But they righted the ship at halftime and won going away.
Then they used that first-round comeback as a springboard. Four weeks later, they won a state championship.
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NOTES: Legend Lou Fogle was Asheville’s coach in that 1997 game with the Wonders and in Asheville’s battle with Massey’s Kings Mountain team in 1998. ... The Cougars’ coach the last two years has been Dan Wilkins, a former Fogle assistant. ... The winner takes on the Franklin-Eastern Randolph winner.
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Contact Mike London at 704-797-4259 or mlondon@salisburypost.com
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