Kannapolis outlasted hated rival Concord 10-7 without its starting quarterback and without its starting fullback. With its star running back fighting illness and its punter a couple of days removed from a neck brace. And with a cornerback playing linebacker and a linebacker playing quarterback.

Making matters more amazing, the Wonders (11-0, 8-0 SPC), the state’s top-ranked 3A team, won a game that head coach Bruce Hardin called the “finest he’s been associated with” thanks to a soccer player and a boxer.

The soccer player was Rush Rollins, the Wonders’ kicker.

Rollins missed two field goal tries in the first half, but refused to bury his head in the Bailey Stadium turf.

When Hardin sent him out once more with the score tied at 7 and the clock down to 4.8 seconds, Rollins calmly kicked through a field goal that nudged a friendly post before taking a Wonder bounce. The boot gave Hardin his second straight perfect regular season and fourth straight win over the Spiders (7-4, 6-2) .

“I had confidence in Rush,” said Hardin. “As much as in any play we called all season.”

“I credit my teammates,” said Rollins, who kicked his first career field goal. “Every one of them told me not to worry after I missed those first two. They’ve been telling me all year that I’d win a game for us.”

And he did.

Rollins was too nervous to watch his decisive kick, but the crowd told him all he needed to know.

“My head was down,” he said, “But I heard the roar and just said to myself, ‘Oh, wow, oh wow.’”

The boxer that Hardin credited was Muhammad Ali.

“He was my hero,” said Hardin. “The best athlete I ever saw.”

Hardin talked about Ali before the game, and not because he wanted the Wonders to throw some punches.

“The thing about Ali is that, as much as he danced, there was always a point in the match where he came out and stood toe-to-toe with his opponent,” Hardin explained. “I knew that’s what we’d have to do against Concord. You can’t run from Concord. You can’t get away. You can’t go outside and you can’t hide. They’re too aggressive, fly to the football too hard.”

So the game plan was to play grind-it-out in a contest that bore little resemblance to the Wonders’ standard finesse game.

With starting quarterback Justin Hardin out with a dislocated shoulder and Josh Lee under center, the Wonders played a game as close to the vest on offense as any in recorded history.

They would run the ball on third-and-8 and on fourth-and-4 they would turn to punter Ron Anthony and play field position. Mostly they looked to their defense, where they also followed the lead of Lee, who played ferociously at middle linebacker.

The first half was the U.S. Marines against Grenada. The Wonders smashmouthed 188 yards, while holding Concord to 32. Concord had four first-half possessions — all punts — and picked up one first down.

Kannapolis got a crunching TD from Lee early in the second quarter to finish off a 65-yard drive. Lee also got that drive energized with a startling 29-yard burst up the middle on which the flying 200-pounder looked like a young Roman Gabriel.

But coach E.Z. Smith’s Spiders were inspired after intermission and drove the ball nearly 10 minutes (with the help of a pass interference penalty) for a tying TD.

Concord could have gone up by a touchdown in the fourth quarter but Jamel Jackson’s perfect aerial was dropped in the end zone.

With the game clock winding down, Blair Hardin (the cornerback turned blitzing linebacker) and Lee Basinger came up with huge plays to pin the Spiders deep and force a punt. The Wonders took the ball at their own 48 and mounted a desperate drive.

The key play came on fourth-and-3 at the Concord 28 with 2:10 remaining. Lee pitched to Marcello Stanback, who ran over three Spider defenders for a critical first down .

“I’d been fighting a bad head cold all week,” said Stanback. “I’ve been drained of energy. But on that play I took it full speed. Took it for all the seniors.”

And three plays later, Rollins took it through the uprights.

“If Rush missed it, I was gonna kill him,” said Blair Hardin.