Quarterbacks from Maiden, Bunker Hill
also star in season-opening victories
Parker DeHart had nearly 250 yards of total offense for Bandys High on Friday night, leading the Trojans to a 44-7 victory over visiting St. St. Stephens to start the football season. He had juswt shy of 400 yards on offense last season when he played multiple positions for Bandys./HUDL PHOTO
By CHRIS HOBBS
HobbsDailyReport.com
Parker DeHart, who had just shy of 400 yards of offense last season for Bandys High, got more than half that on Friday night as the Trojans opened the season with a football victory.
Spoiling the debut of former Bandys assistant Kyle Lowman as head coach of St. Stephens, the host Trojans rolled past the Indians 44-7 as DeHart posted 234 yards.
The second game for Lowman is scheduled Friday when the Indians (0-1) battle Bunker Hill in Lowman’s home debut.
Bandys will play Friday night at Fred T. Foard.
A 6-foot-1, 170-pound senior who played multiple roles for Bandys a year ago, DeHart ran six times for 160 yards and three touchdowns and completed three of seven passes for 74 yards and a score.
Unofficially, DeHart had 34 rushes for 205 yards last season with three completions for 40 yards and 15 catches for 152 yards.
He moved into the starting quarterback’s role this season, as last year’s primary starter (Trey Shearer) moved back to Rutherford County and is now playing at R-S Central.
Running back Terick Bumgarner also made a big splash for Bandys with 10 carries for 144 yards and two scores.
The win was the second for Trojans head coach Jason Barnes after the Trojans went 1-5 last season.
Lowman — an assistant at Bandys from 2000-2019 and a former player there as well – is in his first head-coaching position. He spent his career at his alma mater working with first his dad (Randy) and then his brother (Trent, now head coach at East Surry).
The Trojans won their season-opening game for the fifth time in six years and 29th time since 1980 (29 wins, 11 losses, one tie, one no game), and the Indians have lost their first game in six straight years and 12 times in 13 years (beat West Iredell, 2015.
Bandys leads its all-time series St. Stephens, 38-22 with five consecutive victories.
On Friday night, the Trojans gained a 2-0 lead with a safety about midway through the first quarter.
DeHart’s 26-yard TD pass to Caleb Moore about five minutes later put Bandys ahead for good.
The Indians closed within 9-7 when quarterback Peyton Young threw 23 yards to Michael Watkins and Carter Gscheidmeier kicked an extra point.
About 90 seconds later, DeHart scored on a 1-yard run before Bumgarner returned a fumble 23 yards for a score.
When DeHart broke a run 99 yards for a TD, the Trojans led 30-7 at the half.
Bumgarner’s TD run of 36 yards and DeHart’s 62-yard run with nearly four minutes left in the third quarter extended Bandys’ lead to 44-7.
Bunker Hill 29, Cramer 18
REID
Kaden Robinson ran for two scores, Chad Stevenson broke a long one for a TD and quarterback Carson Elder threw for a score as the Bears won at home in the debut of new head coach Albert Reid.
Bunker Hill will play at St. Stephens on Friday night.
Robinson had scoring runs of 1 and 17 yards as Bunker Hill (1-0) erased an early deficit.
Stevenson had a 72-yard TD run and Elder threw 52 yards for another score for the Bears.
Cramer (0-1), facing Bunker Hill for the first time, opened the scoring with a safety and had a TD pass and 38-yard field goal by Nick Wilkson to lead 12-6.
After Elder’s scoring toss, Alan Bahehan Soto converted a 21-yard field goal for Bunker Hill.
Elder threw for 257 yards, Stevenson gained 113 on nine carries and Robinson had 11 carries for 55 yards.
Xavier McCleave caught three passes for 115 yard while Elijah Boston contributed seven catches for 86 yards.
Jordan Willis and Devin Brice each had an interception for the Bears and Preston Workman. Robinson had a team-best 17 tackles with two sacks and three hits for lost yardage, and Justin Killian provided 10 tackles.
HIGHLIGHTS BY WBTV: https://www.wbtv.com/2021/08/23/stuart-cramer-bunker-hill/
Maiden 56, Fred T. Foard 0
Quarterback Ethan Rhodes threw for 276 yards and five TDs, and the Maiden defense held the visiting Tigers to minus-6 yards in a season-opening game at Maiden.
Maiden plays at home on Friday night against Watauga while Foard is at home on Friday night to battle Bandys.
Rhodes, who unofficially threw for 1,653 yards and 14 TDs as the Blue Devils won a league title a year ago, hit 12 of 16 against the Tigers. His TD throws were to Korby Lawing (8 yards), Jacob Sigmon (16 yards), Chris Culliver (53 yards), Alec Hall (74 yards) and Chason Bass (39 yards).
Running back Ben Gibbs ran 57 and 41 yards for TDs and he had 152 yards on four carries with Isaiah Thomas adding 59 yards on seven carries and Cameron Gore – who played at Foard a year ago — providing 58 yards on five carries.
Maiden rushed for 283 yards on 23 carries and gained 459 yards to pick up career win No. 43 for head coach Will Byrne, now in his sixth season.
Foard (0-1) had one player (Weston Wright) with positive rushing yards (1 on six carries) and Sam Drum gained no yards on seven carries. The Tigers had 14 yards on offense.
Maiden led 28-0 after one quarter and 49-0 at halftime.
The Blue Devils have won nine straight season-openers, eight of them against Foard, and Foard has lost nine straight first games.
The Tigers have lost their last five regular-season games at Maiden and they trail in the series (games since 1980 only) by 35-5.
Maiden had a 22-game win streak in the series snapped in 2008 when Foard won 47-14 in Maiden. After that, Maiden won seven straight before Foard won 16-0 in Maiden in 2017 in a first-round state playoff game.
East Burke 14, Patton 6
A special teams score lifted visiting East Burke to a season-opening victory at Patton and the Cavs took the series lead at 7-6.
The Cavs are at home Friday night, facing Freedom, and Patton’s eighth game under Mark Duncan as head coach is Friday at Draughn (7:30 p.m.)
With the game tied at 6, the Cavs got a hand on a field goal attempt by the Panthers’ Eliseo Ramirez and senior Spencer Goins got the ball and went 75 yards for a go-ahead TD.
A late fumble recovery by Austin Sellers helped East Burke (1-0) protect its lead.
A 10-0 yard TD run by Carter Crump gave the Cavs an early lead and the Panthers (0-1) tied with on a scoring run by Tay Brawley.
Blane Fulbright, who led all rushers last season in the Northwestern Foothills 2A, ran 21 times for 82 yards for East Burke and for a two-point conversion after Goins’ score.
Crump finished with 10 carries for 57 yards.
Luke Wilson finished with 20 tackles, five for lost yardage, and forced a fumble for East Burke. Michael Mangi had a tackle for lost yardage among his 12 stops and he forced a fumble while Logan Johnson added 10 tackles, Dawson Langley had nine and Brady Bostian made seven.
Goins added five tackles and Sellers had four for East Burke.
The Cavs are 4-4 in games at Patton, where they had lost three straight.
East Burke is 5-3 since Derrick Minor took over as head coach in Icard, and his 55 career victories tops the Catawba Valley 2A Athletic.
West Lincoln 14, North Lincoln 7
The Rebels turned back the visiting Knights, scoring on two runs, in a season-opening game that netted West Lincoln’s Darren Ponder his 16th career win.
No scoring details are yet available for West Lincoln (1-0), which is scheduled to play Friday night at Cherryville.
North Lincoln (0-1) is scheduled to play at Lincolnton on Friday night.
Knights quarterback Kyle Kovalchuk completed six of 14 throws for 168 yards – one an 80-yard TD strike to Liam Sutton – in the loss.
Brennen Rogers had 10 carries for 48 yards for North Lincoln, which ran for 111, and Reed King had four catches for 50 yards.
The loss came in Nick Bazzle’s 36th game as North Lincoln head coach (26-10 record) and in his 250th game as a prep head coach (155-95-0, 21st season).
South Caldwell 18, West Caldwell 7
The Spartans provided a win in the debut of head coach Casey Justice, winning in Hudson.
South Caldwell’s game scheduled Friday at Hickory has been cancelled, as the Spartans coaching staff is currently under quarantine due to COVID.
South Caldwell’s next game is now set for Sept. 3 in Hudson against the Hickory Hawks if the quarantine period is completed and OKed.
The Spartans’ next game after the Hawks is currently at home on Sept. 10 against Bandys.
West Caldwell is scheduled to play at R-S Central on Friday night.
Quarterback Will Connor gave South Caldwell an early 6-0 lead with a 6-yard TD run on Friday night.
West Caldwell (0-1) had a 7-6 lead after Cameron Beaver returned an interception 25 yards and an extra point
The Spartans went ahead for good on a 34-yard TD pass from Connor to J.R. Robbins, and Connor later scored on a 6-yard run.
Justice is a former starting quarterback at South Caldwell, now 11-10 against West Caldwell since 1982.
Polk County 28, Newton-Conover 7
Junior quarterback Casey Beiler threw for 101 yards and three scores – two to senior receiver Jacob Knighton – as the Wolverines opened with a non-league home win over the Red Devils.
On Friday night, Newton-Conover is scheduled to play at West Iredell with a 7 p.m. start.
Beiler completed 11 of 21 passes and also threw a TD pass to senior junior Angus Weaver ran 16 times for 77 yards and had catches for 17 yards.
Beiler threw for 894 yards and 11 TDs as a sophomore varsity starter for Polk County, which went 6-2.
Weaver led the Wolverines defensively with 14 tackles while senior Wyatt Deyton added seven tackles.
Polk County led 14-0 at halftime.
Aiden Luvangkhot, a sophomore and one of three quarterbacks who played for the Red Devils, completed eight of 13 passes for 64 yards.
Senior Demarcus Beatty had a rushing TD and Dax Shannon made a PAT for Newton-Conover.
The Red Devils ran for 165 yards with Beatty posting 75 on six carries and junior Ben Watson providing 50 yards on 11 carries.
Watson had 11 tackles on defense.
Senior Aquan Cauthen had three catches for 3 yards, Beatty had the same totals and sophomore Mookie Miller had a catch for 38 yards for the Red Devils.
Newton-Conover played Polk County for the first time and in Steven Pack’s 18th game (6-12 record) as Red Devils head coach.
South Point 46, Lincolnton 7
No game information is currently available on the Wolves’ season-opening loss in Belmont.
Lincolnton (0-1) is scheduled to play its second game under new head coach David Byrd on Friday night, at home against North Lincoln (0-1.
