BREVARD — Brevard sent Mario Sturdivant’s team home for good with a first-round, 2A playoff loss Friday night, but you can bet each and every one of the 5,000 football fans who packed the home side won’t soon forget him.

Sturdivant passed for 271 of his 317 yards in the first half before the unbeaten Blue Devils made the right adjustments and won 61-33 going away.

An offensive slugfest was expected by both coaches and the fans saw plenty of potential highlight footage. There were 14 touchdowns, two interception returns for scores, a long touchdown pass on a fake punt and a 94-yard kickoff return.

But in the end? “They were just better than us,” shrugged North coach Roger Secreast.

The marquee matchup was between two high school legends: Sturdivant of North, who entered the game with 7,141 yards of total offense, against Brevard tailback Manny DeShauteurs, who came in with 6,079 rushing.

That duel was pretty much a standoff. DeShauteurs finished with 231 yards rushing, scored four touchdowns and intercepted a pass. The legend still lives for at least another week.

Sturdivant left the game with a twisted ankle at the 11-minute mark of the fourth quarter and watched the rest of the game from the sidelines.

The North Rowan legend is done. But not before he wowed the mountain folks with a passing display they had not seen in 11 previous victories.

“I didn’t want it to end so soon,” the 6-foot-4 senior said. “I’m mad but you’ve got to move on. I accomplished all my goals except one — take my team to Chapel Hill (for the state title game).”

Thanks to a no-back offense due to tailback Jamel Alexander’s injured ankle, Sturdivant went out with a bang.

Sturdivant and favorite receiver Alfonzo Miller combined for a whopping 184 first half yards on just four hookups. It appeared some single-game receiving and passing records were in jeopardy.

Secreast said the strategy was simple, really. “Any time we caught them in man-to-man coverage, we went to Alfonzo. He was outrunning everybody.”

Miller grabbed his first scoring toss 17 seconds after DeShauteurs put Brevard up 7-0. The play went for 77 yards.

Brevard scored twice for a 19-7 advantage but Miller grabbed another touchdown toss, this one from 31 yards out. The big play in the 69-yard drive was a fourth-down 19-yard completion to Chris Phillips on a fake punt.

Brevard was up 27-14 when Sturdivant went back to punt with three minutes left before halftime. The ever-daring Secreast called for another fake punt from the North 37.

“I looked over there ... I guess (Secreast) saw something I didn’t,” Sturdivant said.

Miller once again sped by everyone and made an over-the-shoulder, fingertip grab for a 63-yard score that left Brevard fans and coach Dan Essenberg a bit stunned.

“We broke down mentally a little bit,” Essenberg said of his team’s first half. “When you play somebody that explosive, you’ve got to be ready on every down. We haven’t played anybody who can throw like that.”

It appeared the porous North defense finally made the stop that counted just before halftime. Jarrett Wishon hit DeShauteurs for a 2-yard loss and then sacked Brevard quarterback Jake Hunter. The Blue Devils then botched a field goal at the buzzer and held a precarious 27-21 halftime lead.

At that point, North had done just about anything it wanted on offense, ripping off 10 first downs. The Cavs were also 3-for-3 on fourth downs.

Secreast was very happy.

“We felt we had some pretty good momentum,” he said.

That is until the first drive of the second half turned into a Brevard touchdown. The Blue Devils converted three third-down plays, the final being a 14-yard scoring pass from Hunter to John Gentry. Hunter, whose father Joe is an assistant under Essenberg, was 8-of-11 passing for two scores and 123 yards.

“People talk a lot about Manny, Manny, Manny but we’re not one-dimensional,” said Essenberg. “Jake had a great game.”

But the cheering Brevard crowd sat down quickly as Miller took the ensuing kickoff 94 yards for a 35-27 Blue Devil lead.

DeShauteurs quickly made it 41-27 two minutes later and the game practically ended there.

On two consecutive passes, Sturdivant threw interceptions that were taken all the way back. Gentry ruined a pretty drive with a 102-yard return and then DeShauteurs went 36 yards with another. Just like that, it was 55-27 with 22 seconds left in the third.

“I think their first drive of the third quarter really hurt us,” Secreast said. “We lost some of our patience. We tried to make big plays out of things that weren’t big plays. We pressed too much. But that’s our offense. Sometimes, it works. Sometimes, it doesn’t.”

After his injury, Sturdivant left to a nice ovation from the crowd and some compliments from his opponents.

“He’s quick,” said Devil linebacker Shawn Silliman. “He’s got some good moves and he’ll sling it out there. We changed our coverage at halftime and got back as deep as we could because we knew he could throw it 65 yards.”

“He can play, no doubt about it,” Essenburg said. “You’re a nervous wreck (watching) over there.”

For the record, Brevard scored after three interceptions, a fumble and a blocked punt — which Secreast said is a broken record in what turned out to be a 6-6 season.

“Every game we’ve lost by a large score has been off of our turnovers and mistakes,” he said. “But the kids played hard and gave a good effort and that’s all you can ask for.”

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