By Mike London
mlondon@salisburypost.com
Area college football roundup …
Saturday was a fine day to be a former Rowan County defensive standout.
East Carolina’s Scotty Robinson (Salisbury), Appalachian State’s Gordy Witte (Salisbury) and Wake Forest’s Tristan Dorty (West Rowan) all made impact plays in enemy backfields.
There are more consistent players than Robinson, a senior defensive end, but he has a knack for the killer sack. In East Carolina’s 28-21 loss at SMU, Robinson’s lone tackle was a fourth-quarter sack of SMU quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell for a whopping loss of 18 yards. The 271-pound Robinson must have chased the wisely retreating, 202-pound Mitchell all the way from Dallas to Fort Worth.
Robinson turned second-and-10 into third-and-28.
* Witte had three tackles as Appalachian State took care of business 55-21 against N.C. Central after trailing early 14-7. Two of Witte’s hits were for loss. Witte’s teammate Anthony “Whopper” Williams (NW Cabarrus) assisted on five tackles.
* Dorty had a hand in Wake’s 42-32 victory against ACC foe Maryland. The sophomore defensive end made life miserable for QB Chris Turner in the second quarter with sacks that resulted in losses of 7 and 8 yards. One was a third-down dumping that forced the Terps to punt.
* Livingstone’s Bryan Aycoth (West) tossed a TD pass to Chris Peoples (Mooresville) on the final play of a loss to Chowan.
* Virginia Union unleashed two former NWC Trojans on Lincoln in a 35-6 romp. Hurley Hemphill and Jay Bostick combined for 10 tackles.
* Defensive players have to feel like they’ve done their part when they make 10 tackles, but when the strong safety has to make 10, it isn’t necessarily good news. Averett’s Justin McCauley (A.L. Brown) made a season-high 10 in a 43-12 loss against Christopher Newport. He also broke up a pass.
* Former Catawba coach David Bennett’s Coastal Carolina crew may be putting it together. Ryan Boehm (Davie) started for the Chanticleers at center in a 20-6 win against VMI.
* Former West Rowan quarterback Shane Weimer is a student coach at Brevard. The unheralded Tornados (6-1) are the East Rowan of the SAC. They nipped Tusculum for their first-ever win at home in a league game.
* Phillip Hilliard (Salisbury) punted three times with a long of 44 yards and an average of 36.0 in Wingate’s wild 50-49 SAC win against Lenoir-Rhyne. Josh Patch (East Rowan) made a tackle for the Bulldogs.
* Catawba’s Aaron Cauble (East) made two tackles on kickoffs in a 41-31 loss at Carson-Newman. Catawba’s Jaspen Gray (Davie) forced a fumble on a kickoff with a hit on Carson-Newman’s Buck Wakfield and also made the recovery.
* Saturday was not a great day for placekickers from Rowan. Emory & Henry’s Matt Turchin (West) and N.C. Central’s Frankie Cardelle (Salisbury) boomed kickoffs and nailed PATs, but they had trouble with field goals.
Cardelle was 0-for-1 on FGs in the setback to ASU, while Turchin was 0-for-3 in E&H’s loss to Hampden-Sydney.