Mario Sturdivant stood outside the bus at Brevard Friday night, his injured ankle wrapped up and his ego bruised a bit by the Cavaliers’ 61-33 loss to the Blue Devils in the first round of the 2A state playoffs.

But he does have the satisfaction of knowing that when he left high school football behind, he was the most prolific offensive player in Rowan County history.

Bobby Myers, Carvie Kepley, Mitch Ellis — all great players, but no one ever reached the offensive productivity of Sturdivant.

“When I look back at all the great quarterbacks and see what they did and then know I broke their records, it will make me real proud,” he said.

The lanky, 6-foot-4 signal caller finished his career with 7,488 yards of total offense.

Pretty good for someone who came in as a freshman thinking he would be a receiver.

Roger Secreast, the North Rowan coach and offensive guru, has allowed Sturdivant to be a free-wheeling yardage machine.

“But think about it,” Secreast said. “When have we not let somebody do that? When have we not passed the football? We find a good athlete and let him throw it. The kids like it. They think they can score. And it’s fun for them.”

And now, Sturdivant’s football career is over.

“His high school career is over,” corrected Secreast. “Not his football career.”

Sturdivant said, “It’s been great but now it’s time to get ready for the next level.”

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THE BYRD MAN: One player who will miss Sturdivant is junior captain Dre Byrd, who had four catches at Brevard.

“It’ll be different without Mario,” he said. “He helped make me. But we just have to get ready for the challenge next year.”

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NEXT? And by the way, Coach Secreast, who will be taking over for Sturdivant next season?

That question was answered when Sturdivant was injured with 11 minutes remaining.

Graham Hosch, a receiver, stepped in and wowed the Brevard crowd just like Sturdivant. He went 8-for-12 and hit Jermaine Miller with a late touchdown pass.

“Do they have anybody who can’t throw the football?” marveled one press box observer.

That’s just North Rowan football, sir.

“One of the positives tonight was Hosch doing a good job,” said Secreast. “We’ll just work him and he’ll be ready to go. He just needs a little polish.”

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THE ‘BUTLER’ DID IT: Keighan Butler, like Sturdivant, was a senior playing his final game Friday night.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Butler said afterward. “Seriously. But at least we made the playoffs.”

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HOME BOYS: Secreast likes to say that getting assistants who return to their school or who he once coached helps. Defensive coordinator Chris Sifford and Mike White, for instance, played for Secreast.

But it’s nothing like at Brevard, where head coach Dan Essenberg has nine assistants, seven of whom are Brevard natives.

“When you cut them, they bleed blue,” laughed Essenberg, a 1978 graduate of Lenoir-Rhyne.

Essenberg, who has spent 16 of his 22 coaching seasons at Brevard High School, couldn’t get away from the area. The other six seasons, he was football coach and athletics director at Rosman, the other Transylvania County high school.

“I’m not from Brevard like the other guys,” chuckled Essenberg, “but my wife’s from here.”

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HOOPS TIME: Sturdivant could have possibly come back in after his ankle sprain but Secreast said he wasn’t going to take a chance. The game was out of reach and basketball practice started Monday for Super Mario.

The mercurial Byrd can’t wait. He not only thinks Kelly Everhart’s team is the Central Carolina Conference hoops favorite, but he has much bigger plans.

“We’re going to Chapel Hill,” he said, referring to the site of the state title games.

After Friday night’s 33-0 loss to Asheville A.C. Reynolds in the first round of the 4Astate playoffs, South finished 4-8 overall, including a second-place 3-1 mark in the Central Piedmont Conference, and the Raiders made the playoffs for the first time since 1994.

“Obviously, they feel bad right now,” said Vanhoy after talking to the entire, disappointed team, then to seniors who were upset that they lost and that the season was over. “That shows that they care. They came up here and they wanted to win. They didn’t want to just be in the playoffs. Obviously, they feel like they didn’t make a very good accounting of themselves. Hopefully, that will wear off a little bit after a couple of days.”

He told his players, “Listen, men, you’ve got a great accomplishment. You were dead in the water (0-1 in the CPC, 1-7 overall with three weeks left in the regular season). You were given up for dead.”

South defeated West Forsyth, R.J. Reynolds and Mount Tabor in those final three games to make the playoffs.

“The only people that believed in them were our coaching staff and our kids. To come back and accomplish what they did the last three weeks is something that’s very special. I met with our seniors there (end zone) and told them that any success that we have next year and the years to come, they laid the foundation for it. They’ve been a great group,” said the South coach.

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LOOKING AHEAD: One of those disappointed seniors was defensive lineman-punter Joe Finney.

“I wasn’t ready for it to end so quickly,” said the 6-5, 295-pounder.

Did his senior class help pave the way for better seasons over the next few years?

“We’ve got a bright group of upcoming seniors and lowerclassmen, too, just a great group of kids. Hopefully, they’ll just carry on the tradition. They’ve got it in them to do it,” said Finney.

As for his team’s performance against A.C. Reynolds, Finney said, “We really didn’t execute the way we should have, but don’t get me wrong. They were a pretty tough team. We just weren’t putting things together right, and it showed.”

Every team seems to look at the Kannapolis defense on film and think it can control the ball on the ground against the Wonders.

But while only one Wonder defender, Desmond Williams, is large, the unit is very quick.

“I think everyone we play is bigger than us and figures they can pound it on us,” said Wonder star Marcus Rivens. “But somehow the coaches seem to always get us in the right spots to stop them.”

One week after holding Concord to 100 yards, Kannapolis allowed South Iredell only one second-half first down and 47 second-half yards in Friday night’s 50-6 first-round playoff win. The Wonder defense hasn’t allowed more than seven points in any of its last seven games.

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LIGHTINGITUP: When Kannapolis scored 50 points Friday night, it marked the fifth time this season it has reached the half-century mark.

Receiver Ryan Craft has been one of the keys to that high-powered offense. Craft has turned nearly half of his catches into touchdowns. He has 19 receptions and has scored TDs on nine of them.

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FUTURESTARS: Kannapolis’ jayvee callups got a chance to shine in the fourth quarter and punched in the team’s final touchdown against South Iredell.

Freshman Josh Reeves directed the attack, while Cris Carter, who got the score, and aptly-named Rock Johnson made impressive runs.

Kicker David Wooldridge continued his amazing season with a field goal and three extra points Friday night in the War Eagles’ 24-6 win over Ashbrook to open the 4A state playoffs.

That gave the sophomore 13 field goals and 24 PATs for the year, a total of 63 points.

With 6:43 remaining in the second quarter, Wooldridge trotted out for a 48-yarder. He made it with plenty to spare, setting a school record with the distance. The chance to better that mark came early in the fourth quarter with Davie up 24-0 and facing fourth down at the 33-yard line. But instead of attempting a 50-yarder, head coachDoug Illing called for the punt team.

“I thought about and said if they block it and return it ... I didn’t want to risk anything there,” Illing said. “I just didn’t feel comfortable with it.”

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pass it around: In Drew Ridenhour’s 11 games this season, the senior QB has thrown to eight different receivers.

Opposing teams haven’t helped but notice Thadd Johnson’s role in that rotation. The senior caught 32 passes for 505 yards in the regular season, so when Ashbrook rolled into town, Johnson was covered.

No problem. Ridenhour found Nick Propst on two catches, Rod Tenor on three and hit Jason Hogue for a 7-yard TD. Johnson ended with two catches for 55 yards.

“They were doing a good job on Thadd. They had him covered,”Ridenhour said. “We got the ball in Nick’s hands early and Rod had a great game, he caught the ball and did something with it like he always does.”

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close, but … Davie’s defense fought gallantly to protect its shutout Friday night but came up short when Ashbrook scored in the final minute.

The War Eagles allowed a single touchdown a game in its first three, then gave up one score to Salisbury in Week 5. The only shutout opportunity in the Central Piedmont Conference slate came against Mount Tabor, but a lone TD on a long run wiped out that idea in the first quarter.

“That’s all they’ve been talking about, wanting a goose egg all throughout conference,”Illing said. “Still didn’t get it.”

The Davie defense did get something, though — a little teasing from offensive star Ricky White, who knew how badly the ‘D’ wanted the shutout.

“I was messing with them a little bit, but they played good,”White said. “They’ll be all right.”

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