There doesn't seem to be anyone at
South Mecklenburg (Charlotte) who can stop
Ardrey Kell (Charlotte) running back
Justus Pickett.
Ardrey Kell High's Justus Pickett.
Photo by Tom Lemming
Last year Pickett ran for 348 yards against the Sabres, the third-most in Mecklenburg County history. Facing South Mecklenburg again on Friday night, Pickett had 337 yards rushing, 100 yards receiving and six touchdowns as Ardrey Kell won 48-21.
The senior gained those 437 yards from scrimmage on just 25 carries and four catches. His 36 points scored were the second-most in county history, according to the Charlotte Observer, trailing only Victory Christian's Dijuan Harris (38 points).
Pickett now has rushed for at least 200 yards three times in five games and is only the third Mecklenburg County player with two career 300-yard games. He told the Observer he is deciding between Auburn, Florida, Stanford and West Virginia.
Other top items from around North Carolina:
2. Second-ranked team falls: In a battle of Top 5 teams in the Associated Press Class 2-A state poll, No. 5
Kinston stopped a two-point conversion attempt with 1:33 remaining to beat No. 2
Southwest Edgecombe (Pinetops) 24-22.
Quandre Pittman scored three touchdowns for the Cougars, including a 2-yard run that made the score 24-22, but quarterback Brandon Epps was stopped inside the 1 when he tried to run in the 2-point conversion.
Kinston's Sir'tera Bradshaw broke a 16-16 tie on a 1-yard run late in the third quarter and also fielded the final onside kick.
The Vikings are now 6-0 for the first time 17 years, while the Cougars lost a regular-season game for the first time in 23 months.
3. Throw the records out: Hillside (Durham) may have been 5-0 and
Southern (Durham) 0-5, but a 2-point conversion with 20 seconds left was all that separated the two teams on Friday night. Senior linebacker
Treshawn Council sacked quarterback Dorian Belcher on the conversion, giving Hillside the 13-12 win.
Jamiah Johnson threw a 32-yard touchdown to Darren Bullock off a halfback option to put the reigning PAC 6 champions in position to win the game at the end. Brandon China had 135 yards on 26 carries to lead the Hornets.
4. This time it was different: After a season of devastating losses,
R.J. Reynolds (Winston-Salem) finally was on the winning end of a close game, beating Southwest Guilford (High Point) 13-12 when the Cowboys' kicker missed from 30 yards out with 25 seconds left.
"We've lost in overtime; we’ve lost in double overtime, and we lost to Parkland on a Hail Mary,” coach Paul Hall told the Winston-Salem Journal. "We've led three times in the fourth quarter and lost, and here we had them in the fourth quarter, and it came down to a field goal.”
5. Battle of Greensboro: In a game that often attracts between 5,000-10,000 fans,
Ben L. Smith (Greensboro, N.C.) defeated
Dudley (Greensboro) 28-0 in front of a capacity home crowd to go 6-0 for the first time since 1976.
Jeff Sims completed 7 of 12 passes for 222 yards and three touchdowns, including a 74-yard scoring pass to
Quinton Able on his first attempt.
"These guys have been through a lot," coach Rodney Brewington said in the Greensboro News-Record. "They’ve been laughed at. They’ve been picked at. They’d been labeled as a low-performing school. All that’s in the past. They’re legitimate. They just beat Dudley."
The Panthers were ranked 10th in the AP Class 4-A poll.
Harold Gutmann covers the state of North Carolina for MaxPreps.com. He lives in Durham and can be reached at haroldgutmann@gmail.com.
