Michael Blount, who transferred from Salisbury to North Rowan prior to the school year,
decided to return to Salisbury earlier this week.Blount has been a solid player for the Cavaliers. He’s
started in the defensive secondary, has seen time at wide receiver and is the
county’s top punter (12 punts, 38.2 average).
“Michael came to see me this
weekend. He and his brother (Boo) were missing their girlfriends and their old buddies (at
Salisbury),” North Rowan head coach Roger Secreast said.
“I want the kids to be happy
and that (Salisbury) is where they were happy. I told Michael he needed to play football
over there and I told coach (Raymond) Daugherty to see him and have him come out. No hard
feelings.”
Blount did in fact come out for
Salisbury football, running through his first practice with his old teammates Tuesday.
“We welcome him back to
Salisbury. He’s a a good athlete, a good football player and I think he’ll help
us,” Daugherty said. “He was treated the same way as any other transfer to
Salisbury High School.”
Daugherty said the Hornets are
looking at Blount at several positions but there is no timetable on the senior’s
return. The Hornets, at 0-4, have seven games remaining on the 1999 schedule.
Sophomore quarterback Drew Davis
didn’t have a big-yardage game as a passer in his second game as a varsity starter,
completing 9 of 20 for 127 yards, but he showed potential with several clutch throws in
the second half of East’s 31-28 loss to Central Cabarrus.
Davis is East’s only true
quarterback after Raymondo Brady went out, probably for the season, with a knee injury in
East’s win over Mount Pleasant on Sept. 3.
East trailed 12-6 at halftime, but
Davis hit tight end Mark Misenheimer with a pass that went for a 45-yard gain. Misenheimer
dived across the goal line, but was ruled down at the Central 1, setting up a touchdown by
fullback Chris Faavesi. Hunter Kepley’s conversion put East up 13-12.
Davis had reason to be down after
he had two straight passes intercepted by linebacker Erik Dalton, one of them setting up a
touchdown that gave the Vikings a 31-21 lead.
However, the sophomore soon had
the Mustangs on the scoreboard again, hitting wide receivers Nick Lefko (31 yards) and
Brent Lambert (12 yards) to set up Lambert’s 5-yard TD catch with 2:28 to go.
When East’s Adam Trexler
recovered Kepley’s onsides kick, East had the ball again at the Central 35. That
possession ended quickly when Jeremy Alsop picked off a Davis pass.
East got the ball back at the
Central 12 with just 42 seconds left. His first throw was incomplete, the second went to
halfback-wide receiver Cal Hayes Jr., who scrambled and lost 11 yards, then a pass to
Lambert in the end zone was broken up by Alsop.
The game ended with Kepley barely
missing a 40-yard field goal that would have tied the score.
As for Davis’ effort, coach
Jeff Safrit said, “He made a couple of decisions that may not have been the best, but
he’s a sophomore. That’s going to come with time. We had a chance to win it;
that’s all you can ask.”
Davis, who saw some action as a
freshman, has completed 19 of 31 passes for 234 yards in three games.
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CAL, WOW! Cal Hayes Jr. is off to
an amazing start in the sophomore’s second varsity season at East. His 95-yard
kickoff return for a touchdown against Central was spectacular. Hayes appeared to be
stopped at his own 35, made a move to his right to break a couple of tackles, then was
gone down the right sideline.
Later, Hayes’ 46-yard punt
return set up East’s last touchdown.
“He’s an exceptional
athlete,” said Safrit. “I’ve said it over and over: We probably
haven’t even started to see everything he can do.”
Hayes was hit with leg cramps on
East’s next-to-last play and wasn’t on the field for the last scrimmage play,
taking away one of Davis’ passing options.
“That was their
(Central’s) best thing that he wasn’t on the field when we needed to
score,” said the East coach.
After opening the season with
tough games against West Rowan, Albemarle and Concord, the Hornets were relieved to see a
team with a similar record. But perhaps Salisbury was too relieved to see 0-3 South. The
Raiders pulled away late for a 31-0 win.
“Most people thought we could
come down here and run right through them since we had the same record,” Hornet Ken
Drye said. “They’re better than most people thought they were. It really seems
like we’ve taken a step back.”
The Hornets shouldn’t have to
guard against overconfidence this week — undefeated 4A squad Davie County pays a
visit Friday.
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no room to run: One of
Salisbury’s biggest problems in the first half Friday against South was where the
Hornets got the ball.
Daugherty’s offense started
on the 10-yard line in its first drive and punted from the end zone, started its second
drive from the 2 (after an interception) and punted from the end zone and had first-and-10
from the 3 after a fumble recovery on its fourth drive. That final drive was the only one
in which the Hornets got more than one first down.
Getting Salisbury out of trouble
on all of those occasions was punter Patrick May, who splits time with Tom Sexton’s
soccer squad. May launched six punts for a 38.7-yard average.
Raiders head coach Rick Vanhoy
empathized with Daugherty when he looked over and saw about 10 Hornets standing on the
sideline in reserve Friday night. But he gladly took advantage of South’s superior
depth in the Raiders’ 31-0 win.
“I went through the same
thing last year, I think I walked in Raymond’s shoes,” Vanhoy said.
“You’ve got a limited number of athletes, you’ve got to get them on the
field as much as possible and it gets to be a long night for them.”
South ended its 1998 season with
just 28 players left on the roster, so Vanhoy remembered those long fourth quarters in
which his weary defenders were getting steam-rolled.
Running backs Ernie Wiggins and
Keith Garrett especially enjoyed that last quarter, reeling off big runs as South tacked
on two more touchdowns over the final 12 minutes.
“They started getting
tired,” Wiggins said. “They have so many players going both ways and we platoon,
so we’ve always got fresh legs. We just took it to them.”
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OFFENSIVE: The 31 points South put
up against Kannapolis two weeks ago weren’t a fluke, as the Raider offense proved it
packs some punch by scoring 31 more against Salisbury.
The last time South scored 30 or
more points in back to back games was in 1997, with its only two wins of the season coming
39-28 against Northwest Cabarrus and 38-7 against South Stokes.
Two-way starter Ryan Craft had a
terrific game for the Wonders Friday in their 63-13 rout of Sun Valley.
Craft caught a TD pass and also
intercepted a pass.
The senior speedster is the
younger brother of William Craft, who was the starting quarterback on the Wonders’
1997 state 3A title team.
William Craft, incidentally, is
now a walk-on QB for the East Carolina University team.
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ALIVE AND KICKING: Wonder coach
Bruce Hardin was ecstatic over the improvement in the Wonders’ kicking game.
Extra points were an adventure in
their first two contests, but soccer player Rush Rollins banged through nine straight PATs
against Sun Valley.
The Wonders also got two great
punt returns from Blair Hardin, who set up a TD with each return.
“Blair really worked hard on
that area,” said coach Hardin. “He’s faster than last year, and his
philosophy is not to let anything hit the ground and roll 20 yards on us.”
The Wonders are still concerned
about their punting game, but they eliminated that problem area on Friday. Their offense
was so effective, they didn’t have to punt a single time against the Spartans.
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PUTTING THE ‘D’ BACK IN
WONDERS: After yielding 18 and 31 points in their first two outings, the Wonders played
very well defensively against Sun Valley.
The Spartans scored just once
against the Wonders’ first-team defense.
“Give us some time,”
said Wonder Marcus Rivens. “This is going to be a very good defense.”
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NORTH IS NEXT: The
Kannapolis-North Rowan game has become one of the area’s top rivalries. The green
teams renew friendships next Friday at Memorial Stadium.
“We always look forward to
that game,” said Rivens. “They’re a good team and they’re fun to play
the way they throw the football. I know our defensive linemen are licking their chops,
getting ready to chase (North QB) Mario (Sturdivant) around.”
n
Ed Dupree and Mike London
contributed to this notebook. |
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