NORTHWESTERN FOOTHILLS 2A ROUNDUP
Mike Biggerstaff (front, blue shirt), who returned this season for a second tenure as head football coach at West Caldwell, talks to his players the day he was announced as their new head coach. The Warriors snapped a 21-game losing streak on Friday night, edging Fred T. Foard 14-13 in a Northwestern Foothills 2A game./WEST CALDWELL HIGH PHOTO
Bunker Hill runs win streak to 3 games;
Hibriten takes over sole possession of first place
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Mike Biggerstaff, who came back for a second tenure as head football coach at West Caldwell High because he said he wants the sport to be important there again, has his 76th victory guiding the Warriors.
West Caldwell nipped visiting Fred T. Foard 14-13 on Friday night, a homecoming victory in a Northwestern Foothills 2A game that snapped West Caldwell’s losing streak at 21 games.
The Warriors had last won in Oct. of 2017, beating Freedom by two points, and they were 0-7, 0-3 before edging Foard (1-8, 1-4).
Biggerstaff coached West Caldwell to a 75-26 record from 1979-87 and five outright league titles and a share of another before leaving to work with his family in private business.
He returned to coaching football in 2002-09 at East Burke and was retired when West Caldwell approached him about taking over its program again.
He is now coaching on a field at Thuss Stadium that is named after him.
““I wasn’t looking for a job…” Biggerstaff told HobbsDailyReport.com when he was named the Warriors’ next head coach. “(But) West Caldwell… those people have been good to me.
“We’ve got work to do,” Biggerstaff said, noting he wanted to return the consistently of the Warriors’ program to what it was in his first tenure as head coach there.
Cameron Beaver led West Caldwell’s to its first win of the season, rushing for more than 70 yards and a 16-yard TD in the third quarter that cut Foard’s lead to 13-7.
Mark Lopez scored the game-winner on a 1-yard TD run with about 4 ½ minutes to play.
The West Caldwell defense limited the Tigers, playing without leading rusher Corey Seimer (injury), to less than 110 yards on the ground while quarterback Will Frye threw for more than 180 yards.
Case Parker, who rushed for more than 80 yards, gave Foard an early lead with a 33-yard TD run and Frye threw a scoring pass to Marcus Cilino to give the Tigers a 13-0 lead by halftime after the PAT was blocked.
Foard ate more than 10 minutes of clock on a drive that extended into the fourth quarter before the Warriors made two stops to get the ball back on downs.
West Caldwell plays a conference game at Patton on Friday night while Foard, which has lost three straight, is idle until a Nov. 1 conference game at East Burke.
Bunker Hill 37, East Burke 14
Sophomore quarterback Carson Elder threw for 261 yards and four scores – two to Desmond Anderson – as the Bears (4-4, 3-1) ran their win streak to three with a league victory in Icard.
Elder threw 51 and 24 yards to Anderson for third-quarter scores and 15 yards to Jay Abrams and 21 yards to Kaliq Ramseur, helping Bunker Hill gain 409 yards.
The Bears led 17-14 at halftime.
Josh Moore led the Cavs (2-6, 1-3) with 89 rushing yards on 27 carries and quarterback Seth Pruitt went nine of 27 and threw for 99 yards.
Moore had a 1-yard TD run and Pruitt threw 22 yards to Luke Coble for East Burke’s scores.
The Bears have won three straight for the first time since 2013, and they face West Iredell in Claremont on Friday night with the winner taking over no worse than second place.
East Burke, after falling to Bunker Hill for the fourth time in the last five games in the series, is at league-leading Hibriten on Friday night.
Hibriten 56, Draughn 0
The Panthers (7-1, 4-0) moved atop the league standings alone by dominating the Wildcats (5-3, 3-2) by holding them to minus 52 rushing yards and 18 carries and rolling up 447 yards on offense.
Hibriten led 29-0 after one quarter and 42-0 by halftime en route to going 2-0 against Draughn all-time (Hibriten won 70-0 the year before in Lenoir).
Noah Isbell was one of nine rushers for the Panthers, gaining 77 yards on six carries and scoring on runs of 2 and 40 yards.
Trey Piercy, whose 46-yard run closed the scoring, had four carries for 60 yards and quarterback Daren Perry added eight carries for 40 yards and completed seven of 10 passes for 143 yards.
Draughn quarterback Braxton Cox, who came in 1,705 yards passing, completed 11 of 22 for 61 yards but was picked off twice.
Hibriten got TDs on a 65-yard kickoff return by Marcus Jones and a 10-yard interception by Joseph Estes and also recorded a safety.
The Panthers are at home Friday night for a league game against East Burke and Draughn, losing two straight since a five-game win streak, is idle until playing at West Caldwell in a conference game on Nov. 1.
West Iredell 25, Patton 8
The Warriors (5-3, 3-1) beat the visiting Panthers (2-6, 1-3) for the first time in three games in the series, jumping to a 19-0 lead by halftime.
Myles Jackson’s 5-yard TD run in the first quarter put West Iredell on top with quarterback Eli Kitchens adding a 49-yard TD run and throwing 60 yards to Gabe Kitchens for a scored in the second quarter.
Eli Kitchens’ 26-yard pass to Say’qwon Miller was the only second-half score for West Iredell.
Patton quarterback Weston Fleming hit Trent Stroupe for a 30-yard TD and DeShawn Cantell-Vasquez ran a two-point conversion for the Panthers’ only points.
Eli Kitchens threw for 131 yards and had 52 rushing yards to lead West Iredell, which lost by eight points home two years ago and by 16 points at Patton last season.
Fleming threw for 75 yards for the Panthers and running back Bryson Ratliff had 45 yards rushing.
West Iredell is tied for second place with Bunker Hill and plays the Bears in Claremont on Friday night.
Patton will be at home on Friday to play a league game against West Caldwell.