By Marny Hendrick

sports@salisburypost.com

CONCORD — The Concord Spiders have not lost a South Piedmont Conference game since 2012 and there are several good reasons why: Speed, power, stifling defense and pinpoint passing.

The names and faces may change from season to season but the current Spiders kept the trend going in impressive fashion Thursday night at Bailey Stadium with a 39-20 win over East Rowan. It was the SPC opener for both teams and it was not without some weather-related challenges.

Originally set for Friday night, the teams agreed to move the game up to Thursday to avoid expected Hurricane Hermine issues. But a different storm system brought in heavy rain and lightning that delayed the game start for over an hour. It finally wrapped up just after 11 p.m. as Concord improved to 2-1, 1-0 while East fell to 1-2, 0-1, dropping their seventh straight to the perennial league power.

Game and field conditions were not a major factor as the rain cleared off early in the contest. “It was fine, but it wasn’t great,” East coach Kenneth McClamrock said of the playing conditions. “The field was as nice as a Concord field has ever been in those conditions. But we were loose and ready to play and we needed to be.”

The one-two punch of Spider quarterback Jacob Irby (162 yards passing and three TD’s) and powerful senior runner P.J. Hall (158 yards, two scores and a two point conversion run) was more than enough to overcome a valiant effort by the Mustang defense.

Irby, a 6-5 senior who joined the team just a week before the team’s season opening game as a transfer from Mt. Pleasant, has now entrenched himself as the pilot of the versatile Concord offense. Appropriately he deflected the credit for his strong outing against East.

“Honestly I’ve got to give all the credit to my offensive line,” he said. “Without them none of those passes would have worked. Then credit the receivers for taking the passes and turning them into big gains. All of our guys are such great athletes. I just have to be sure and spread it around.”

The wide victory margin was a bit deceptive, especially considering the Mustangs led 7-6 after one quarter and its defense made that score stand for most of the first half. Down 6-0, East took advantage of a high snap on a punt attempt to take over at the Spider 3. On fourth down from the one, Max Wall, playing at quarterback on the play, rolled right and lofted a TD pass to Christian Bennett with 56 seconds left in the opening quarter. Gabe Hinceman’s extra point gave the visitors the lead.

Concord did retake the lead at 14-7 with a 74 yard scoring drive in the second quarter as Hall scored from the two then ran in a two point conversion for a 14-7 lead. But the East defense had battled the Spiders on even terms for the most part.

“We know we have a good defense and we never quit in the game,” said Mustang senior corner Wesley Porter, a two-time All-County performer. “Even when we got down by a good bit in the fourth quarter we stepped it up and kept playing hard. That was our pride at work there.” Porter showed his versatile ability with an 83 yard kickoff return for a score, a 30 yard punt return, two blocked extra points and several pass knockdowns.

McClamrock had equal praise for his team’s defensive effort, specifically by Porter, Bennett and K.P. Patterson. “Our defensive effort was absolutely very good” he said. “We did a good job early on of keeping their offense confused as to what were doing. I saw some things we did really well that we had not done in our first two games.”

Despite strong defensive efforts on both sides in the first half, there were two sequences that followed which essentially sealed the Mustangs’ fate. The first came in the waning seconds of the first half as Concord with the 14-7 lead had the ball at the East 10 with 4.3 seconds left. Irby lofted a high pass into the end zone for 6-5 super receiver Hamsah Nasirildeen. Mustang defenders Patterson and Porter teamed to knock the ball down as the clock ran to all zeroes.

But the game officials decided the clock had not expired and added 2.5 seconds to the scoreboard. Irby took full advantage of the extra play by zipping a strike to Ikym Hall over the middle in the end zone for the touchdown, the momentum and a 21-7 lead. It was the second time the two teamed up for a scoring pass play in the game.

McClamrock felt the decision to add time to the clock at the end of the half was obviously a critical decision affecting his tea’s fate and was arbitrary at best. “The clock didn’t start at the snap as it should have then it ran an extra second after the play,” he said. “To me that is a wash. But the officials decided somehow to put 2.5 seconds back on the clock. Where that came from I don’t know.”

The next critical sequence came late in the third quarter when the Spiders notched a pair of rapid-fire touchdowns in just 15 seconds of game clock time. Following an East punt, Concord was near midfield when Irby completed a swing pass to junior Jay Wilkerson, Jr., who broke a tackle and sprinted the right sideline for a 54 yard score. The extra point was blocked but the margin was now 27-7 with 2:26 left in the period.

East gave the ball right back when an errant screen pass was ruled a lateral that rolled backwards out of bounds for a 16 yard loss. After a short punt, Concord was in business at their 48. Two plays later, Hall broke off right tackle, completed a 360 degree spin move and sprinted 45 yards for the touchdown. The score quickly jumped to 33-7 with 2:21 left in the quarter.

The Spiders added insult to injury with a time consuming drive in the final quarter aided by a running into the kicker penalty to keep the drive alive and a fourth down conversion near midfield. The drive reached the East 9 but the Mustang defense pushed Concord back to the 19. Concord lined up for a Landon Trott 36 yard field goal but holder (and backup quarterback) Larkin Lancaster jumped up, rolled right and hit receiver Zyoia Boger in stride for a touchdown.

The score stood at 39-7 with four minutes remaining but the Mustangs were not ready to quit. Porter noted with a grin that the Spider’s late-game fake field goal TD miffed him a little bit so he responded with an 83-yard kickoff return that covered the length and width of the field. “Yeah I was mad about that so I had to get them back,” Porter said. “I almost ran out of gas inside the 10 but got it in.” Gabe Hinceman’s extra point made it 39-14 with 3:41 left.

Wall closed out the scoring and the game for East when he broke around left end and outran everyone for a 77-yard touchdown sprint as the clock ran to zero. It capped another solid night for the senior halfback/quarterback who ended with 137 yards rushing to go with his TD pass to Bennett.

East will continue in the SPC next Friday when they host Cox Mill.