Prep football notebook …

Carson won one of the greatest defensive struggles in school history on Friday.
Carson beat Mount Pleasant 10-3. Carson had never won a game scoring so few points.
It wasn’t quite the lowest-scoring game in school history. Carson lost 10-0 to Lake Norman in 2007.
Carson played in one other game in which only 13 points were scored when it fell 7-6 to Lake Norman in 2006.
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TAKE IT AWAY: Carson (3-2, 1-1 SPC) recorded its 10th and 11th takeaways against Mount Pleasant. Tackle Alex Lyles had his county-leading third fumble recovery, while free safety Will Zentmeyer had his first interception.
Spur Tre Williams and corner Tyrese Paul have two interceptions apiece.
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AND COUNTING: Carson coach Joe Pinyan won his 103rd game as a head coach on Friday. He’s sixth on the county’s all-time list. Roger Secreast is the person in fifth place. Secreast won 115 times coaching in Rowan County.
No. 104 won’t be easy for Pinyan. Carson hosts West Rowan on Friday. Carson has never beaten West, and Pinyan never won against West while he was at Salisbury.
At least that game will be in China Grove. Carson hasn’t played at home all season.
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TD TIME: Senior quarterback Austin McNeill threw his 35th career touchdown pass when Darren Isom scored on a 66-yard play with 1:07 left to beat Mount Pleasant. That’s a school record McNeill adds to every time he throws for a TD.
McNeill has 3,134 career passing yards. Zack Gragg’s school record is 3,480.
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SLOOP UPDATE: Brandon Sloop had an unusually quiet night against Mount Pleasant with 15 carries for 51 yards.
Sloop, a junior, has 2,812 career rushing yards. The person above him on the all-time county list is former North Rowan star Bennie Geter, who stands 14th with 2,892.
On paper, West Rowan has been considerably better than its last three opponents, and it’s made sure of that on the field. The Falcons have won their last three games by a combined score of 158-14. Friday’s point total was the highest for West since a 66-7 win against South in 2010.
“We didn’t give them a chance to breathe,” West Rowan coach Scott Young said. “I don’t mean that to sound bad. Our kids were ready to do and they went.”
South turned the ball over twice early and West cashed in during a 30-point first quarter.
“It kind of got that snowball effect,” Young said. “They come right out of the gate and turn it over on the first play and then turn it over on the sixth play. We had a onside kick planned in there. It was a perfect storm of defense creating turnovers, offense doing something with the ball and special teams tied in there.”
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SHOUTOUTS: Young reeled off a plethora of players that deserved shoutouts in Friday’s big win, including Chris Patterson (two TD catches) and Mookie Martin found the end zone twice in the second half on runs of 6 and 42 yards.
“Chris had his best game of the year,” Young said. Patterson’s stat line read that he caught four passes for 139 yards.
Derrick Fortson, Quameak Lewis, Charlotte signee Najee Tucker and Zeke Blackwood all were factors on the defense for the Falcons (4-1, 2-0 SPC).
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REDDICK UPDATE: Daisean Reddick went over 1,500 yards for his career with 101 against South. Reddick had 3 yards on a couple of varsity carries as a freshman, 249 as a sophmore backup, 1,033 as a junior when he split carries with Desmond Jackson, and 276 in three games this season. His career total is 1,561.
Reddick has scored 21 rushing TDs in his career. He got his first receiving TD against South.
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HURTING: Senior offensive lineman Chris Hassard is questionable for Friday’s game at Carson with a toe injury. Hassard was an all-county player last year and is the leader of the offensive line.

Forest Hills looked like a potential trap game for the Cavaliers (6-0), but they turned in a flawless first half. They led 28-0 at the break and cruised 34-7.
“That first half, we played extremely hard, and it was as good a half of football as we have played all season,” North coach Joe Nixon said. “You’d like to keep the gas on the floor and play just as well in the second half, but that’s hard to do.”
Nixon lauded both Coneys, Kasaun and Kenyaun, for their play, and he was very happy with the defense.
Xavier Robinson recovered a fumble. Dylan Riley forced a fumble.
“We held them under 100 yards rushing and under 100 yards passing, and they had some talented offensive players,” Nixon said. “That’s a good job.”
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CHAMBERS UPDATE: North’s junior QB Jareke Chambers holds two school records — 272 rushing yards in a game in 2012 in a playoff against West Montgomery and six touchdowns in a game this season against Providence Grove.
Chambers went over 2,000 rushing yards for his career on Friday. He had 41 in two varsity outings as a freshman, 1,129 as a sophomore and 843 so far this season for a total of 2,013. He’s already sixth in school history, trailing Jimmy Heggins, Nathanial Hyde, Bennie Geter, Darryl Jackson and all-time leader Mark Sturgis (1974-76).
Chambers also continues to produce enough passing yardage to keep North balanced on offense. He was an efficient 8-for-14 through the air against Forest Hills.
“I really thought we’d be running the ball more,” Nixon said. “But Jareke is doing a very good job throwing the football.”
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BYE WEEK: North can’t add to its victory total this week because it’s off.
“The bye comes at a pretty good time because we can heal some bruises,” Nixon said. “We gave the guys Monday off, and we’re excited about using this week of practice to get better.”
When North returns to action on Oct. 11, it will play Lexington in a CCC opener at home. Lexington (0-6) also is off this Friday.

The SPC is a bear this year, just like it was supposed to be, with three top-10-in-3A caliber teams in Concord, Central Cabarrus and West Rowan.
West isn’t ranked yet, but chances are that it soon will be.
East, still playing without 1,500-yard rusher Calvin Edwards, looked like a middle-of-the-pack SPC team, at best, in Friday’s 55-28 loss to the Spiders, but Concord coach Glen Padgett praised the Mustangs. Padgett’s take on the game was that it was more a case of Concord being focused and playing extremely well than of East struggling, and he expressed the belief that the Mustangs will beat a lot of people.
“They’re just really hard to defend,” Padgett said. “I’m very impressed with their quarterback (Samuel Wyrick). He’s very good at riding that dive back, and then standing up and throwing it and beating you over the top. He really puts your safeties in a bind, and he beat us a few times.”
Wyrick’s 224 passing yards included TD strikes to Noah Drye, Max Wall and Donte Means, who was making a rare cameo on offense. The passes to Drye and Means barely made it to their destinations. Concord backs were an inch or so away from breakups.
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TOUGH TASK: Concord faces a showdown with Central Cabarrus on Friday, a battle of unbeatens that will be staged at Concord’s Bailey Stadium.
“We played a good team tonight (East) and we’ll play an undefeated, extremely talented team next,” Padgett said. “The thing is if you can just survive this league without getting too banged-up, then you’ve really got a chance to do something in the playoffs. We had some playoff games last year where our guys realized that the teams we were playing weren’t as good as the teams we’d already played in conference.”
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ROCKY ROAD: East’s run defense got shredded by Concord’s Rocky Reid and Terry Cassel like it hasn’t been shredded in a long time.
Concord had 377 net rushing yards, and it would’ve been over 400 without a couple of bouncing shotgun snaps that were recorded as negative team rushes.
East hadn’t allowed so many rushing yards since West Rowan trampled the Mustangs for 379 in a 41-7 romp in 2009.
East held Concord to 85 rushing yards in last season’s memorable playoff game that Concord won in overtime.
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MEAN STREAK: About the only thing Concord didn’t do well Friday was cover kickoffs, and the Spiders were kicking off frequently. Means had some exciting runbacks for the Mustangs that created instant field position for the offense.
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TAKE IT AWAY: East (2-3 1-2 SPC) didn’t force a turnover for the first time this season. The last time East didn’t come up with a turnover on defense or special teams was in the 42-20 loss to Concord in the second week of the 2012 season.

One thing you can say about South Rowan, there may not be a 3A team that has played a tougher schedule.
South’s 65-7 loss to West Rowan on Friday piled on previous losses to Concord, Northwest Cabarrus, A.L. Brown and South Iredell.
South Iredell and Concord are unbeaten and ranked in the top 10. West, Northwest and A.L. Brown have lost one game apiece.
South (0-5, 0-3 SPC) is home Friday against Cox Mill (2-4), so it will finally face a team with a losing record. Cox Mill is no slouch, but the Raiders should at least have a chance. Cox Mill lost in overtime to Northwest, while South lost 35-25 to Northwest.
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FULL SPEED AHEAD: South senior Tyler Fuller has emerged as one of the county’s top receivers. Fuller has caught a TD pass in each of South’s last two games and has 16 catches for 217 yards for the season.
South’s junior QB Aaron Kennerly was limited to 102 passing yards by West, but he still threw his fourth TD pass and topped 100 passing yards for the eighth time in his career. He has three 200-yard games.
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STOWE AWAY: Eric Stowe picked off a pass for the Raiders against West. West QB Harrison Baucom hadn’t thrown an interception since opening night.

The Hornets (0-5) had a bye week to regroup and heal some injuries. That’s the good news. The bad news is they return with a road game at 4A Southeast Guilford Friday.
Southeast Guilford is 5-0, and it has allowed only 41 points. SE Guilford beat Northern Durham 46-0 and buried Ragsdale 42-7.
Salisbury has been shut out three times, so this matchup doesn’t sound promising.
Salisbury finally will get to play a 2A team when it hosts surprising East Davidson (5-1) on Oct. 11.

Some media accounts of the Wonders’ 30-14 victory against North Meck credited Gabe Lucero with an 81-yard kickoff return to start the game.
“If Gabe runs 81 yards, it might take him a couple of days,” A.L. Brown coach Mike Newsome joked.
The Wonders had a good time Monday ribbing the hard-nosed Lucero about his sudden burst of speed, but the kick returner on that play actually was speedster Rodney Edmonds. Edmonds is No. 8, while Lucero is No. 9, so it’s not hard to see how the mistake could be made.
Edmonds earned the Wonders’ special teams player of the week honors, mostly for that return.
Kenny Halstenberg is a frequent “Hawg of the Week,” and the Wonders (4-1, 1-0 MECKA) also honored a second offensive lineman for the North Meck game. Pierre Mills was labeled “Hitman of the Week” for a rather forceful block that sent a North Meck player tumbling in a double somersault. On film, Mills’ unfortunate victim looked like a gymnast.
Johnny Delahoussaey, who made what Newsome described as “a fabulous catch,” for the Wonders’ first TD on Friday, was an easy choice as offensive player of the week.
Lineman Kendall Holmes was named defensive player of the week.
Holmes was part of a sack onslaught. North Meck’s offensive line had little success blocking the Wonders, who recorded, by Newsome’s count, 13 sacks.
Christian Carter had three sacks. Holmes, Kyrell Williamson, Jamel Logan, Keechan Ware and Denzel Sherer joined in the fun.
Hayden Taylor recorded a rare double with a sack and an interception.

It was in vain, but sophomore Cade Carney had a storybook night in Davie’s 45-37 loss to Reagan in the War Eagles’ CPC opener. Carney had 151 rushing yards, 94 receiving yards and 91 passing yards.
His 336 yards still weren’t enough. Davie (2-4, 0-1) had a 20-0 run at one point, but talented Reagan had a 24-0 run of its own.
Paul Folmar had a breakout game with two touchdown catches, including one that covered 91 yards.
Strong-legged Jonn Young boomed a 42-yard field goal. Young also has a 54-yard punt this season.
Linebacker Corvonn Peebles leads Davie’s defense with 65 tackles.
Davie played a stout second half after taking it on the chin in the first half.
“It’s a lot for us to build on from that second half because we found our right then who would be satisfied and give up and who was going to fight,” Davie coach Devore Holman said.
Davie is in for another tough scrap this week, with a road game against North Davidson. It figures to be a desperately fought game in Welcome. Both teams are 0-1 in the league, and an 0-2 start just about means elimination from the conference title chase.
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Mike London, Ryan Bisesi and Brian Pitts contributed to the notebook.