By David Shaw
dshaw@salisburypost.com
GRANITE QUARRY – East Rowan sent a resounding message to anyone willing to listen Friday night.
It wasn’t simply that the Mustangs ousted visiting Carson from the 3A state playoffs with a 49-14 opening-round win, their first post-season victory since 2009. It was how they accomplished it.
“We had to keep scoring,” running back Calvin Edwards said with a sideways glance. “Even when we got the lead, we had to keep going.”
Edwards rushed for a team-best 118 yards as East (7-4) rallied from a first-quarter deficit and scored the game’s final six touchdowns. His 68-yard touchdown run in the second period broke a 14-14 tie and ignited a fire that Carson never doused.
“We came here expecting to win the game,” coach Mark Woody said after CHS finished 4-8. “We just couldn’t get the wheels going. To come to an abrupt stop like this is tough, but give them credit. They played a good game.”
East didn’t put up pinball-machine numbers, but it won convincingly. Quarterback Sam Wyrick passed for 137 yards and four touchdowns and tailback Madison Hedrick – who suffered a left shoulder injury and carried only once in the second half – skittered for 110 yards and a TD. “He’s OK,” coach Danny Misenheimer reported. “We took him out for precautionary meassures. We don’t need him to get hurt. We’ll have him ice it down and hopefully he’ll be ready to go next week.”
Hedrick, an East Rowan purebred, raced 73 yards for his seventh touchdown of the season late in the opening quarter. Edwards put the Mustangs ahead for keeps late in the second when he took a handoff and motored down the right side into the end zone. East added a third back-breaking play a minute later when senior defensive back Dalton Bost intercepted an Austin McNeill pass and turned it into a 49-yard pick-six.
“Bost,” teammate Tyler L’Hommedieu said, with eyes the size of saucers. “He was so high in the air. Then he had the ability to turn around and score. That really put a dagger in them.”
It was Bost’s third interception this year, but first that he returned for a score. “We were lined up in a man-to-man,” he said. “After (McNeill) threw it up, I went up for it but I don’t remember getting that high in the air. All I know is I came down with it and had a clear lane to the end zone.”
East’s defense pitched a shutout over the last three quarters. Carson received 140 straight-ahead yards from bruising running back Brandon Sloop, but managed only six first downs and 227 total yards. “It was hard-going there,” Woody said. “We planned on getting into our spread set, but we couldn’t get the edge like we wanted to. It kind of limited us to running inside.”
Wyrick helped East nourish a 28-14 halftime lead when he connected with his twin brother, Seth, on a 15-yard, blown-coverage TD pass with 2:19 remaining in the third quarter. Then in the fourth, he lofted two scoring passes to Jordan Phillips (four receptions/83 yards) to salt the game away.
“For a while, the running game wasn’t working very well so we went to the pass,” Wyrick said after his first four-touchdown game. “In the first quarter I made some bad reads and we had some turnovers. But on the touchdowns, guys seemed to be wide open. They were play-actions. I look at the safety the whole time and which ever way he goes, I go the opposite.”
Woody said nothing East did surprised the Cougars. “They’re not fancy,” he said. “They do what they do – but they do it well.”
The victory assured East a second-round home game against Rockingham County (9-3) next Friday. Until then, L’Hommedieu sounded the Mustangs’ fight song.
“We’re here to stay,” he chirped after another menacing defensive performance. “And we’re just gonna keep taking them one at a time. It’s win and advance.”•NOTES: Carson’s Greg Tonnesen punted nine times, seven in the first half. … Sloop finished the season with 1,380 yards rushing and eight touchdowns. … Ben Gragg intercepted a pass for CHS and teammates Kaz Ivanov and Tonny Dang recovered fumbles. Dalton Moose added a third-quarter pick for the Mustangs.