WESTERN FOOTHILLS 3A: Mizzell leads East Lincoln’s victory at Hibriten

Statesville only other team in new league to win opening game

 

East Lincoln quarterback Tyler Mizzell threw for more than 100 yards for the seventh time in eight games, leading the Mustangs’ win on Friday night at Hibriten. In the one game he threw for less it was for 99 yards against Newton-Conover in the final game of the sprinmg season./MAXPREPS PHOTO

By CHRIS HOBBS

HobbsDailyReport.com

East Lincoln High junior quarterback Tyler Mizzell threw for more than 100 yards for the seventh time in eight games, leading the Mustangs to a 39-7 win over Hibriten on the road in a season-opening game on Friday night in Lenoir.

Mizzell completed 12 of 17 passes for 153 yards and three TDs and added six rushes for 40 yards.

East Lincoln (1-0) is scheduled to play on Friday night at Forestview, and Hibriten’s home game scheduled Friday against Hunter Huss has been cancelled by COVID.

On Friday night, the Mustangs scored on receptions by junior Kenadre Walker (two catches for 57 yards) and by junior Markell Clark (five catches for 60 yards, two TDs).

Tyjai Johnson ran four times for 80 yards and a TD, senior Orlandis Howell-Johnson added 49 yards on 10 carries and a TD, junior Virgil Bingham had four carries for 33 yards and junior Ben Cutter ran for a TD on four carries.

East Lincoln forced four turnovers (three by fumble) and had eight tackles for lost yardage.

Junior Terry Bryant led the Mustangs with 11 tackles, Cutter provided 10, junior Parker Davis had a sack among his eight stops and junior Blake Bradford had seven tackles and caused three fumbles.

HIGHLIGHTS BY WBTV: https://www.wbtv.com/2021/08/21/east-lincoln-hibriten/

Bandys 44, St. Stephens 7

 

Parker DeHart, who had just shy of 400 yards of offense last season for Bandys, got more than half that in the Trojans’ home win over the Indians.

Spoiling the debut of former Bandys assistant Kyle Lowman as head coach of St. Stephens, the host Trojans rolled as DeHart played quarterback and posted 234 yards.

The second game for Lowman is scheduled Friday when the Indians (0-1) battle Bunker Hill in Lowman’s home debut.

Bandys will play Friday night at Fred T. Foard.

A 6-foot-1, 170-pound senior who played multiple roles for Bandys a year ago, DeHart ran six times for 160 yards and three touchdowns and completed three of seven passes for 74 yards and a score.

Unofficially, DeHart had 34 rushes for 205 yards last season with three completions for 40 yards and 15 catches for 152 yards.

He moved into the starting quarterback’s role this season, as last year’s primary starter (Trey Shearer) moved back to Rutherford County and is now playing at R-S Central.

Running back Terick Bumgarner also made a big splash for Bandys with 10 carries for 144 yards and two scores.

The win was the second for Trojans head coach Jason Barnes after the Trojans went 1-5 last season.

Lowman — an assistant at Bandys from 2000-2019 and a former player there as well – is in his first head-coaching position. He spent his career at his alma mater working with first his dad (Randy) and then his brother (Trent, now head coach at East Surry).

The Trojans won their season-opening game for the fifth time in six years and 29th time since 1980 (29 wins, 11 losses, one tie, one no game), and the Indians have lost their first game in six straight years and 12 times in 13 years (beat West Iredell, 2015.

Bandys leads its all-time series St. Stephens, 38-22 with five consecutive victories.

On Friday night, the Trojans gained a 2-0 lead with a safety about midway through the first quarter.

DeHart’s 26-yard TD pass to Caleb Moore about five minutes later put Bandys ahead for good.

The Indians closed within 9-7 when quarterback Peyton Young threw 23 yards to Michael Watkins and Carter Gscheidmeier kicked an extra point.

About 90 seconds later, DeHart scored on a 1-yard run before Bumgarner returned a fumble 23 yards for a score.

When DeHart broke a run 99 yards for a TD, the Trojans led 30-7 at the half.

Bumgarner’s TD run of 36 yards and DeHart’s 62-yard run with nearly four minutes left in the third quarter extended Bandys’ lead to 44-7.

Maiden 56, Fred T. Foard 0

 

Quarterback Ethan Rhodes threw for 276 yards and five TDs, and the Maiden defense held the visiting Tigers to minus-6 yards in a season-opening game at Maiden.

Maiden plays at home on Friday night against Watauga while Foard is at home on Friday night to battle Bandys.

Rhodes, who unofficially threw for 1,653 yards and 14 TDs as the Blue Devils won a league title a year ago, hit 12 of 16 against the Tigers. His TD throws were to Korby Lawing (8 yards), Jacob Sigmon (16 yards), Chris Culliver (53 yards), Alec Hall (74 yards) and Chason Bass (39 yards).

Running back Ben Gibbs ran 57 and 41 yards for TDs and he had 152 yards on four carries with Isaiah Thomas adding 59 yards on seven carries and Cameron Gore – who played at Foard a year ago — providing 58 yards on five carries.

Maiden rushed for 283 yards on 23 carries and gained 459 yards to pick up career win No. 43 for head coach Will Byrne, now in his sixth season.

Foard (0-1) had one player (Weston Wright) with positive rushing yards (1 on six carries) and Sam Drum gained no yards on seven carries. The Tigers had 14 yards on offense.

Maiden led 28-0 after one quarter and 49-0 at halftime.

The Blue Devils have won nine straight season-openers, eight of them against Foard, and Foard has lost nine straight first games.

The Tigers have lost their last five regular-season games at Maiden and they trail in the series (games since 1980 only) by 35-5.

Maiden had a 22-game win streak in the series snapped in 2008 when Foard won 47-14 in Maiden. After that, Maiden won seven straight before Foard won 16-0 in Maiden in 2017 in a first-round state playoff game.

Alexander Central 21, Hickory 7

 

The Cougars held visiting Hickory to 165 yards on offense and had 60 plays for 306 yards to win a season-opening game in Taylorsville, spoiling the debut Joe Glass as the Red Tornadoes’ head coach.

Glass’ second game is scheduled Friday at home against Charlotte Latin, added to the schedule over the weekend after the originally scheduled game at HHS (against South Caldwell) was cancelled because of COVID.

Alexander Central is scheduled to play at North Gaston on Friday night.

Cameron Lackey ran 16 times for 86 yards, Luke Hammer added 89 yards on 16 carries and Logan Shoemaker added 75 yards on 12 carries for Alexander Central against Hickory.

Russell Fraiser, who had six carries for 24 yards, gave Alexander Central an early lead on a 2-yard run with two minutes, 14 seconds left in the first quarter.

Hickory took a 7-6 lead with 4:54 left in the half on a 2-yard run by Josiah Edwards and PAT by Josh Tyree.

Hammer threw an 8-yard TD pass to Andrew Fox just 38 seconds before the half and Daniel Specht’s PAT had the Cougars in front 13-7.

The only other score came with 2:15 to play on Shoemaker’s 11-yard run and a two-point conversion run by Hammer.

Edwards led Hickory with 12 carries for 34 yards while quarterback Turner Wood completed 14 of 29 for 100 yards. He was intercepted twice and Dashawn Medley had six catches for 50 yards.

Alexander Central had the ball for nearly 28 minutes, converting four of nine third downs and twice on three fourth-down attempts.

Edwards led Hickory’s defense with eight tackles and five assists.

For the Cougars, Dalton Beck led with three solos and three assists and Kolt Ward had one solo and five assists. Andrew Bumgarner and Robert Young each added an interception.

West Lincoln 14, North Lincoln 7

 

The Rebels turned back the visiting Knights, scoring on two runs, in a season-opening game that netted West Lincoln’s Darren Ponder his 16th career win.

No scoring details are yet available for West Lincoln (1-0), which is scheduled to play Friday night at Cherryville.

North Lincoln (0-1) is scheduled to play at Lincolnton on Friday night.

Knights quarterback Kyle Kovalchuk completed six of 14 throws for 168 yards – one an 80-yard TD strike to Liam Sutton – in the loss.

Brennen Rogers had 10 carries for 48 yards for North Lincoln, which ran for 111, and Reed King had four catches for 50 yards.

The loss came in Nick Bazzle’s 36th game as North Lincoln head coach (26-10 record) and in his 250th game as a prep head coach (155-95-0, 21st season).

Statesville 41, Carson 30

 

The Greyhounds won their season-opener on the road, and they are scheduled to play Friday night at South Iredell.

Senior Quantay Brown had six solo tackles and six assists for the Greyhounds (1-0) with senior Daniel Miller adding seven solos and four assists and caused a fumble.

Also, senior Amontae White had three hits for lost yardage with five solos and two assists, junior Kemarri Daniels added six solos and six assists, senior Austin Sherrill had a sack and senior Keidron Dukes had an interception for Statesville.

No offensive statistics from the game are available.

South Iredell 51, North Iredell 7

 

The Vikings won a season-opening game on the road, the debut of Eric Rees as head coach at South Iredell.

It was also the debut of Andy Howell as head coach at North Iredell.

The Red Raiders (0-1) are scheduled to play Friday night at Lake Norman.

South Iredell led 14-7 after one quarter and 28-7 at halftime.

Juniors Jayline Neal (three) and Brice Warren (two) had rushing scores for South Iredell, which forced five turnovers.

Senior Joey Sammon had three tackles for lost yardage among his nine tackles for the Vikings.

Three juniors had interceptions for South Iredell – Zach Braunstein, Adrian Mumford and J’Quan Dobbins – and senior Gavin Tucker had two of his three stops go for lost yardage.

Braunstein’s pick return was for 82 yards and Dobbins’ was for 73.

Lake Norman 37, West Iredell 0

 

Lake Norman won its first game, shutting out the host Warriors as the second season for Shannon Ashley got started as West Iredell’s head coach.

No game information is currently available, with West Iredell now 1-7 since Ashley took over.

West Iredell is scheduled to play at home Friday night against Newton-Conover (0-1).

HIGHLIGHTS BY WBTV: https://www.wbtv.com/2021/08/23/lake-norman-west-iredell/

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