By Marny Hendrick
sports@salisburypost.com
LANDIS – In a dramatic game of ebbs and flows, South Rowan won a double overtime thriller Friday night at Donnell Stadium simply because they persevered.
The Raiders (2-1, 2-5) went to double overtime to defeat NPC foe North Iredell 40-34 in a homecoming game that was delayed for an hour by lightning. then saw four lead changes. In the end reserve quarterback Aaron Kennerly hit Tvadis Wesley from 10 yards out for the winning points in the second OT. The sophomore known as A-Rod came in for injured Nathan Lambert with 2:13 left in regulation and his team trailing North Iredell 26-20.
He promptly drove his Raiders 61 yards in 10 plays and tied the score with a 6 yard scramble with just 37 seconds left. South was poised to win but the extra point try by Dionte Tillman was batted down by North’s Garrett McCants to set the stage for overtime.
“We told the team that at some point you separate the men from the boys and we grew up a lot tonight, “said Jason Rollins. We needed some adversity and we responded well.
Lambert, the senior signal caller had one of his best nights of the season with 77 yards rushing and 150 yards passing but when he went down with a bad ankle injury late in regulation he knew Kennerly was ready to step in. “A-Rod is really clutch. He is my guy” Lambert said. In the process Lambert set a career passing mark at South with 3,014 yards breaking the old mark set by Blake Houston in 2009.
North Iredell (02-, 0-6) stayed almost exclusively on the ground and nearly pulled it off as QB Jacob Queen and RB Darrius Bradshaw both went over 100 yards and scored all 5 TD’s between them.
“We played so hard tonight” said North’s new head coach Sandy Grinton. “I am proud to be their head coach.”
For South, Antonio Hester scored once, and Dominique Garlin added two TD’s Tight end Josh Medlin proved clutch with 119 yards and scored a dramatic 4th down toudchdown in the first overtime to keep South alive.
The Raider defense then slammed the door on North in the second OT led by two big plays from linebacker Lucas Kincaid. Wesley winning catch followed one play later.