LANDIS — Give A.L. Brown’s football team the Alex Trebek Award. It keeps you guessing.
The Wonders, a team decimated by injuries throughout this non-league season, hit for the daily double Friday night, when they bumped off host South Rowan and gave the rest of the North Piedmont Conference a glimpse of what’s to come.
“We are definitely coming on,” junior Maurice Edwards said after Kannapolis (2-3) earned a 27-14 victory. “We won’t be the real Kannapolis team until we get all of our injured people back next week. But when we do, we’ll be ready to roll.”
On the other hand, South (3-3) appears to be rolling over. The Raiders lost the ball four times on fumbles, yielded 219 yards rushing and suffered their third consecutive loss.
“It’s just mistakes,” South coach Rick Vanhoy said after the Raiders lost to Kannapolis for the seventh straight year. “We’re turning the ball over. That’s the biggest thing. We’re not getting turnovers and we’re giving turnovers. That’s killed us the last three ballgames.”
It contributed to this one, but not until South had taken a 6-0 on its first possession. A 30-yard completion from quarterback Andrew Morgan to Brandan Yow on the first play from scrimmage gave South a first down in Kannapolis territory. Five snaps later Henry Norman powered up the middle on an 8-yard touchdown run.
“We went down but we did not bend,” said Wonders coach Ron Massey. “We’re really beat up right now — I counted 10 of them on the sideline tonight. But I thought the people that did play did a good job of leading us when we needed them to.”
Kannapolis needed it and got it in the second quarter, when it scored three touchdowns and took command. The first came on a momentum-turning 11-play, 93-yard drive that consumed more than five minutes. Senior tailback Chris Carter, who ran like he’d been dipped in grease, sliced into the end zone on a sideways 1-yard run early the period.
“That’s not even his game,” said Edwards. “I told him to wake up. I told him to do what he normally does — run it hard, not cutting back and forth. Running hard, that’s his specialty.”
Vanhoy felt the prolonged drive was pivotal. “You drive the ball 90-something yards on somebody, that’s gonna give you a lot of confidence,” he said. “It took some of our steam out.”
Less than a minute later, Edwards helped the Wonders pad their lead to 14-6. He lined up as a running back, took a pitchout from QB Drew Maher and lofted a 46-yard TD pass to unguarded receiver Joe Bickerstaff.
“We caught them on that one,” Edwards said. “We did that North Carolina switchup thing. When it’s time for us to run, I play quarterback. When it’s time to pass, Drew’s in there. I don’t think they knew what to expect.”
Kannapolis built a 21-6 halftime lead following a huge fumble by South punt returner Brad Lanning with 4:29 remaining in the second quarter. Josh Reeves recovered for the Wonders on the South 19 and moments later Edwards crossed on a 1-yard rollout.
“Our defense played very aggressively,” said Massey. “They helped us out a lot. There made some outstanding hits out there and were able to strip the ball.”
Reeves said he was glad to be of help. “We knew the offense hasn’t really been clicking lately,” he said. “And we knew it would be important for us to come up with some turnovers. It was a key to the game.”
South took the second-half kickoff and drove from its own 30-yard line to the Kannapolis 24, then lost the ball on another giveaway. This time Morgan was pressured out of his comfort zone and coughed the ball up while being sacked. Chad Keller recovered for the visitors on his own 32. “We’ve been trying to play like that all year,” said Massey.
Carter, who rushed for a game-high 101 yards, picked up 40 of them on game-clinching touchdown run down the right sideline late in the third quarter.
“Carter is going to make a lot of runs like that on people,” said Vanhoy. “He’s a great athlete. Last week he had a 95-yard run against Concord. It got called back because of a penalty, but he’s gonna do that to a lot of folks.”
South’s defense battened down the hatches the rest of the way, allowing only one first down in the final 18 minutes. And offensively, the Morgan stitched together an impressive 70-yard scoring drive — culminating with Ted Thomas’ last-minute touchdown run.
And perhaps the Raiders have caught a break from the schedule-maker. They’re idle next week and will open their CPC season Oct. 12 against visiting West Forsyth.
“Now we go for the big goals,” Vanhoy said. “A winning season, conference championship and playoffs. All those goals are still available to us.”
Kannapolis has the same aspirations, but it felt a need to smooth some edges.
“We’ve had injuries but we don’t like to use that as an excuse,” said left tackle Dustin Abercrombie. “We wanted to prove that we can still play. This was a turning point.”
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NOTES: The Wonders open their conference season at home against West Rowan (4-2, 1-0 NPC) on Friday. ... Morgan passed for 119 yards, including 72 to Yow (4 receptions). ... Clifford White and Kendall Turner also recovered fumbles for Kannapolis. Oddly, the team has yet to intercept a pass this season.
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