By Mike London
mlondon@salisburypost.com
MOORESVILLE ó Daniel Yates already had made a one-handed catch, hurdled a startled tackler, returned a kickoff for a touchdown and made a jarring, TD-saving tackle on his own booming punt.
All of that was dandy, but now Carson was asking Yates to make his best play of Saturday’s NPC game.
The scoreboard at Lake Norman showed 2:19 left, and Carson, which had reeled off 21 straight points in one stretch, trailed the Wildcats 30-27. Carson faced fourth-and-17 at its 40-yard line and was searching for a miracle.
Yates is talented enough to make miracles happen.
“We were going to run a different play, but Daniel promised me and he promised the coaches if they could find a way to get him one-on-one coverage, he’d come down with the ball,” Carson quarterback Ryan Jones said.
Under pressure and with the game riding on it, Jones zipped his best throw of the night down the middle.
“I told them I’d catch it, and then I saw that ball coming out of the lights and jumped high as I could,” Yates said. “Good throw. It hit me right in the arms.”
The gain was 39 yards to the Lake Norman 21. After Shaun Warren carried to the 16, Jones hooked up with Travis Hayes for a go-ahead touchdown with 1:15 remaining, and Carson (3-2, 2-1) had made one more comeback in the greatest game in the school’s brief history.
Carson still had to make one last stop to seal it, and with orange-clad fans pleading for defense, the Cougars got it done. Jenson Harden made a diving interception after Lake Norman had reached the Carson 34 with 35 seconds left.
It looked bleak for the Cougars when Lake Norman burner Jacquez Vanderburg broke a 65-yard run with 5:38 left to play, and Sully Shidler’s PAT put Lake Norman on top 22-21.
But Lake Norman (3-2, 1-2), which got 151 rushing yards from Eric Manser, kicked off deep to Yates.
“I was thinking that we’d done it before,” said Yates, who was about to make the third kickoff return TD of his career. “I said a prayer and told myself, ‘Let’s do this.’ The coaches had fired up the guys, and they made good blocks. I caught the ball in stride, saw a hole, and I didn’t stop.”
Yates blew threw a gap at full throttle, and nine Wildcats were behind him. With two men to beat, he shrugged off a tackler near midfield, then sprinted past the last man.
“From the beginning, we’ve known Daniel was a special player,” Carson coach Mark Woody said. “This is so gratifying because he stuck with us when we were struggling, and we stuck with him.”
Carson’s defense allowed 317 rushing yards and gave up 22 points in the fourth quarter, but nose Micah Honeycutt and his teammates fought to the last whistle.
Corner Zack Grkman’s 46-yard interception return for a TD broke an 8-8 tie early in the third quarter. Grkman added a second pick and a 48-yard return to turn away another Lake Norman drive.
“That’s our job, get some stops and turn it over to the offense,” Grkman said. “On both returns, guys blocked. Just great team effort.”
Carson linebacker John Mullis recovered a vital fumble in the end zone after Lake Norman had marched down the field and had first-and-goal inside the Carson 1-yard line in the first quarter.
Yates keyed Carson’s first scoring drive with a 33-yard dash and a 27-yard gain on his amazing, one-handed catch.
Warren broke a 94-yard run up the gut for a Carson TD in the third quarter.
“Lake Norman is a heck of a team, but I’m tickled that our kids never stopped making plays,” Woody said. “This is what it’s all about. Our defense is beat up, but they just kept hanging in there.”