Head coach Jonathan Lowe and receiver/punter Jacob Rockwell.

Brian Wilhite photos.

 

Carson QB Griffin Barber.

By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

MONROE — Carson dominated the stat sheet on Friday night at Piedmont, but the Cougars still managed to make things thrilling.

Carson survived 32-29 in a wild non-conference game.

Julio Moctezuma’s pointblank field goal with 5 seconds left gave the Cougars the lead, but Moctezuma still had to help make the tackle after his kickoff on the final play of the game. Carson booted it deep, and Piedmont nearly took it all the way back.

Carson was (2-1) in command 29-7 at halftime, but the Panthers (1-2) were a different team in the second half.

“Kudos to Piedmont,” Carson head coach Jonathan Lowe said. “We all felt like we should have won the game by a lot more than we did, but there was never any lack of effort on our part. Credit them with a great comeback.”

Carson quarterback Griffin Barber had one of the best games of his career. He was 9-for-13 passing, with drops on three of the four incompletions. He threw for 160 yards and a touchdown. Barber also had six carries for 66 yards, a career-best as far as rushing yards.

“He was our offensive player of the game, gave us a player of the year kind of game,” Lowe said.

Carson racked up 246 rushing yards to Piedmont’s 53, so the Cougars owned the line of scrimmage. Rosean Perkins had 14 carries for 96 yards and two touchdowns. Trip Marcum had 47 yards and a TD on nine carries.

Jackson Earnhardt made eight tackles for Carson. Tanner Simpson had a sack on a safety blitz.

A 52-yard punt by Jacob Rockwell to the Piedmont 1-yard line led to a Carson safety in the second quarter.

Xavier Phillips had two catches for 82 yards and caught a touchdown pass for the Cougars’ first score. Rockwell had three receptions for 70 yards. Barber’s long completion to Rockwell set up the TD late in the first half that made it 29-7.

But the Cougars had miscues and turnovers in the second half, and Piedmont, which got 160 passing yards from Jack Blackwelder ran off 22 unanswered points, including a 2-point conversion to get back even at 29-all with 5:41 left.

Carson was able to answer with the decisive drive that was capped by Moctezuma’s clutch field goal.

Piedmont’s only score of the first half came on a kickoff return TD, and the Panthers nearly repeated that feat at the end of the game. Moctezuma and Cruise Monteith made the tackle around the Carson 20-yard line.

“Proud of the boys that we didn’t let it get away from us,” Lowe said. “Piedmont came to play in the second half and we had a lot of things go against us. We turned it over twice. But we didn’t make excuses, we finished the job.”

Carson has an open week before it travels to West Rowan on Sept. 20.