HobbsDailyReport.com
LENOIR – Running back McKinley Witherspoon ran for three touchdowns as Hibriten High steamrolled visiting East Burke 62-15 to reach nine varsity football wins for the 10th time in school history.
HIBRITEN 62
EAST BURKE 15
Witherspoon scored on runs of 8, 42 and 34 yards as Hibriten (9-0, 4-0) moved into a tie with idle Patton for first place in the Northwestern Foothills 2A.
East Burke dropped to 1-8 and at 0-4 is in last place in the conference.
The Panthers were again dominant, leading by 33 points at halftime, and seven of them scored in Hibriten’s third straight win over the Cavs.
Hibriten head coach Clay Lewis – in his eighth season – picked up his 66th career win.
Quarterback Seth Pruitt led the Cavs, making his second start and throwing for almost 140 yards.
Hibriten has two conference games left, playing next Friday at 7:30 p.m. at third-place West Iredell before finishing the regular season Nov. 3 at home against Patton.
East Burke will close against Fred T. Foard (next Friday at 7:30 p.m. in Icard and at Draughn on Nov. 3.
All nine of Hibriten’s previous nine-win teams won anywhere from 10 to 14 games.
The Panthers are now 23-1 in their last 24 games.
East Burke needs back-to-back wins to close the season to avoid becoming the program’s seventh team with two or fewer wins (the others were 1998, 200, 2001, 2010, 2013 and last season).