HobbsDailyReport.com
LINCOLNTON – Another big pass play in the final quarter by quarterback Keygan Mayfield got Maiden High to its season-long goal on Friday night.
Mayfield, a week after throwing a game-winning score in the final 26 seconds to beat Newton-Conover, connected for a 75-yarder to Montrell Stinson on Friday night to push the Blue Devils past host Lincolnton 28-21.
MAIDEN 28
LINCOLNTON 21
The win wrapped up a South Fork 2A title and unbeaten regular season for Maiden (11-0, 7-0) as the Blue Devils won their 19th of 23 games under second-year head coach Will Byrne.
Mayfield ran 21 times for 111 yards and a TD and completed eight of 14 passes for 136 yards and three scores. Stinson had 89 receiving yards and two scores.
Lincolnton (5-6, 4-3), which led 14-0 early, finished in third place in the South Fork 2A behind the Blue Devils and Newton-Conover.
A 64-yard TD run by Tyshaun Harris and a 10-yard TD pass from quarterback Terrell McClain to Tyreke Hollis opened a 10-point lead for the Wolves.
Maiden had its only score of the first half via a 4-yard TD pass from Mayfield to Caleb McDaniel, who caught the game-winner against Newton-Conover.
Mayfield hit Stinson from 14 yards and Casey Ly’s second PAT pulled Maiden even at 14 in the fourth quarter.
A 35-yard scoring run by Mayfield gave Maiden its first lead at 21-14, but that didn’t last long. Harris took a kickoff 75 yards and Brian Sedano’s PAT knotted it at 21.
In an evenly played game, Maiden ran 58 plays to Lincolnton’s 55. The Blue Devils outgained the Wolves 322-206 and each team lost one fumble.
Harris, who last week had set a Lincoln County record for single-game rushing, had 135 on 25 carries against Maiden.
Lincolnton still leads the series 20-17-1 in matchups since the 1980 season, and Maiden beat the Wolves for the second straight season in Lincolnton (8-12 there since 1982).
Maiden now has at least 11 wins in a season for the 15th time in school history – one team in the 1960s, one in the 1970s, five in the 1990s, six from 2000-2009 and the 2013 team also did that.
Lincolnton, 30-10 since Ledford Gibson became head coach, has finished at least third in its conference each of the last nine seasons.