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If there was one thing that both coaches agreed on after West Rowan's 28-7 South Piedmont
Conference victory over East Rowan Friday night, it was this:
East Rowan won the second half.
That's not much consolation for the Mustangs, who fell to their second SPC loss. But it is
a positive.
After falling behind 28-0, East's Jeff Safrit gave one of his patented fiery speeches.
East came right out with a quick score and shut down West's dangerous offense the rest of
the way.
Safrit was worried about West's depth and his lack of it. After the game, he did some
analyzing.
"West is able to two-platoon and keep fresh bodies in there and we're not,"
Safrit said. "But they hit us early when it didn't have anything to do with
two-platooning. Usually, when (fatigue) shows is the third and fourth quarters. We looked
fresh to me during the third and fourth."n
GOBRENT: One of the most courageous players on the
field was East receiver Brent Lambert. He has a torn ligament in a knee and wasn't
supposed to play but convinced doctors he could go while sprinting in the end zone before
the game.
After going for one pass in the second half, he was knocked silly by the West defense.
Safrit came running out to check on his speedster.
"Iasked him if it was his knee, and he said, ÔNo, it's my head!'" said Safrit.
Many of the fans on both sides of the field were asking the same thing Friday night during
West Rowan's 28-7 win over East Rowan:
Who is No. 42 for West Rowan? He's not on the roster.
West has another transfer, Kendall High, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound sophomore who arrived a few
weeks ago with his family from Northhampton West, a 1A school in the small town of Gaston,
located on the east coast.
Young said that when High's father was transferred to Rowan County, he picked up a
Salisbury Post the week West beat South Rowan and decided the West area would be perfect.
And how did No. 42 do? He was in on one sack against East.
With top receiver Andre Byrd out of action Friday night for disciplinary reasons, the
Cavalier passing attack could have suffered the effects.
But it didn't.
Instead, senior quarterback Mario Sturdivant spread the ball around a little, including
finding Alfonzo Miller for five big grabs of 141 yards. Two throws went for touchdowns of
38 and 39 yards, while Miller's final catch was for more than 41 yards and what North
thought was a touchdown. But the referees marked him down at the 2.
"We had a key player out today but we still ended up good,"Sturdivant said.
"I had to go to him (Miller), he was my best go-to guy, he's got more experience.
"Now we've got a double threat, they won't know who we're going to."
Sturdivant also found Chris Phillips five times for 64 yards and a touchdown as North
easily compensated for Byrd's absence.
"You can't be down, that's why you have your kids ready to play, it's why they call
it a team,"Cavs head coach Roger Secreast said. "The only one I'd be worried of
losing is No. 6 (Sturdivant), and even then I think No. 4 (Graham Hosch) could step in and
do fine.
"I don't want to lose anybody."
After playing so well in the first quarter and taking a 6-0 lead against North Friday
night, the Hornets gradually fell behind, first by a 12-6 score at halftime, then going
down as much 18-6 early in the third quarter. Mistakes and turnovers, as usual, played
their part in Salisbury's sixth loss.
"I didn't feel it slipping away,"Hornet quarterback Terry Johnson said.
"One play can't slip a game away. They broke the momentum, but I felt we could pick
it back up and score."
Salisbury did keep its head up, though, and came back to make it 18-12 when Johnson darted
in from 4 yards out late in the third, but North's team speed proved too much in the 30-12
final.
"We were confident we could stay with them and we were confident we could win,"
Johnson said. "We had a couple of mistakes that cost us."
The Raider defense yielded 287 total yards, but only 10 first downs in Friday night's
27-21 homecoming loss to Northwest Cabarrus. That's because the Trojans struck for four
big plays, two for touchdowns and two others that set up scores.
Northwest's first big play actually came against South's special team on the opening
kickoff, which was returned 77 yards by Phillip Jackson. The Raiders' Darryl Childers
caught Jackson from behind at the 13 to prevent a touchdown. Northwest still scored three
plays later.
The Trojans' had only one rushing play that went for more than 12 yards, but it was a big
one -- Chris Willard's 67-yarder that set up a field goal in the third
quarter.
Northwest quarterback Brad Woodham then took advantage of South's inexperienced secondary
by throwing fourth-quarter touchdown passes of 47 yards to David Zack and 44 yards to
Dusty Carmichael.
Three of South's biggest defensive plays were two sacks by end Matt Shoemaker for a
combined 12 yards in losses and one by Childers for 7 yards.
Ricky White needed just a little bit of help Friday night in Davie's 14-11 loss to North
Davidson.
The senior running back rushed 23 times for 158 yards in the first half alone, but he was
contained to 58 yards on 17 carries in the final two quarters. The reason was
simple, according to War Eagles head coach Doug Illing.
"They couldn't stop us running, but he got tired,"Illing said. "We had to
find other ways and rest him. He's a horse, we tried to mix in the pass É Ricky knows
he's the man, he's our go-to guy.
"He's really stepped up as the leader of this team."
n
IN DAVIE'SDEFENSE: As good as Davie County's
offense has been this season, if the defense holds a team to two touchdowns it's usually a
win. And even though the War Eagles lost Friday night, Illing had nothing but praise for
his defensive players and coaches Devore Holman, Mike Herndon, KeithWhitaker, John Bullins
and Jeff Ward.
"My hat goes off to my defensive coaches, we had a great defense against two highly
potent offensive threats and we shut their tails down,"Illing said.
Senior defensive lineman Bradford Ivey enjoyed a big night with three sacks of North QB
Bubba Rosenbaum.
"We told him Rosenbaum likes to drop back but he gets flushed real easy,"Illing
said. "We told him to stay back and he'll get flushed right into your arms."
Central Cabarrus hit for three touchdown passes in the final 4:39 in its 34-31 loss to
Kannapolis on Friday night, only one fewer TD toss than the Wonders had allowed in
the season's first 235 minutes, 21 seconds.
Central shredded the Wonders for 14 completions and 223 yards in the second half, after
being held to four completions and 32 yards in the first.
Wonder coach Bruce Hardin blamed the Wonders' pass rush -- or lack thereof
-- more than he did the secondary.
"You give a good quarterback like (Clayton)Russell that much time, and he'll pick you
apart," said Hardin.
n
PRACTICEMAKESPERFECT: None of the Wonders were
pleased with the way they finished Friday -- especially on Senior Night, which
usually brings out the best in everyone.
"We're all very disappointed with how we played," said quarterback Justin
Hardin. "We started the week on Monday with what may have been our worst practice of
the year, and it just carried over."
n
MIGHTY MARCELLO: Any remaining questions about the
Wonder running backs were answered on Friday by Marcello Stanback, who had the biggest
game of his career with 204 yards on 20 carries.
Most of this season, Stanback, a senior returning from a torn ACL, has alternated with
junior Eric Caldwell. But Friday night, when the going got tough for the first time, the
Wonders relied on Stanback, who now has 633 yards on the season, to carry the load.
He answered the call with some brilliant scoring runs -- a 71-yarder on which
he simply outran everyone, and a 34-yarder on which he showed his strength, breaking
tackles and then cutting back all the way across the field to outfox a host of pursuing
Vikings.
"It feels great to know Ihaven't lost a step," said Stanback.
n
FULL-MOONPLAY: There was a clear sign early that
this would not be a routine night for the Wonders.
When they were stopped and had to punt on their first series, the snap sailed well over
the head of punter Michael Anthony and bounced toward the Wonder goal.
Anthony ran around in circles after finally retrieving the ball, then wisely heaved an
incomplete pass just before he was smothered for what would have been a disastrous 30-yard
loss.
Central got the ball on downs, but thanks to Anthony's quick decision, the Vikings took
possession back at the line of scrimmage -- the Wonder 47.
The Wonders wound up holding the Vikes to a 35-yard field goal on the ensuing possession.
n
Ed Dupree, Steve Hanf and Mike London contributed
to this notebook. |
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