By Will Bryan
MaxPreps.com
Heading into a wet and cold ninth week of the season, few people expected the primary drama in the Charlotte area to come down to two middling teams with .500 records.
With 4-4 records on the season and neither team being hailed as major threats to run away with the 4A conference title, Vance and North Mecklenburg took the field in Huntersville last Friday night with minimal regional fanfare.
After North Meck took a 21-0 lead in the second quarter, there was good reason to take the local TV cameras elsewhere. Those who did, however, missed arguably the best finish to a game in Charlotte high school football this season as Vance pulled out an unlikely 26-24 victory.
North Meck built its three-touchdown lead off of the tough running of Xavier Joplin, who finished the game with 200 yards on 30 carries. Vikings' quarterback Bradley Clay tossed an 11-yard touchdown pass to Chris Moon for North Meck's third touchdown of the first quarter.
From then on, the game was the William Watson show.
Watson helped drive Vance down the field before punching the ball in from four yards out to cut North Meck's lead to 21-6. In the second half, Watson and Cougars' quarterback Duane Brown chipped away at the Vikings' lead and eventually made it 21-19.
But North Meck responded as Clark Sechrest knocked home a 21-yard field goal to give his team a five-point lead, 24-19.
Vance got the ball with just under three minutes remaining on its own 25-yard line and Brown and Watson went to work.
Watson rushed for 24 yards on the drive while Brown completed four passes for 49 yards. But it was the pass that he didn't throw that proved to win the game.
With no timeouts left, Brown rushed his team up to the line of scrimmage at North Meck's two-yard line and looked for the call from his coach: fade pass.
But instead of putting the ball in the air with the clock ticking away, Brown lunged forward twice and was able to extend the ball across the plane for the game-winning touchdown.
"Coach actually called a (fade) pass," Brown told the Charlotte Observer. "I saw the wide open space and I just told my running back and line to push forward, that I'm going to get into the end zone."
With the win, Vance moved to 5-4 and 2-1 in the conference, while North Meck dropped to 4-5 and 1-2.
Butler 28, South Mecklenburg 13
Butler moved to a perfect 9-0 for the first time in school history by defeating South Mecklenburg, 28-13.
Despite giving up 287 yards rushing to South Meck, Butler's Christian LeMay led a sufficient offensive attack of 307 yards, throwing for 100 yards and a touchdown. LeMay also ran for 62 yards, accounting for more than half of his team's offensive output.
Although South Meck got 13 points on its first two possessions from Larry Kennedy III and Spencer Shuey, the Butler defense locked them out the rest of the game. Eric Connor led a defensive line that tallied seven sacks, with Connor getting three on his own.
Butler will try to avoid looking past winless Weddington this week, with undefeated Independence looming on the schedule in two weeks. The winner of that game should determine the state champion.
East Mecklenburg 28, Myers Park 21
East Mecklenburg needed two blocked punts from Tray Sanders to pull away from Myers Park, 28-21.
After falling behind 21-6 in the second quarter, Sanders' first blocked punt set up a nine-yard TD run by Ronald Howard to cut the lead to 21-14. Sanders came free again just seconds into the fourth quarter to block another and give East Meck possession on the Myers Park 30-yard line.
"The first block, I widened out a little bit to get a better angle and I guess they didn't see me in time," Sanders told the Charlotte Observer. On the second, I switched sides because they tried to double-team me. I just ran free."
It was Howard again who tied the game, while East Meck's Nick Bratton scored the game-winning touchdown on a 17-yard heave from Olen Little with four minutes left.
With the win, East Meck moved to 8-1 and 4-1 in conference play, while Myers Park dropped to 4-5 and 2-3. East Meck's only loss came to undefeated Butler.
Will Bryan covers the Charlotte, N.C., area for MaxPreps. He may be reached at wbryan08@gmail.com.
