The prep football notebook …
South Rowan’s winning formula to start the season turned into a recipe for disaster over the past two weeks.
When the Raiders opened with three wins against North Rowan, East Rowan and Salisbury, they committed five turnovers and forced 14. In back-to-back losses to West Rowan and Mooresville, the ratio was even: 5 to 5.
Poor special teams play hasn’t helped even out the difference in the turnover department. West’s Horatio Everhart returned the game’s opening kickoff 84 yards for a score, and Mooresville’s Chris Winford reeled off a 73-yard punt return to dramatically alter the course of a game South had led 14-0.
“The kicking game and turmovers — the kicking game is what really put us in a bind tonight,”South head coach Rick Vanhoy said of his team’s 34-14 defeat. “They return a kick for a touchdown, a kickoff to the 50-yard line. Those are things we just weren’t doing early in the year and now we are.
“That’s unfortuneate, because you expect those things early in the year, but you don’t expect those types of breakdowns now,”Vanhoy added. “I’d like to be able to say we know what the answer is, but we’re going to keep working.”
A pair of turnovers handed Mooresville the ball deep in South territory on two drives, and the Blue Devils started from near midfield or beyond thanks to returns of two additional Raider kicks.
Meanwhile, after its slow start, the Mooresville defense kicked into high gear. South crossed midfield just three times on its final 12 possessions, and the Raiders never got closer than the 38-yard line following their touchdown with 6:59 to play in the first quarter.
“I don’t remember being across the 50 much of the night, to be honest with you,”Vanhoy said. “That’s the disappointing part, the fact that they were able to run off 34 unanswered points.”
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twice as nice:The only bright spot for South’s special teams came on a pair of extra-point tries.
Senior cornerback Keith Clark, who like the rest of the South secondary had a rough night on defense, came around the left end on two attempts and blocked the conversions.
“We got out of whack on our PATs,”Mooresville head coach Mike Carter said. “The guy came from the outside, and he shouldn’t be able to get there from there. I don’t know if it was just a great effort on his part or if we tightened down (on the inside) too much.”
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GETTINGTOKNOWYOU:When South Rowan defensive coordinator Tim Corriher was doing his student teaching at Salisbury High in 1980, one of the first people to befriend him was the school’s head football coach — Mike Carter.
Obviously, that friendship didn’t extend to the field Friday night. Carter’s offensive ran up 239 yards on Corriher’s defense in the 34-14 Devil win.
Since he took the head coaching job at Mooresville, Carter has had amazing success against all but one team and one coach. Concord coach E.Z. Smith has beaten Carter’s Blue Devils six out of seven times.
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ROADTRIP: When Mooresville defensive coordinator Joe Pinyan was a student manager at Appalachian State in 1978, football coach JimBrakefield asked if he would mind keeping him company on a recruiting trip to Pinyan’s native Rowan County.
Pinyan did decide to tag along and has always been glad he did. Not only did he get to say hello to Mom and Dad, he got to witness an historic game.
Brakefield’s recruiting targets were South Rowan backfield stars Greg Poole and Lonnell Dunn. Poole and Dunn had pretty good nights — as did everyone else in red and black. The Raiders trampled Pinyan’s future school, Mooresville, 70-0.
That wipeout remains the biggest romp in South history. The game is also notable because Roger Secreast, who would later enjoy great success at North Rowan, was making his head coaching debut on the Mooresville sideline.
Falcon receiver Horatio Everhart caught three passes for 74 yards against Salisbury in the Falcons’ 39-9 win on Friday, giving him 1,001 receiving yards for his career.
Everhart is the 14th Rowan County receiver to reach the 1,000-yard milestone for his career.
The county’s career receiving yardage list has been topped for decades by East’s Johnny Yarbrough, who piled up 2,862 yards from 1968-70 before heading to the University of Tennessee.
No other Rowan receiver has reached the 2,000-yard plateau.
War Eagles kicker/punter David Wooldridge got off to a good start on Friday night and never looked back.
Wooldridge’s first punt went for 47 yards, and four of his next five were longer than 50 yards.
“The first kick, you always kind of think about it,” Wooldridge said. “But after that, it’s just work. You don’t really think about it.”
Said Davie coach Doug Illing,“That’s the best I’ve seen him kick.”
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GETTINGHEALTHY:Davie back Neil Rice, who missed most of the first two games because of injury, said he is playing at about 85 percent.
Rice and Mike Clement alternated at tailback, with Clement starting six series there and Rice four. Rice also played fullback in three series with Clement at tailback.
“He’s going to play both, he’s that type of athlete that can do both,”Illing said. “He’s going to hurt you at fullback, he’s going to hurt you at tailback. I wish we had two of him.”
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SETTLINGDOWN:Quarterback Dan Sullivan connected on four of his first five passes against Statesville, but he said he still wasn’t that comfortable throwing the ball.
That changed after his next pass, a 31-yard TD strike in the second quarter.
“I came out real nervous,”Sullivan said. “I had to calm down a little bit. I got calmed down around the touchdown pass.”
For a change, mostly good news for the Wonders on the injury front.
An MRI late last week revealed starting center Josh Barrier’s injury is not as serious as originally feared. While it was first believed that Barrier had a torn muscle behind his right shoulder and might miss up to six weeks, the latest diagnosis is that his pain was the result of a temporarily paralyzed nerve.
Barrier has been cleared by doctors and is likely to play against South Rowan tomorrow.
Wonder linebacker Andrew King, who hurt a knee in the South Point game, was able to return to action against Concord. Fullback/linebacker Rock Johnson dressed for the first time this year in the 21-0 loss to the Spiders.
Free safety Charlie Fox, who tore an ACL against Eastern Randolph, said he’s made great progress in the last week in his rehab.
He’ll still miss the South Rowan game barring a miracle, but hopes to return for West Rowan in the Wonders’ 3A North Piedmont Conference opener.
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SEARCHPARTY:At halftime of last week’s loss at Concord, Wonder coaches checked out film to determine the exact location of the hit Wonder receiver Aundrae Allison took from Concord safety Matt Cole.
The purpose: to locate teeth Allison lost in the collision. A group of managers searched diligently until the third quarter started, but without success.
Marcus Hayes, who suffered a knee injury in North Rowan’s last game, had the meniscus taken out of his knee during surgery.
But coach Roger Secreast says his star defensive lineman will miss only two weeks.
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LET’SPLAY: Secreast is glad to hit the field this week, as his Cavaliers go to Lexington for the Central Carolina Conference opener.
Last week, North was idle and open dates are one of Secreast’s pet peeves.
“I don’t like ‘em,” he said. “It gets you out of sync. It’s hard to get back on track.”
East Rowan opens NPC play tonight at Statesville and may face an uphill fight, according to Davie coach Doug Illing’s scouting report.
Illing, whose undefeated 4A team held off the Greyhounds 10-6 last week, says Statesville was by far the most impressive of the War Eagles’ first five opponents — and bear in mind that Davie has also played Mooresville and West Rowan.
“Statesville’s physical, they’re tough, they’re fast and while we think we’ve got real good size, they were even bigger than us,” said Illing.
On the plus side for East, being off last week helped the Mustangs heal up some bumps and bruises.
The Hornets haven’t been in a rush to settle on the guys who will lead their rushing attack.
No fewer than 15 Hornets have carried the mail in the team’s first four games, none with overwhelming success.
J.J. Gwyn is the latest candidate to emerge as a workhorse after a 10-carry, 29-yard night against West Rowan. Gwyn leads Hornet rushers this season with a modest 56 yards.
QB sacks have wrecked the Hornets’ team rushing totals. Three quarterbacks employed by coach Mike Peavey have a combined 50 carries for minus 66 yards.
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SECONDTIME: When Amber Wingerson kicked a field goal last week for the Hornets, it was the second of her career.
Chris Leak’s latest set of eye-popping statistics were enough to earn him Class 4A player-of-the-week honors from the N.C. High School Athletic Association.
Leak, a junior, completed 17 of 24 passes for 285 yards and six touchdowns as defending 4A champ Charlotte Independence beat Charlotte Myers Park 60-0. Leak completed four of the scoring passes to wideout Mario Raley. It was the second straight week in which Leak was named 4A player of the week.
In 2A, Newton-Conover’s Curt Dukes was named the top player after his all-around performance in a 42-28 win against Hickory. The Nebraska-bound Dukes rushed 21 times for 238 yards and had TD runs of 7, 21, 30 and 64 yards. He also completed 8 of 16 passes for 194 yards and a TD.
In 3A, Piedmont’s Calvin Baker was named the top player after accounting for five touchdowns in a 38-34 win against Monroe. The quarterback rushed for four touchdowns and had 111 yards on 17 carries. He also completed 8 of 12 passes for 129 yards and another score as Piedmont improved to 4-0.
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