CONCORD — For a few minutes Friday night, Carson was allowed to think it was as good as the state’s sixth-ranked team.
“They didn’t have an answer for us,” said defensive lineman Alex Lyles. “We all clogged our holes. Then something happened.”
To be precise, then Rocky Reid happened. The all-solar system Concord running back was shackled in the first quarter, limited to 10 yards on his first six carries. He caught a full-moon fever in the second and finished with 278 yards and three touchdowns in a 35-8 SPC victory.
“The first quarter felt great,” Carson linebacker Myquon Stout said after the Cougars’ four-game winning streak was curbed. “We were executing our plays. We thought we could win the game.”
The Cougars (5-3, 3-2) never had a chance after Reid — the 210-pound junior who’s been lighting up scoreboards all season — found his footing. He scored on runs of 87, 10 and 2 yards as Concord (8-0. 6-0) continued its march toward the conference title.
“He big-played us to death,” said Carson coach Joe Pinyan. “We’d get him stopped, get him stopped and get him stopped — and then he’d break a big play.”
Reid had nine running attempts that gained two yards or less. But once he ventured into open space he routinely weaved through traffic like Gale Sayers running for daylight.
“This actually was the best defense we’ve seen all year,” Reid said after rushing for 164 yards on five second-period explosions. “That No. 3 (Stout) and No. 12 (Carson linebacker Anthony McCurry) gave us fits. It was almost like they knew what play was coming.”
The Cougars missed out on one early in the second quarter, when Spiders’ quarterback Keenan Black lobbed a 19-yard TD pass to unguarded Logan Sedergren, providing a 7-2 lead.
“The tight end went down to the tackle spot, so we didn’t know who was eligible,” Stout reported. “(Sedergren) was wide open.”
Added Lyles: “Nobody was looking for that play. We were expecting a run up the middle. They had to resort to trick plays to beat us.”
Two possessions later Reid took a handoff on a draw play, skipped into the Carson secondary and then motored down the left sideline on an 87-yard touchdown romp. “It was pretty much my line,” he said. “They got me a big hole. I just hit it and looked for space.”
Carson kept within reach when it took the second-half kickoff and marched 67 yards for a touchdown that trimmed the deficit to 14-8. A 22-yard burst by Tyler Reynolds set up Brandon Sloop’s 4-yard TD run. “That was one of the best feelings in the world,” Reynolds said after gaining a team-best 69 yards. “It felt like we could beat the No. 6 team in 3A.”
Those hopes vanished when Reid scored on a 10-yard scamper late in the third quarter and again with 4:42 to play. “Was this a step backward?” Pinyan responded to a post-game query. “No, because they’re a very good football team. They were better than us tonight.”