Two long losing streaks in North Carolina high school football fell on Friday night.
West Carteret (Morehead City) beat Havelock for the first time in 23 games while Salisbury beat Thomasville for the first time since 1981.
West Carteret won 34-30 in a game that featured seven second-half lead changes and four touchdowns in the final 8:09, as recounted in the Cateret County News Times.
John Papillon (231 yards on 19 carries) scored the winner from one yard out with 50 seconds remaining.
In a classic run-vs.-throw matchup, West Cateret didn't complete its only pass but gained 390 yards on the ground. Conversely,
Havelock quarterback
Garrett Crowe threw for 328 yards, including a 50-yard touchdown to
Jarrell Wallace that gave the Rams their final lead.
Salisbury High's Romar Morris.
File photo by Ron McCann
Both teams are now 7-3, but while Havelock made the 3A semifinals last season, West Cateret has won seven games for just the fifth time in the 47-year history of the program.
Meanwhile,
Salisbury broke a seven-game, 29-year losing streak against Thomasville when linebacker
Kavari Hillie tackled quarterback Sam Nelson at the 2-yard line with 10 seconds left to preserve a 10-7 win.
"Like we've all been saying — no trespassing," Hillie told the Salisbury Post.
State sprinting champion
Romar Morris scored on an 80-yard run and
David Simons kicked a 25-yard field goal to give the Hornets (7-3) a 10-0 lead in the first half. Thomasville (9-1) was third in the 2A rankings.
Other top items from around North Carolina:
1. Another big game for Williams: UNC-bound
Marquise Williams completed 11 of 15 passes for 326 yards and six touchdowns, and ran 12 times for 129 yards and another touchdown, as
Mallard Creek (Charlotte) defeated West Charlotte 76-30. The Mavericks (10-0), who are ranked 25th in the MaxPreps.com national poll, set a school record for points, according to the Charlotte Observer, besting a 74-0 win over East Mecklenberg on Sept. 3.
Four of the touchdowns passes Friday night were caught by
Kevin Asante, including a 77-yarder on the first offensive play, leading the first-year varsity receiver to tell the Observer that their connection was "like Shaq and Kobe." Presumably he's talking about their championship years with the Lakers, and not the frosty relationship the NBA stars currently have.
2. Defending champion Albermarle forfeits three games: It may seem weird for the third-ranked team in the 1A state poll to only have a 6-4 record. But defending 1-AA state champion Albemarle, whose only loss on the field was to 2A Thomasville, has forfeited its wins over West Stanly (Oakboro), Chatham Central (Bear Creek) and South Davidson (Denton).
According to the Stanley News and Press, the Bulldogs violated an NCHSAA rule that juniors cannot be called up from the JV to play in varsity games. There is an "eight-quarters" exception that allows freshmen and sophomores — but not juniors — to play in eight quarters per season at the varsity level.
The violation was self-reported by principal Dave Bright, who called it an honest mistake. The school was also fined $250. The three Albermarle juniors had violated the NCHSAA rule by playing late in the three blowout victories, which the Bulldogs won by a combined score of 165-27.
3. Moving the stands: South Iredell (Statesville) moved the bleachers from its baseball and softball fields and from two local elementary schools to have enough seating for the 4,000-plus crowd at Friday night's game against Newton-Conover.
South Iredell had gone 4-8 while Newton-Conover advanced to the state final in each of the past two seasons, but the eighth-ranked Vikings pulled out a 32-28 win over the fifth-ranked Red Devils in the 2A showdown. The Vikings forced five turnovers and blocked a punt to overcome an early 14-0 deficit.
"Our fumbles are because of a lack of focus," Newton-Conover coach Nick Bazzle told the Hickory Daily Record. "I've been trying to fix that for 10 weeks. I guess I need to call Dr. Phil because what I am doing ain't working."
4. Onside kicks not enough: Despite allowing two onside kick recoveries in the final minutes,
Seventy-First (Fayetteville) defeated No. 3 Jack Britt (Fayetteville) in a battle of top 4A schools from Fayetteville. The 1-2 rushing combination of Tyrel Bryant-Dove (226 yards) and Maurice Scruggs (176 yards) were too much for the Buccaneers to overcome. Both teams are now 9-1 and the Falcons, who haven't lost since Week 1 against Scotland (Laurinburg), could be a top seed in the state playoffs.
5. A little revenge: Manteo (8-2), which lost to Plymouth in the second round of the 1A playoffs last year, defeated the Vikings 20-14 in double overtime Friday night. No. 2 Plymouth (10-1) had won its each of its first 10 games by at least 15 points.
Extra points: Another top team fell in 1A as No. 4 Pender (Burgaw) fumbled five times, including on the final two possessions, in a 34-31 loss to
Lakewood (Roseboro). ... Reidsville started October with the nation's longest active winning streak (55 games), but it ended the month with its second loss in three games. This time
Eastern Randolph (Ramseur) beat the Rams 50-23. And to make matters worse, the Greensboro News-Record reported that star quarterback Lavert Butchee has been kicked off the team for an unspecified violation of team rules.
Harold Gutmann covers the state of North Carolina for MaxPreps.com. He lives in Durham and can be reached at haroldgutmann@gmail.com.
