Foard’s Siemer runs for 410 yards, six scores as Tigers wallop West Iredell
HobbsDailyReport.com
MORGANTON – Freedom High wrapped up second place in Northwestern 3A-4A football on Monday night, beating visiting McDowell 40-13 behind senior running back Larry Luke and record-setting quarterback Jayden Birchfield.
Luke ran for two scores to get the Patriots (9-2, 6-1) out front by seven points on a 32-yard TD run in the second quarter. He also had a 4-yard TD run in the third quarter and ran for more than 80 yards.
Freedom finishes second in the league to Watauga (11-0, 7-0) and will learn its spot in the state 3A playoffs on Saturday when pairings are developed by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA).
The playoffs, originally scheduled to begin Friday, were delayed until Nov. 16 when the NCHSAA – after hurricane weather impacted scheduling in Eastern North Carolina – added another week to the regular season.
Jee Hardy added a fumble return TD for Freedom, which picked up career win No. 96 for first-year head coach Luke Little, and Christian Fox added a TD reception.
Birchfield, Freedom’s junior quarterback, threw the TD pass to Fox. That gave him 39 scores this season – 25 passing and 14 rushing – to set a Burke County record for single-season scores previously set by former Patriots running back B.J. Emmons 38 in 2014).
Birchfield had TD runs of 3 and 1 yard in the first quarter. He threw for 180 yards, moving within 10 yards of the Burke County single-season record set by former Patriots quarterback Michael Helms.
McDowell (4-7, 2-5) ties South Caldwell for sixth place and gains the league’s only 4A playoff bid via a head-to-head win over the Spartans.
East Lincoln 38, Newton-Conover 16 (Monday)
DENVER, N.C. — Cole Barber ran 14 times for 101 yards and a TD as the Mustangs (5-6, 3-4) beat the visiting Red Devils (4-7, 2-5).
East Lincoln will finish at least fifth in the South Fork 2A and can tie Maiden for fourth place if Lincolnton beats Maiden (7-3, 3-3) on Wednesday night.
The Mustangs’ defense limited Red Devils running back Allen Wilfong to 30 yards on 10 carries, and Newton-Conover had 99 yards rushing on 36 carries.
The Red Devils got 184 passing yards by Justice Craig (23-of-30), who threw 10 times to Kyjuan McClain for 66 yards.
East Lincoln led 14-9 at the half, opening the lead to 28-9 with third-quarter scores by Lucas McConnell (83-yard fumble return) and a 5-yard run by Ethan Martin.
After the Red Devils got within 28-16 when Craig threw 28 yards to Keagan Covington with about eight minutes to play, East Lincoln answered with a 38-yard field goal by Ryan Shanklin and Barber’s 47-yard TD run in the final 4 ½ minutes.
East Lincoln and Newton-Conover will await Saturday’s release of the state 2A playoff pairings by the NCHSAA, although the Red Devils aren’t expected to qualify for the postseason.
Fred T. Foard 41, West Iredell 14 (Friday)
STATESVILLE — Running back Corey Siemer led a 503-yard rushing attack with 410 yards and scored six times as the Tigers (6-5, 5-1) finished in second place in the Northwestern Foothills 2A with a road win.
Siemer has rushed for 2,197 yards this season and scored 25 TDs.
Where Siemer’s 410 yards and six rushing TDs rank in single-game records for Foard football is unclear, as the school does not have a record book.
Cameron Skeens had a sack and four tackles for lost yardage and Daniel Lackey had eight tackles and an interception to lead Foard defensively in Friday’s victory.
West Iredell finished in fourth place (5-6, 3-3).
Foard, in its third season under head coach Derrick Minor, will learn its state 3A playoff seed on Saturday when the NCHSAA develops those pairings.
The Tigers are 18-17 under Minor and will go to the postseason in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2005-2006.
Foard’s second-place finish behind Hibriten is its best since 2000, when it finished second under Allan Gorry in the Western Foothills 3A.
Watauga 62, West Caldwell 0 (Friday)
LENOIR — Quarterback Anderson Castle threw for four TDs and ran for two others as the Pioneers (11-0, 7-0) wrapped up their first varsity football title since 1980 by winning the Northwestern 3A-4A.
Castle had scoring runs of 13 and 2 yards in the first quarter, when Watauga built a 21-0 lead, and he threw all of his scoring passes in the second quarter (two to Jackson Greene).
Watauga’s defense held winless West Caldwell (0-11, 0-7) to minus 3 yards rushing on 12 carries.
The Pioneers had 448 yards on offense, and the Warriors gained 28.
Castle completed seven of 12 passes for 135 yards and ran four times for 21 yards, with running back Jaiden Bond adding five carries for 78 yards and a score for the Pioneers.
Watauga had 26 first downs and West Caldwell had one.
The Pioneers are now 54-19 under head coach Ryan Habich, in his sixth season in Boone. He’s 104-33 in 11 seasons as a head coach.
As an unbeaten, Watauga will have a shot at being a West No. 1 seed in the state 3A playoffs when pairings are announced Saturday by the NCHSAA. The process, though, includes factors other than records in a formula by MaxPreps that is not shared with the media or the public.