The prep football notebook…
Statistical anomalies were apparent in Salisbury’s amazing 36-35 win aginst High Point Andrews. The Hornets won despite never forcing a punt or a turnover. HPA was miffed by a pair of a recovered onside kicks by Salisbury, a turnover on downs and a missed field goal that bounced off the crossbar.
It was the most notable comeback since Salisbury rallied from a 25-0 halftime defecit against Eastern Randolph to win 29-25 in 2007.
For this one to happen, the Hornets had to have everything go right in the fourth quarter and it basically did. They recovered two onside kicks, converted two fourth downs of their own and reached the end zone three times. Not lost was Keion Adams’ huge fourth down stop to give Salisbury the ball back with 3:48 left.
“On the other side of coin is so many things went wrong for us in the fourth quarter,” said Salisbury Joe Pinyan, who won his 100th game in grand fasion. “We’ve got resilient bunch of kids.”•BAUK TIME: Quarterback Brian Bauk was outstanding again, throwing for 132 yards and rushing for 124. He was the Hornets’ offensive player of the week. He converted a pair of fourth-quarter fourth downs. He hit Max Allen on a 28-yard pass on fourth-and-10 to get Salisbury down to the goal line.
With around two minutes left, the Hornets were down to another convert-or-die situation on fourth-and-9 from their own 41-yard line and Bauk dumped it off to Ruffin for a 14-yard gain. One play later, he scrambled around and found Jon Mark Petty in the back of the end zone for a 45-yard TD.•SPECIAL TEAMS; Stephen Mazur was the obvious choice for special teams player of the week. Mazur kicked two onside kicks perfectly and nailed the game-winning field goal with 4.6 seconds left.•ONSIDE RECOVERIES: Tony Krider and Quan Davis claimed recoveries of the onside kick attempts.•ADAMS’ PICK: Keion Adams’ interception on the final play was his sixth of the season, tying him for the county lead.•THANKSGIVING: The Hornets are the only team in the county able to hold a Thanksgiving practice. It’s an honor for teams to practice on the holiday since it usually means said team has made it deep into the postseason.
“If you practice on Thanksgiving and you go home and there’s Christmas lights turned on, you’ve had a great season,” Pinyan said.
Salisbury will do a walk-through around 9 a.m. and will come off the field around 10:30 to a turkey sandwich lunch.
“We’re just thankful for where we’re at right now,” Pinyan said.
East played extremely well defensively in a 21-20 overtime loss to Concord in the third round of the 3A playoffs.
Concord had put up 507 yards a week earlier against West Rowan. East held the Spiders to 85 net rushing yards and 179 passing for a total of 264.
“I can’t single anyone out,” defensive coordinator Jason Barnes said. “Just a total team effort.”
East created four turnovers, including three interceptions on passes that were tipped and then picked off.
Dock Corpening’s interception – he deflected a pass while playing in the face of a receiver and then located the ball in the air – was one of the defensive plays of the season.•WINNING: East finished with eight wins, one of the best seasons in school history.
The 1959, 1968, 1970 and 2009 Mustangs won nine. The 1997 team won 10. The 1969 team won 13. Those are the only squads that won more.
East also won eight games in 1991 and 1996.
East’s 8-5 season mirrored the 1991 team’s 8-5 effort. Both lost to Concord twice and both lost to Concord in the third round of the playoffs.•MILESTONES: Despite one 24-yard loss, Calvin Edwards pushed past 1,500 rushing yards on Friday, finishing with 1,501. Madison Hedrick pushed past 1,000, finishing at 1,007.
Edwards had the second-biggest rushing season in East history, trailing only Thomas Lowe’s 1,779 yards in 2007.
Edwards netted 60 yards as a varsity freshman and had 370 as a sophomore, so he now has 1,931 yards for his career. Assuming good health, he should break Cal Hayes Jr.’s school record next season.
Edwards scored 21 TDs, just one fewer than Lowe accounted for in his phenomenal 2007 campaign.
East was primarily a running team, but sophomore QB Sam Wyrick was such an efficient passer that he finished with 1,458 passing yards and 1,606 yards of total offense.
Had East won Friday’s game and gotten a chance to play again, Wyrick would’ve had a serious chance to break the school record for passing yards in a season.
He finished with the sixth-best passing season at East but was ony 130 yards behind C.M. Yates’ record-setting effort in 1970. Two Josh Brady seasons in the late 1990s, Jason Barger’s 1996 season and Shawn Eagle’s 2007 season were between Wyrick’s total and Yates’ total of 1,588.•LOOKING AHEAD: It’s going to be exciting just about every Friday when West Rowan, East Rowan, Carson and South Rowan join Concord, Hickory Ridge, Central Cabarrus, Cox Mill and Northwest Cabarrus in a nine-team SPC next season.•COACHING THEM UP: Danny Misenheimer led one of the most improved teams in the state. East came very close to going from 1-9 in 2011 to reaching the Western final in 2012.
“I couldn’t be prouder of how the guys played against Concord,” Miseneheimer said. “And I can promise you this is just the start. This year’s team laid a great foundation, and they are great kids. My biggest hope is that 10 years from now they’ll be successful and they’ll be coming back to tell the coaches how this season made a differnce in their lives.”
The Wonders lost 49-18 to Charlotte Catholic in the third round of the 3AA playoffs.
They finished 10-4, with those four losses marking the most they’ve had in a season since they went 9-4 in 2004.
The folks who beat them weren’t slouches. Catholic, Concord and Porter Ridge will play in Western finals on Friday. The Wonders split with SPC champ Hickory Ridge.•FINAL TALLIES: Running back Kalif Phillips and receiver Keeon Johnson still have one high school game to play – the Shrine Bowl.
Phillips rushed 204 times for 1,755 yards and 25 TDs this season. He also had 413 receiving yards and four TDs through the air. He made it an even 30 touchdowns with a 96-yard kickoff return. Phillips missed two full games with injury and parts of two others.
Johnson missed six full games, but the Virginia commitment still managed 41 receptions for 518 yards and five scores.
Erik Amaya had one of the most prolific kicking seasons in school history with 70 PATs and eight field goals for 94 points.
The Wonders scored 590 points, the most they’ve scored in a season since they topped the 600-mark in 1998.
The bad news was they yielded 386, 162 more than in 2011.•MOVING ON: In 2013, the Wonders will return to the 4A ranks, where they haven’t been since 1988. They did OK in 1988 – 8-2, although they lost a drawing after that season and didn’t get to participate in the playoffs.
Kicker Woody Parrish broke a state record this season for consecutive successful PATs.
Parrish made his last seven kicks of the 2010 season, went 37-for-37 in 2011 and was 33-for-33 this year for 77 in a row.
The previous record, according to the NCHSAA, was 67 without a miss by Ragsdale’s Ryan Beeson in 2000-01.Most area schools played in the Western North Carolina High School Activities Association, rather than the NCHSAA, for most of the 1960s and 1970s.
While the WNCHSAA was just four large conferences in the Piedmont, foothills and mountains, those teams that won WNCHSAA titles are revered likes full state champions for a reason.
WNCHSAA schools North Davidson, Statesville, Concord, Morganton Freedom, South Iredell, Salisbury and Albemarle will be in regional finals on Friday.