HobbsDailyReport.com
MORGANTON – Fat Friday was actually played on Thursday night this time, but Freedom High continued as the heavyweight with a 48-8 home varsity football victory over archival Freedom.
With quarterback Jayden Benfield hitting wide receiver Jaxon McMahon for three touchdowns, the Patriots (2-1) rolled to their eight consecutive win in the series. They’ve won 26 of the 44 head-to-head games in the series, nicknamed Fat Friday by a local sports editor.
FREEDOM 48
EAST BURKE 8
Freedom opened a 27-0 lead by halftime over the Cavs (0-3), whose last win in the series came in 2009 in Morganton.
McMahon and Benfield first hooked up on a 41-yard scoring play about halfway through the opening quarter.
Just before the end of the first quarter, Patriots running back C.J. Hayden ran 16 yards for a score and a 14-0 led. He rushed for another TD early in the second quarter and when Birchfield threw a 24-yard TD pass to McMahon with less than a minute to go in the first half, it was 27-0.
Birchfield’s 33-yard TD run in the third quarter pushed the lead to 34-0. It widened to 48 points after a 25-yard scoring run by McMahon and Tristan Somerville’s 30-run generated a running clock the rest of the way (by North Carolina High School Athletic Association rules).
East Burke’s only score came on a 10-yard run by Chase Childers.
The game was No. 200 in the head-coaching career of Jim Bob Bryant, who is in his first season guiding the Patriots.
Freedom’s next game is next Friday at Patton. The Patriots are off the next week before starting their Northwestern 3A-4A scheduled with a home game against St. Stephens.
East Burke has a home game against Newton-Conover next Friday before playing West Lincoln in Icard on Sept. 15. The Cavs’ debut game in the Northwestern Foothills 2A is Sept. 29 with a visit from West Iredell.