By Paul Hershey
sports@salisburypost.com
KANNAPOLIS ó Ron Massey hasn’t won 100 games in less than 10 full seasons at A.L. Brown by being easily satisfied.
That was evident after the Wonders put more than 50 points on the scoreboard against his old team Friday night ó and Massey felt they should have scored more.
“I think we could be better,” Massey said. “But to be 3-1 with the non-conference schedule we played, I feel pretty good about that.”
You wouldn’t have known it by hearing him talk, but Massey did have reasons to be happy after Kannapolis dismantled Kings Mountain 56-28 to give the coach win No. 100 at the school.
Junior standout Travis Riley rushed for four consecutive Wonder touchdowns that broke the game open, capped by a 70-yard burst on the first scrimmage play of the second half for a commanding 35-14 lead.
“We came out the first play in an unbalanced formation and he just made a great cut on it,” Massey said. “They were blitzing and putting everybody up on the line of scrimmage and we felt if we could get to the second level we had a shot.”
The Kannapolis defense, meanwhile, stuffed Kings Mountain on the ground and forced four turnovers in the game, including a 66-yard interception return by junior Labrian Black in the final minute of the third quarter that pushed the edge to 49-14.
“I just saw the ball in the air, my hands went up, I caught it and just ran it in,” Black said. “Once I got to the corner, I didn’t see anybody behind me, I had blockers in front of me and just kept going.”
Through the first three quarters, the Wonders’ defense held Kings Mountain to just one touchdown, which came on the final play of the first half.
By that point, the Wonders had already recovered three fumbles and set their offense up with short fields several times.
Sophomore Gerald Holt recovered a fumble on Kings Mountain’s first series of the game. A.L. Brown’s offense didn’t take advantage that time, but it did score off of the other recoveries.
Desmond Gray pounced on a loose ball at the Mountaineers’ 10 midway through the first, and Antwoine Jordan scored on the next play to make it 7-0.
It was 14-7 in the second quarter when Gray got a piece of a Kings Mountain punt, allowing the Wonders to take over at the Kings Mountain 32.
Five plays later, Riley went around left end for a 7-yard score.
Later in the quarter, senior lineman Dana Moss recovered the third fumble which led to Riley’s third touchdown that made it 28-7.
The longest of Kannapolis’ four scoring drives in the opening half was 59 yards.
“Our defense played more aggressive tonight,” Massey said. “We created more turnovers. They gave us great field position. We should’ve put more points on the board offensively.”
Moss said the Wonders switched from their standard 4-3 defense to a “34” during their open week and that helped take pressure off a struggling secondary.
“We practiced the new defense all week,” Moss said. “They came out in an off-set and we had to figure out how to play against that, and we just got it.
“Everybody did their job. It was just turnover after turnover. We just kept doing it.”
Offensively, Brown totaled 238 rushing yards, including 129 by Riley on 14 carries. The Wonders had just 44 passing yards, though.
“There are still a lot of breakdowns that I’m not happy with,” Massey said. “We didn’t throw the ball well. We’ve got to be able to throw the ball better. When people line up in man coverage on us and we get an opportunity we’ve got to take advantage of it.”
The lone highlight for the Wonders in the air came on a reverse pass to quarterback Martel Campbell in the second quarter.