The very first play from scrimmage proved to be an omen for West Rowan Friday night.

The Falcons’ 36-0 win at Harding started with a 5-yard penalty for the defense jumping offsides. Eight more flags would follow, and not too many of the short-yardage variety, either.

Six of West’s nine penalties went for 10 yards or more, and the consequences of the fouls wiped out nearly 200 more. One negated a 56-yard punt return for a touchdown by Justin Davis, another brought back Scooter Sherrill’s 21-yard reverse for a score and Scooter Dalton lost an 82-yard run down to the Harding goal line because of a holding call.

“I hope and believe that they were not all warranted,”West head coach Scott Young said Friday night. “They’d come back to me and tell me they weren’t holding, but that’s always what you tell your coach.”

After watching film, some of his players were vindicated.

“Some were deserved, some were definitely not,” Young said before Monday’s practice. “That makes me feel a little better knowing that.”

With flags flying all over the place, Young had to adjust his coaching style somewhat against Harding.

“When we got our fourth or fifth touchdown in the first half (counting the ones that were called back) I waited and made sure there were no flags before I called the extra-point conversion team,”Young said. “I made that mistake twice.”

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stopped scooter: West Rowan might have earned a 36-0 win Friday, but Harding still did something no one else has managed: contain Scooter Sherrill.

The basketball player in shoulder pads saw his stats nosedive after being limited to two catches for 29 yards. Even though one of them was a 33-yard TD toss from Jared Barnette, Sherrill’s per-game receiving average dropped by 12 yards.

“We focused on Scooter. Every time he would go in motion we knew they were going to try to throw to him,” Harding head coach Alvin Wideman said. “We scouted him pretty good off the film. We knew if the guys did what they were supposed to do against him we’d be OK.”

Now that teams know what to expect from Sherrill, Young’s job becomes harder.

“They did a great job shutting down Scooter,”Young said. “That’s my fault, Ihave to do a better job of figuring out ways to get him the ball.”

When North Rowan and Salisbury clash Friday, it will be anything but business as usual.

The rivals open their 2A Central Carolina Conference schedules against each other with uncommonly poor records and in dire need of a victory.

Salisbury has opened the season 0-5 for the second straight year.

Prior to 1998, the Hornets had gone 35 years without beginning a season with an 0-5 slate.

In their defense, the Hornets have played some pretty fair teams, including three unbeatens — West Rowan, Davie County and Albemarle.

Another Hornet conqueror — Concord — has a 3-2 mark. The only team Salisbury has played that has a losing record is South Rowan (1-4).

The Cavaliers, meanwhile, are an uncharacteristic 1-3, the first time they’ve been in that position since the 1990 season.

Like the Hornets, they’ve bitten off an early-season schedule that’s proven difficult to chew.

The Cavs have fallen to unbeaten 3A powers West and Kannapolis, and on the road to 4A Scotland County.

“I’m a little looser about the nonconference games, because they’re a learning experience,” said North coach Roger Secreast. “But it will be nice to start playing some schools our own size.”

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FIRSTTIMEFOREVERYTHING: North quarterback Mario Sturdivant was intercepted in the second quarter by Kannapolis’ Chris Gibson in North’s 42-6 loss.

It was the only pick that Sturdivant has thrown this year in 115 passing attempts.

East’s Mustangs, who rolled past Piedmont 49-0 on Friday, have scored more points against the Panthers in the last four seasons than most teams score in one season.

CoachJeff Safrit’s Mustangs have outscored the Panthers 49-0, 62-0, 66-18 and 49-0 in consecutive seasons, a lopsided 226-18 advantage for East.

East is also working on an impressive two-season streak of scoring 21 or more points in eight consecutive contests.

The Mustangs started that streak in a 33-21 loss to Concord last season, then downed Sun Valley 27-12. Powerful Burlington Williams outscored East 49-28 in the first round of the state 3A playoffs.

East opened this season with a 28-7 victory over South Rowan, then fell to North Rowan 26-21, rolled past Mount Pleasant 41-7 and lost a 31-28 thriller to Central Cabarrus.

The Mustangs, led by the running of halfbacks Cal Hayes Jr. and Thomas Hendrickson and fullback JasonPowles plus the passing of quarterback Drew Davis, are averaging 33.4 points per contest.

The school record of 39.4 was set by East’s first team, which went 9-1 under Hal Quinn in 1959.

The Mustangs are slightly ahead of the 1997 team’s pace of 32.7.

He may be the smallest player on the field most of the time, but Matt Shoemaker is certainly not the most timid hitter, according to South Rowan coach Rick Vanhoy.

After watching the 5-foot-6 , 170-pound bulldozer nail Mooresville runners to the ground on a consistent basis in a 21-3 loss Friday, Vanhoy was one impressed coach.

“Matt is a tough-nosed kid with a great football mentality,” Vanhoy said. “That’s what you want in a football player. Iwish he was 6-4, 230. But he will come at you and lay into you. He showed that tonight.”

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STILLALIVE: Despite the 1-4 record, Vanhoy said his team is staying upbeat because the Central Piedmont Conference slate has yet to begin.

“We want to win ballgames but we want to make sure everything is ready for those four conference games,” Vanhoy said. “We win three of those and we’re in the playoffs. That’s what we’ve got to focus on.”

Quarterback turned linebacker Josh Lee anchored the Kannapolis defense in the Wonders’ 42-6 win over North Rowan on Friday night.

The Wonders asked him to shadow North QBSturdivant’s every move, and Lee, a junior, did a marvelous job of containing the talented Cavalier.

A 7-yard sack of Sturdivant by Lee wrecked one Cav drive, and a 3-yard sack ruined another.

Sturdivant finished with only 25 yards rushing (he had 95 against East), and 24 of those came late against Wonder reserves.

“My job was just to mirror Sturdivant,” said Lee. “It wasn’t that hard because Ihad help from our outside guys (Justin Chambers and Des Williams), and I didn’t have any pass responsibilities.”

“Josh has become the quiet leader of our defense,” said Wonder coach Bruce Hardin. “He is so tough.”

Lee’s not just tough, he’s surprisingly quick for a 200-pounder. On one North pass play, it was Lee who ran down a zig-zagging Andre Byrd, North’s swift receiver, 25 yards downfield.

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RUNNINGWILD: The numbers continue to pile up for Wonder backs Marcello Stanback and Eric Caldwell.

They combined for 275 yards on the ground against the Cavs and are enjoying super seasons that are nearly identical.

After four games, Caldwell has 410 yards and Stanback 429. The backs have scored seven TDs each.

“As a senior, it’s time for me to make the next step up,” said Stanback.

Stanback and North coach Secreast were both effusive in their praise of the Wonders’ rapidly improving offensive line.

“The people they’ve got up front — let’s just say they’re pretty good,” said Secreast.

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TOUGH PACE: The Wonders, the No. 1 offensive team in the state last year, scored 42 points against North and saw their per game average drop.

Through four games they are averaging 49.3 ppg.

Drew Ridenhour, Davie County’s highly touted, 6-foot-3 quarterback, may play Friday night when the 5-0 War Eagles host 5-0 North Davidson in a nonconference battle of the Yadkin River.

Ridenhour has a partial tear of the anterior cruciate ligament, suffered in a win over Ledford two weeks ago. Michael Burton replaced him and also played in last week’s 34-6 win over Salisbury.

“Ridenhour’s questionable,” said coach Doug Illing. “He has a brace but with an ACL, you just don’t know until you try it. He’ll practice this week and if it holds up, we’ll go with him as long as we can. But we’re going with the idea of having Burton ready to play.”

Ah yes, Burton. The senior has backed up Ridenhour since the fifth grade so he is the Earl Morrall of the school. He replaced Ridenhour for a few games last season and threw and ran for overtime scores to beat Ledford.

“There’s not enough words to say about the job Burton has done as a backup,” Illing said. “He’s not a rookie quarterback.”

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