MAKIN’ IT COUNT
Fred T. Foard High is making this season one for its record books, reaching nine wins and winning a first-round state playoff game after having lost in Round 1 in its last 11 appearances.
A look at Foard’s first-round games during that stretch:
Year Opponent, score Head coach
1983 Sylva-Webster, L 8-31 Dick Foster
1985 at N. Iredell, L 0-25 Dick Foster
1995 at Statesville, L 13-18 Tony Paroli
1996 at Brevard, L 7-35 Mike McRee
1997 at S-Selma, L 21-43 Mike McRee
1998 at K. Brown, L 18-42 Allan Gorry
2000 at K. Brown, L 10-49 Allan Gorry
2005 at Asheville, L 3-42 Ryan Gettys
2006 at Asheville, L 7-35 Ryan Gettys
2008 at N. Bunc., L 6-21 Ryan Gettys
2014 at S. Point, L 12-28 Tom Harper
SOURCE: HobbsDailyReport.com research, files.
HobbsDailyReport.com
MAIDEN – Derrick Minor won’t be the only one with a super sweet memory when he one day recalls the 12th time he walked off a high school football field as a winning head coach for Fred T. Foard.
That came Friday night, in the opening round of the state 2AA playoffs, when Minor’s Tigers focused very little on anything but the task at hand – beating Maiden in a road game – and they got it done, 16-0.
No. 12 FRED T. FOARD 16
No. 5 MAIDEN 0
The win moved Minor’s record in his second season with the Tigers to 12-11. It was also only the third Foard win in the last 37 games with Maiden and ended Foard’s run of falling in the first round of the state playoffs at 11.
“Nobody gave us a chance except the guys in our locker room,” Minor said in a postgame radio interview. “I’m so proud of these guys.”
Holding the previously unbeaten Blue Devils to 112 rushing yards and fewer than 160 overall and posting a 400-plus yard game on offense, the 12th-seeded Tigers (9-3) won a postseason game for the first time since 1982.
Foard’s 16th state playoff game in school history comes next Friday when the Tigers go on the road to face another set of Tigers, fourth-seed Mount Pleasant, on the road.
Mount Pleasant advanced by blanking East Lincoln 35-0 at home on Friday night.
MINOR
Maiden, which had opened the season by beating Foard 37-14 at Foard, finished 11-1 after losing in the first round for the fourth time in six seasons and seventh time in 10 years.
Foard won behind running back Tate Beaver, a sparkplug all season for a team that has been determined to improve on a 3-8 record in Minor’s first season at Foard.
The Tigers gained an early lead against the Blue Devils by scoring after five plays. On their second play, quarterback Jack Colosimo threw a long pass to Daniel Lackey, setting up a 1-yard scoring run by Beaver. Beaver’s two-point conversion run made it 8-0.
There was no additional scoring until the fourth quarter.
Maiden threatened in the first quarter, driving to the Tigers’ 1, but Foard’s defense made two stops and a field goal attempt was no good.
Foard went up 16-0 in the game’s final minute on a 15-yard scoring run by Corey Siemer and two-point conversion run by Beaver.
The Tigers’ defense forced three turnovers.
In a season of first-in-a-long time items, Foard has made it a season to remember with Minor helping to generate perhaps the most interest in the program since Dick Foster did in 1980-83 when the Tigers went 9-2, 10-2 and 8-2-1.
Foard’s 1982 team won a West 2A Division II title — winning at Franklin and at Southwest Guilford – and those were the only two postseason wins in school history before Friday night.
The Division II playoffs were structured to field teams that did not win conference championships and lasted only a few seasons before being eliminated.
With nine wins heading to Mount Pleasant, this year’s Tigers are the fourth in school history to win at least that many games (1981, 1982 under Foster and 2008 under Ryan Gettys are the other ones).
As a No. 12 seed, Foard won’t be able to wipe one we-haven’t-done-that category from its wish list – the Tigers have never won a home state playoff football game (0-3).
Maiden had won seven straight games over Foard and 29 of the last 30, but the Blue Devils were denied their 51st postseason win in school history (50-40). Thirty-two of those state playoff wins have come in Maiden.