By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — The 200-yard rushing game used to come around in Rowan County about as often as a comet, and the Post sports department dutifully kept track of them all.

They were considered legendary feats at one time. Ed Dupree carefully would write down the year, the yardage and the opponent on a sheet of old-school notebook paper, that would then be filed in an old-school manila folder.

There were not a lot of those games to record for a long time, although the Post was aware of Billy Barnes romping for 303 yards for Landis against Rockwell in 1952 and Pete Burleyson almost matching Barnes with 296 when China Grove racked up serious yardage against rival Landis in 1955.

The late 1950s and early 1960s brought consolidation and ended the era of the small schools. The late 1960s brought the closing of the Black schools and full integration. The players were smaller than they are now, but the level of play was quite high in the defensive-minded and well-coached late 1960s. Yards weren’t easy to come by. Games were tight and low-scoring. A 21-7 game was considered one-sided. The Post recorded only three 200-yard rushing games for the entire decade — by South’s Mark Baldwin, East’s Jerry Sifford and North’s Kenny Stoner.

The 1970s was a decade of stellar running backs, and the Post recorded 14 200-yard rushing games. That included four by North’s Mark Sturgis, who had two against county opponents and also surpassed the milestone against Mooresville and Davie County. North’s Jimmy Heggins had three 200-yard games in 1973. Salisbury’s Leonard Atkins had two in 1975, and considering the caliber of the opponent, Atkins’ 237 against Thomasville in 1975 may be one of the best all-time efforts.

In 1970, Boyden’s Kenny Holt achieved the first 200-yard rushing game by a Rowan quarterback when he piled up 205 against rival North Rowan. Also contributing to the 200-yard game list in that decade were Salisbury’s Powell Adkins, South’s Eric Barker, West’s Skeet Rankin and North’s Kenny Brown.

The 200-yard games became less frequent in the 1980s, although West’s Ernie Peace and South’s Michael Ramseur did it two times each early in the decade. Ramseur got it done in county games against East and North in 1981. North’s Eric Perry, Salisbury’s Phillip Oglesby and East’s James Forney had one golden game apiece for a total of seven in the decade.

There were eight 200-yard games in the 1990s. with West’s Brent Hudson and North’s Nathanial Hyde accounting for two apiece. Salisbury’s Andre Turner, West’s Lamont Smith and South’s Travis Trexler and Chris Torrence accomplished the feat once.

So there were 34 200-yard rushing games that were recorded by the Post through 1999.

Now the rapidly swelling list— it’s on a computer now instead of a sheet of notebook paper —  is at 161 entries, which means there have been 127 200-yard games recorded since 2000.

A big part of the rushing explosion was West’s KP Parks, who made the 200-yard game pretty routine from 2006-09, especially in his senior year when he averaged more than 200 yards per game. Stat sheets also were stuffed by North’s Malcolm Wilson, Jaleel Webster and JaReke Chambers; Salisbury’s Justin Ruffin, Romar Morris and JyMikaah Wells; West’s Wade Moore, Dinkin Miller and Ben Hampton; Carson’s Shaun Warren and Brandon Sloop, and East’s Cal Hayes Jr, Thomas Lowe, Sammy Pinckney and Max Wall — and that’s just naming a few.

South hasn’t put a ton of names on that list, but the Raiders did add one last week when Landon Richards turned in a monumental, 265-yard workhorse game.

Salisbury’s Jamal Rule made his first 200-yard impact in 2022 as a replacement when Wells was injured. Rule already owns four 200-yard games this season.

West’s Jaylen Neely also has a 200-yard game this season.

North’s Jaemias Morrow and QB Jeremiah Alford haven’t recorded a 200 rushing night so far this year — Morrow has been close with a 171 and a 184 — but they both are members of the 200 club from previous seasons. Taking the opponent into consideration, Morrow’s 174 yards against Thomasville a few weeks ago was about as good a game as anyone’s had this season.

Salisbury’s Mike Geter and West’s Evan Kennedy are two more current players who had 200-yard rushing games in 2022.

There are some names on the 200 list that you may already have forgotten about. Carson’s Hunter Courtney had an incredible 346-yard game against South Rowan in 2019, for instance.

The most unlikely name on the long list may be East’s Blake Hill, a fine third baseman who managed to rush for 206 yards against the Raiders in 2022. It was his only game with more than 100 yards.

Moving on to Friday’s games, who’s the most likely to add another entry to the 200 club?

It’s definitely Rule. Salisbury is favored by a ton against East Davidson.

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Salisbury (7-0, 3-0 CCC) at East Davidson (2-4, 0-2 CCC), 7:30 p.m.

The Hornets are ranked fifth in 2A by Carolina Preps and they are getting healthier.

It’s hard to see much going wrong for the Hornets at East Davidson, a team that was hammered by North Rowan last week.

Salisbury is favored by 39 points by the Massey Ratings and hasn’t lost to the Golden Eagles since 2016. The Hornets won 56-7 in 2022.

•••

West Rowan (2-4, 2-1 SPC) at Robinson (6-0, 4-0 SPC), 7 p.m.

Robinson is ranked 11th in 3A by Carolina Preps and has outscored opponents by more than 200 points.

A 49-9 loser to Northwest Cabarrus last week, the Falcons are 24-point underdogs on the road against the Bulldogs.

West is 2-0 all-time against Robinson. The schools have not met on the football field since 2016.

•••

East Rowan (0-6, 0-3 SPC) at Central Cabarrus (1-5, 0-3 SPC), 7 p.m.

After running into Northwest Cabarrus and Robinson back-to-back — and being outscored 93-0 — the Mustangs can compete this week against the Vikings, who are reeling from a surprising loss to South Rowan. Central let a 20-0 lead evaporate in that one.

The Massey Ratings give Central the edge by 20 points, but it should be a lot tighter than that. The Massey Ratings give East a 26 percent chance of securing its first victory.

Central won 36-24 last season. East’s last win against the Vikings came in 2014.

•••

South Rowan (2-4, 1-2 SPC) at Concord (4-2, 2-2 SPC), 7 p.m.

The Massey Ratings favor the Spiders by 34 points and give South a 2 percent chance of winning, but that doesn’t seem very rational.

Concord beat East Rowan 11-10 and lost to Carson last week, so the Raiders, at the very least, should be able to stay in the game.

South is coming off its best victory in a long time against Central Cabarrus — a rally from a 20-point deficit in a league game — and the Raiders have a chance to build on that effort against a decent, but not overwhelming opponent.

Concord hasn’t been an offensive juggernaut, but the Spiders do have a solid defense. They’ll be much harder to run the ball on than Central Cabarrus was.

The Spiders lead the all-time series 14-10-1. South hasn’t beaten Concord since 1984.

•••

Carson (2-4, 1-2 SPC) at NW Cabarrus (6-0, 3-0 SPC), 7 p.m.

Northwest, ranked 12th in 3A by Carolina Preps, is favored by 34 points. The Trojans have scored 255 points, while allowing a mere 28 and bludgeoned West Rowan last week.

Northwest routed Carson 48-0 in 2022. Carson’s most recent victory in the series was in 2015.

Carson’s defensive-minded victory against Concord last week was huge and could propel the Cougars into the state playoffs.

Carson will be favored down the stretch against East Rowan, Central Cabarrus and South Rowan, but first the Cougars have to survive this one.

QB Michael Guiton got hurt in the Concord game, but jayvee QB Griffin Barber stepped in and threw a TD pass.

•••

West Cabarrus (1-6, 1-2 GMC) at A.L. Brown (2-4, 0-3 GMC), 7 p.m.

It doesn’t show as far as wins and losses, but West Cabarrus has started to turn things around under new head coach Brian Hinson.

The Wolverines have been in games and have lost some close ones.

A.L. Brown is favored by 22 points to get its first Greater Metro Conference win, but it’s unlikely to be that easy.

The Wonders won 31-13 in 2022 and lead the series 2-1.

•••

North Rowan is off this week.

The Cavaliers can rest a bit following an excellent performance in a romp at East Davidson. Jeremiah Alford threw for 279 yards, his biggest game of the season. Amir Alexander snagged his sixth TD pass and Jaemias Morrow scored his 64th career touchdown.

North (6-1, 3-0) will finish with West Davidson, Lexington and Salisbury.

•••

Ranked 16th in 4A by Carolina Preps, Davie (5-1, 3-0) is favored by seven at Mount Tabor (2-4, 0-3), winless in the league but pretty dangerous.

Mooresville (6-0, 2-0) is ranked fifth in 4A by Carolina Preps and is a 35-point favorite at home against South Iredell (2-4, 0-2).