By Mike London
mlondon@salisburypost.com
CHINA GROVE óFrank Jones, the WSAT roving Friday correspondent stationed at the Carson-East Rowan game, worked his way through the crowd and up the stadium steps to the Carson pressbox.
“They want to know how many yards Warren has,” Jones said.
It was halftime, and Carson junior tailback Shaun “Bush” Warren’s night had been unspectacular. He’d gone over 1,000 yards for the season on his first carry, a routine 5-yard burst, but East also had greeted him in the backfield four times.
Warren had 83 yards on 19 carries. Carson trailed 3-0. There were few clues “Bush” would push history.
In the second half, East defenders had three more tackles for loss on Warren, but he also ripped off gains of 25, 62, 27 and 34. In a span of seven minutes, Warren scored three touchdowns. He had 190 yards on 15 carries after halftime.
His 273 yards rushing were a school record. Warren may break the record for breaking a record the most times. As a sophomore, he rushed for 183 yards against East to shatter the school mark.
He’s moved the bar higher three times already this season, with 200 vs. North Rowan, 250 vs. Statesville and now 273 against his old friends, the Mustangs.
“Two-seventy-three,” coach Mark Woody said with a sigh. “And we lost. Hard to believe.”
In the past 50 years, there have been 64 200-yard rushing games recorded by Rowan backs, a number that’s accelerating rapidly. West’s K.P. Parks owns five this season, while Warren has three.
A team with a 200-yard rusher almost always wins. In those 64 games, the 200-yard man’s team is 57-6-1. On Friday, Warren had the second-biggest game for a county player in a losing cause, topped only by South’s Darius Beaty’s school-record 295 in a 47-12 loss to West Forsyth in 2005.East’s Cal Hayes Jr., East’s David Dowd and South’s Michael Ramseur rushed for 200-plus yards in losses.
There was also one person in the Carson locker room who knew exactly how Bush felt. That was assistant coach Ben Hampton. In 2001, when he played at West Rowan, Hampton rushed for 210 yards against Mooresville. West lost 49-46 in OT.