South Caldwell celebrates after nipping Maiden 14-13 on Friday night at Maiden, the third straight victory by the Spartans at Maiden./SOUTH CALDWELL HIGH PHOTO
Freedom QB’s 6 TD passes sets Burke County record
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South Caldwell High may well not remain under the radar after what it accomplished Friday night, beating Maiden 14-13 in varsity football and winning in Maiden for the third straight time.
The Spartans (2-0) held the Blue Devils to 90 rushing yards and stopping a two-point conversion with about 6 ½ minutes to play to keep the lead.
Avery Raynor ran for 117 yards, ran for a TD and threw for another to lead South Caldwell (2-0). Spencer Piercy added 73 rushing yards, and the Spartans ran for 236 yards and had 258 in total offense.
Dylan Abernathy, who had two early interceptions for Maiden (1-1), caught a 34-yard TD pass from Ethan Rhodes for a first quarter lead.
Avery Raynor’s 7-yard pass to Piercy and Piercy’s conversion run gave the Spartans an 8-7 lead by halftime.
Avery Raynor’s 3-yard TD run with 10 minutes, 56 seconds left to play put South Caldwell up 14-7.
Maiden scored with 6:32 to play on a 4-yard run by Isaiah Thomas to get within one point.
Chris Crawford — battling Dylan Abernathy (6) and Cameron Day (70) — ran for 17 yards for South Caldwell on Friday night at Maiden as the Spartans nipped the Blue Devils 14-13./PHOTO COURTESY OF OBSERVER NEWS ENTERPRISE
Freedom 60, Draughn 14
BIRCHFIELD
Quarterback Jayden Birchfield threw for six scores – a Burke County record – and added a rushing TD as the Patriots (1-1) rolled to a road victory.
Birchfield, who has committed to Navy, completed 12 of 17 passes for 316 yards, hitting receiver Desmond Caldwell for three TDs, and Damien Dula had two TD receptions.
Freedom is 11-0 all-time against the Wildcats (0-2).
Draughn had fewer than 10 yards rushing and quarterback Braxton Cox went 18 of 38 for 152 yards passing.
Alexander Central 28, Wilkes Central 12
The Cougars scored the game’s final two TDs to beat the Eagles for the ninth straight time in Wilkesboro and 17th straight time overall.
Wilkes Central led 14-12 when Steven Montgomery broke a run for a 52-yard TD with 31 seconds left in the third quarter.
Alexander Central (2-0) added a score with 7:21 to play on a 14-yard run by Dayente Calhoun.
Montgomery led the Cougars with 14 carries for 114 yards.
JoRaye Morrison had 31 carries for 185 yards for Wilkes Central. His 5-yard scoring run with 2:06 left in the first half helped the Eagles get within 14-6.
A 4-yard TD pass from Morrison to Ethan Dobson with 5:23 left in the third quarter closed the gap to 14-12.
Calhoun and Ryheem Craig led Alexander Central defensively with eight tackles each and Craig has 2 ½ hits for lost yardage. Jamison Benfield added seven tackles and Josh Abernathy had six for the Cougars.
Josh Pack had seven tackles for Wilkes Central and Ahmad Carlton had six.
The Cougars won despite having the ball for only 15 ½ minutes and even though they had only 31 offensive plays to Wilkes Central’s 70.
Wilkes Central converted seven of 14 third-down plays and was 2-for-3 on fourth-down conversions.
St. Stephens 21, Bunker Hill 13
St. Stephens’ passing game carried it to a 21-13 football victory at Bunker Hill on Friday night, giving the Indians six straight wins over the Bears.
Quarterback Connor Williams threw 52 and 61 yards to receiver Zach Lee for touchdowns and Zac McLauchlin had a 43-yard scoring run for the Indians (1-1).
Jay Abrams’s 61-yard scoring run early in the second quarter got the Bears within 7-6, and Williams’ first scoring throw to Lee had St. Stephens up 14-6 at the half.
The lead increased to 21-6 early in the third quarter on McLauchlin’s TD run.
There was no scoring after Bunker Hill (0-2) closed within eight points via a 35-yard TD pass from Carson Elder to Chadz Stevenson in the closing seconds of the third quarter.
The victory came in Wayne Hicks’ 70th game as head coach at St. Stephens (24-46) and was the fourth straight for the Indians at Bunker Hill.
Hibriten 42, Hickory 12
The Panthers (1-1) won on the road, picking up head coach Sam Mackey’s first career victory.
MACKEY
Hibriten outgained the Red Tornadoes (0-2) – who were playing a second game in five days – by 419-186.
The Panthers led 35-0 at the half, scoring on five straight first-half possessions.
Quarterback Daren Perry had 148 all-purpose yards for Hibriten and sophomore running back Zion Norwood finished with 12 carries for 95 yards and one TD.
At the half, Hibriten had gained 304 yards to Hickory’s 24.
Hibriten was coming off a 28-19 home loss to Alexander Central that snapped a 34-game regular-season win streak.
“We responded really well from last week to this week,” Mackey told The Lenoir News-Topic. “We were much more coachable this week. We had a good week of practice and it paid off.
“That loss to Alexander Central almost was like a shell shock to these guys.”
McDowell 41, East Burke 28
Quantavian Moore ran for three TDs and had 179 yards rushing as the host Titans (1-1) won a game that included 734 yards of combined total offense.
Moore ran for scores of 23, 60 and 4 yards and had a TD reception as McDowell rolled up 315 rushing yards and 398 yards overall.
East Burke (1-1) got 174 rushing yards by Josh Moore and Brett Childers added 107 for the Cavs, who lost two fumbles.
McDowell jumped to a 21-0 lead after one quarter and led 35-14 by halftime.
Josh Moore ran for four TDs for East Burke, which had 336 yards of total offense.
The teams played for the first time since 2014, leaving East Burke head coach Mark Buffamoyer at 4-20 as the Cavs’ boss.
Watauga 56, Ashe County 7
Running back Bryce Satterfield and quarterback Anderson Castle each ran for three TDs and Sebastian Best tacked on two fourth quarter rushing scores as the Pioneers (2-0) rolled on the road.
Satterfield had two 1-yard scoring runs in the first quarter and Castle ran for two 1-yard TDs in the second quarter, helping Watauga lead 28-7 by halftime.
Satterfield opened the second half scoring with a 5-yard run with 8:31 left in the third quarter and Castle ran 3 yards for a TD about three minutes later.
Best’s TD runs were from 5 and 80 yards as Watauga had 496 yards on offense, 480 of it rushing.
Ashe County got 135 of its 168 yards by passing.
Castle finished with 21 carries for 168 yards rushing, Best had 111 yards and Satterfield had 67 on 12 carries with the Pioneers averaging 10.2 yards per rush.