HobbsDailyReport.com
LINCOLNTON – In a start-to-finish battle to open South Fork 2A play, West Lincoln High outlasted visiting North Lincoln 56-49 on Friday night in a game that featured big nights by four players.
WEST LINCOLN 56
NORTH LINCOLN 49
Two of those were for West Lincoln (3-2, 1-0), as running back Brendan Ikard rushed for 228 yards and scored four touchdowns and Nakathon Phansook added 160 rushing yards.
North Lincoln quarterback Reed McRorie threw for 334 yards and three TDs and running back Clayton Cribb finished with 201 yards on 25 carries and three scores for the Knights (1-4, 0-1).
McRorie cleared 1,000 passing yards in just five games this season. He’s unofficially at 1,025 and has thrown for at least 119 yards in each game.
Ikard — who unofficially has 671 rushing yards this season — scored on runs of 12, 50, 1 and 71 yards and his last TD and a two-point conversion run by Phansook had the Rebels up 50-34.
North Lincoln closed within 50-43 with about seven minutes to play after McRorie threw a TD pass to Zach Rhodes and Christian Delaney kicked a 42-yard field goal.
West Lincoln quarterback Seth Willis’ short-yardage TD run with two minutes, 51 seconds left to play added to the Rebels’ lead.
The Knights then scored to get within seven points but did not get their hands on an onside kick and West Lincoln hung on as their head coach, Tom Sain, picked up his 40th career victory.
West Lincoln next plays next Friday, a conference game at 7:30 p.m. at home against undefeated Maiden.
North Lincoln, which has lost four straight since a season-opening win over the Carolina Wildcats, faces Lake Norman Charter on the road in a league game next Friday at 7:30 p.m.