East, West lose road games; Wonders romp

Published 6:18 am Wednesday, August 23, 2017

From staff reports

West Rowan’s football team struggled  in a 29-3 opening-night loss at Mooresville.

The Falcons’ defense came up with three fumble recoveries early, but West was only able to cash in three points on a 27-yard field goal by Federico Cruz. That’s where the game was lost.

Then the Blue Devils took control of the non-conference contest  with a 21-point flurry in the final five minutes of the first half.

Quarterback Elijah Wright, a transfer from Hopewell, accounted for Mooresville’s first score with 4:41 left in the half.

Mooresville then recovered a pooch kick at the West 18, and Lazarus Hayes scored the TD that put the Blue Devils up, 14-3.

Hayes scored again before the half against a tiring West defense for a 21-3 lead. Mooresville played at a very fast tempo.

Mooresville’s defense continued to frustrate the Falcons in a rainy second half, and the Blue Devils added a safety when West had a bad snap on a punt.

Mooresville has won four of its last five meetings with West.

West was held without a touchdown on opening night for the first time since 1986 when the Falcons fell to North Rowan, 28-0.

West hosts North Rowan next week.

W. Rowan     3    0   0   0  — 3

Mooresville 0  21   6   2 —29

A.L. Brown

A.L. Brown opened the season with a 56-0 non-conference romp at Hopewell on Friday.

Quarterback Jordan Medley started the scoring with a 34-yard scoring romp, and Brian Gutierrez added the first of many PATs.

Scoring runs of 5 and 13 yards by Nick Lyerly pushed the lead to 21-0. Jalen Neal’s 2-yard scoring run made it 27-0 at the break.

Brown got two scoring runs from Jaron Cooper in the second half. Medley connected with Neal on a 20-yard scoring pass, and Zach Clyburn had a pick-six.

Medley, Lyerly and Cooper all topped 100 rushing yards.

The Wonders host Marvin Ridge next Friday.

A.L. Brown 14   13 14 15 — 56

Hopewell 0      0   0  0   — 0

East Rowan

Cameron Davis rolled for four touchdowns and 306 rushing yards to lead North Stanly to a 39-25 win against East Rowan on Friday in New London.

The game was plagued with an early lightning delay.

Sam Wall scored East’s first TD of the season on a 16-yard run to pull the Mustangs within 7-6, but a two-point conversion failed.

North Stanly pushed ahead 16-6 at halftime.

East scored first in the second half when Deontae Gallman broke a 62-yard run, but the PAT kick was missed.

A safety put North Stanly ahead 18-12, but East tied the game at 18-all late in third quarter when Justin Smith threw a 14-yard TD pass to Gabe Hinceman.

Davis’ third TD with 11:03 left in the game put the Comets ahead to stay, and he scored again at the 9:45 mark to put North Stanly in control, 32-18.

Both teams added a late TD, with East scoring on a pass play from Smith to Wall in the final seconds.

E. Rowan     6   0  12   7  — 25

N. Stanly   10   6   2   21  — 39

Intimidators

  Evan Skoug drove in two runs, but the Intimidators fell short in a 5-4 loss to the Hagerstown Suns on Friday at Municipal Stadium.

Prep volleyball

In Carson’s 3-1 win against West Davidson, Mallory Weast had 16 kills, Lindsay Elmore had 10 kills, Kary Hales had 26 digs, and Grace Thomas had 13 digs and 28 assists.