From staff reports

NEW LONDON — North Rowan had waited for this one for a while.

Crushed by North Stanly at home in a 2018 showdown, the Cavaliers exacted payback, 34-8, in Friday’s road game.

This was another showdown. This time the Cavaliers showed up.

North Rowan’s defense held the Comets to four first downs. North Stanly ran the ball 25 times for a net of 1 yard.

“Our defense flew to the football,” North coach Ben Hampton said. “We shut down their running attack, and except for one play, we didn’t allow anything through the air. Our defense kept us in good field position all night.”

The victory will mean a Yadkin Valley Conference title for the Cavaliers (7-3, 5-0), who have won seven straight since opening the season 0-3. After an open week, North Rowan’s final game will be against winless South Davidson, a 61-8 loser to Albemarle on Friday.

Malcolm Wilson rushed for 176 yards and scored three touchdowns and two 2-point conversions to lead North Rowan’s onslaught. He raised his total for the season to 24 TDs.

“The brought steady pressure on every down, but Kyree Sims did a good job of managing our offense,” Hampton said. “We were able to capitalize when they brought pressure and picked up first downs.”

Wilson’s first touchdown opened the scoring. Then Caelan Stinson scored a special-teams touchdown when he recovered a punt blocked into the end zone by Jyrik Scott. Wilson’s pair of conversions made it 16-0.

North forged ahead 22-0 in the second quarter when Wilson scored on a 21-yard run.

North Stanly scored a touchdown at the end of the first half on Luke Shaver’s 28-yard pass to Luke Benfield.  Christian Barber ran for two points to make it 22-8 at the break.

After a scoreless third quarter, the Cavaliers pulled away with another Wilson touchdown and Kyree Sims’ 3-yard scoring pass to Denerio Robinson.

“We stayed patient on offense,” Hampton said. “They brought steady pressure on every down, but Kyree did a good job of managing the offense.”

Sims passed for 144 yards, while Robinson had 95 receiving yards.

Xzaviar “Zay” Davis had an interception and a 64-yard return for the Cavaliers.

“We beat a good club,” Hampton said. “North Stanly is physical and relentless on defense, but we stayed consistent. We kept attacking downhill and we had great success. Just a great team effort and a great all-around team win.”

North Rowan will have some time to heal bumps and bruises this week.

•••

South Iredell 35, East Rowan 31

TROUTMAN — East Rowan lost a back-and-forth North Piedmont Conference struggle at South Iredell on Friday.

East fell despite another huge game by Sammy Pinckney, who rushed for 287 yards and three touchdowns from the “Wildcat” formation.

When East (4-5, 1-2) scored on a Vincent Jones-to-Cooper Wright pass play with 8:40 left in the third quarter, the Mustangs led 24-6 and appeared to be on their way, but they couldn’t hang on.

South Iredell (3-6, 1-2) scored first, but Pinckney’s first TD, a 2-point conversion and a Cole Eagle field goal gave the Mustangs an 11-6 lead.

Pinckney scored on the final play of the first half to push the Mustangs’ advantage to 17-6.

After falling behind 24-6, the Vikings rallied for 22 unanswered points to take a 28-24 lead.

With 6:36 remaining, Pinckney scored for a 31-28 lead, but the Vikings scored last. They got their decisive TD with 3:59 left to play.

Qhihmari McCall recovered a fumble for the Mustangs.

•••

West Rowan 44, North Iredell 0

OLIN — West Rowan North Piedmont Conference game at North Iredell (0-9, 0-3) figured to be relatively easy, but coach Joe Nixon didn’t want to take any chances.

He preached a fast start.

He got it.

Cayleb Brawley dashed 65 yards to score a minute into the game, before fans had settled in their seats. That play jump-started what became a 44-0 rout for the Falcons (6-3, 3-0), who are on a collision course with Statesville to decide the NPC title. That game will be played at West Rowan on Nov. 8.

Jalen Houston produced another huge game. He had four touchdowns, three rushing and one receiving.

Brawley scored two touchdowns.

Houston’s 9-yard scoring run made it 13-0, and Federico Cruz booted a field goal for a 16-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Houston had scoring plays of 50 and 58 yards in the second quarter to make it 30-0.

Houston continued to run wild in the third quarter, and West’s stout defense maintained the shutout. It was the second shutout for West. The Falcons’ defense has allowed only 13 points in three NPC contests.

North Iredell had minus-37 rushing yards.

Ty’Kese Warren intercepted a pass early in the second half.

“We focused on us, just trying to get better, and I think we did,” Nixon said. “Our special teams got us field position, our offense moved the ball well, and our defense controlled the line of scrimmage.”

•••

South Rowan 27, Lexington 22

LEXINGTON — This Central Carolina Conference matchup figured to be wild — and it was.

South Rowan pulled it out to break a five-game losing streak. Lexington (1-8, 0-7) put forth a big effort on homecoming but has lost seven in a row since surprising North Rowan on Sept. 6.

“The biggest thing is we came home with a win,” South Rowan coach Daniel Yow said. “Lexington puts a lot of athletes on the field. It was an exciting football game. It was like I told their coach (DeVore Holman), this didn’t look like a game between two teams that haven’t won much in the conference. We’re both better than our record.”

South (2-7, 2-5) started fast, controlled the first half and led 14-0 at the break.

“That extended halftime at homecoming might have got to us some,” Yow said. “We lost our focus in the third quarter. They came back to make it 14-all. Then we woke up.”

South went up 21-14. Lexington scored, went for the 2-point coversion and got it to take a 22-21 lead.

South scored the deciding touchdown with about four minutes left.

Jacob Ritchie and Marcus Holloman, who was making his varsity debut, had big games for South’s defense.

“Our whole defensive line played well, with six kids rotating in there,” Yow said.

South got a rushing touchdown from Brayden Garrett.

South quarterback Drew Huffman ran for a touchdown and threw two TD passes to Braden Graham. Graham caught one of them falling down after the ball was deflected.

•••

NW Cabarrus 38, A.L. Brown 7

KANNAPOLIS — The second-ranked Trojans stayed perfect with an impressive home win that moved them a giant step toward the South Piedmont Conference title.

For the Wonders (5-3, 1-2), Jakhiry Bennett had a 10-yard rushing TD in the second quarter to get his team within 20-7, but Northwest connected on a touchdown pass before halftime to extend its lead to 26-7.

The Wonders drove the ball to the Northwest 29 in the third quarter, but a fourth-down sack about ended any realistic hope of a comeback.

NWC quarterback Nick Wilds-Lawing ran for two touchdowns and threw scoring passes to Bryson Mason and Cam Saunders.

LJ Currie and Avarion Cole had rushing TDs for Northwest (9-0, 3-0).

Northwest’s defense had a tremendous number of tackles for loss.