By Marny Hendrick

sports@salisburypost.com

LANDIS — South Rowan and Kannapolis A.L. Brown have been next door football rivals since 1961, but based on Friday night’s game, the two teams are currently miles and miles apart in terms of size, speed and athletic ability.

The Wonders (2-0) put together a near-perfect first quarter at Donnell Stadium last night and dominated the Raiders in all phases to cruise to a 67-0 win. From a historical standpoint, it was the worst loss ever for a South Rowan team, both in terms of points allowed and losing margin. It was also South’s sixth-straight loss to their longtime rival. But first year Raider coach Daniel Yow found a number of positives.

“Kannapolis is a great ball team and they are going to win a lot of games,” Yow said. “Anytime you play a team of the caliber of Brown with their experience and size, it makes it so tough on us. But we battled them the whole fourth quarter and we fought hard throughout. ”

Yow noted it was no secret he has a very young team this season with 13 sophomores and three freshmen on the varsity team, so fans will need to be patient for the short term with the Raiders (0-2). “We might be 0-2 in non-conference but we have a bye week, then start our conference play in two weeks against Northwest Cabarrus,” Yow noted. “All of our goals are still intact.”

Yet not much was intact for the Raiders right out of the gate against the Wonders. The first play from scrimmage was a 75-yard sprint for a TD by halfback Jayln Cagle. The Brown defense then sacked South quarterback Heath Barringer in the end zone for a safety. On the first play after the free kick, quarterback Damon Johnson raced 47 yards around left end for a 47-yard touchdown.

After a South punt, Brown drove 68 yards in just six plays, capped by a perfect Johnson lob over a defender to Brandon Dry from 16 yards out. The Wonders then closed out the remarkable first quarter with another long drive with bruising running back Sandon McCoy scoring from the 10.

After 12 minutes of play, Kannapolis had posted four touchdowns and a safety for a 30-0 lead and had another score on a 60-yard punt return by Cagle nullified by a clipping penalty.

“We like to start fast and put the other team behind,” Kannapolis coach Mike Newsome said. He noted that their emotional win last week over Concord in the annual “Bell Game” was huge but it was not what he considered a clean game in terms of how his team executed. Against South, it was a completely different story. “When we play clean like we did tonight, that will equate to a lot of points. We knew if we did not make any mistakes, the scoreboard would take care of itself,” he said.

The scoreboard continued to light up for the Wonders in the second period as they got an 11-yard TD run by Johnson, a 4-yard score from McCoy and a 5-yard TD from JaQuerius Bost. With another sack of Barringer for a safety by Agustin Granillo late in the half, Kannapolis pushed the halftime margin to 53-0 and assured a running clock for the rest of the game.

Despite the running clock after intermission, Kannapolis did tack on two more scores from their reserves as Casey Ritchie scored on an 18-yard sweep in the third quarter and jayvee runner Jahia Mahatha broke free on a 48-yard gallop midway in the final quarter, making it 67-0. Placekicker Nate Williams was a perfect 9-for-9 on extra points.

While Kannapolis was racking up 407 yards rushing and 126 yards passing, the Raiders were unable to generate any serious threats against the Brown defense. Barringer was sacked seven times, including the two safeties, as the team ended with a minus-2 net rushing and 23 yards passing. For the game, the Raiders only reached midfield once and had just 2 first downs.

Wonder quarterback Johnson, who ran for two scores and passed for another, says his team has their sights on much bigger goals this season. “Everything went really well tonight but, like the coach said, we are not practicing and playing to beat South or Northwest (next week’s opponent),” he said. “We want to beat the best of the best like Mallard Creek, Vance, Hough and Mooresville. We are practicing to be the best.”

So far so good for the dominating Wonders as they do play the Trojans next week in a non-conference battle. South will have a bye week next Friday then jump into a nine-game South Piedmont schedule beginning with Northwest Cabarrus at home Sept. 11.