By Mike London

mike.london@salisburypost.com

GRANITE QUARRY — The MaxPreps stat page from Friday’s South Piedmont Conference football game still shows “Carson has not entered passing stats” and “Carson has not entered receiving stats.”

MaxPreps still will be waiting for those statistical data entries 50 year from now. Carson had zero passing yards on Friday, but the Cougars did score six touchdowns and outscored East Rowan 42-28.

Carson’s season is on life support, but the Cougars are hanging on. The loss to Concord really hurts, but the 3A playoffs aren’t out of the question if the Cougars (3-5, 1-4) can beat Central Cabarrus and South Rowan the next two weeks. That’s doable. That’s not like having to beat Robinson and Northwest Cabarrus.

Carson’s stat sheet from Friday looked like something out of the 1950s when teams were running the single-wing offense and pounding away with sweat, blood and guts on every snap. Bill Ludwig would be proud of that stat sheet. Run-run-run coach Joe Pinyan, who was at East’s stadium on Friday, would be very pleased with that stat sheet.

Carson threw three times for three incompletions against East, so those bad things that can happen when you throw never materialized. On the other hand, Carson ran the ball 53 times for 435 yards. The most rushing yards the Post has recorded for a Carson team are 460 against South Rowan in 2010.

“The credit for the game plan I have to give to (assistant) Zach Overcash,” Carson head coach Jonathan Lowe said. “He was telling me all week that we should run the ball against East and we were getting Simeon Parker, one of our best players, back from an injury. Parker is a tight end and defensive end. Being able to line him up at tight end was like having a sixth offensive lineman out there. So we went old school. We went smash mouth. We ran the ball over and over, and our kids executed.”

Carson simplified things, reduced risks, and the offensive linemen and backs responded with 8 yards per carry. Freshman Damo’n Broussard had a monumental game with 17 carries for 174 yards and three touchdowns. He more than doubled his rushing total for the season.

Rosean Perkins carried 16 times for 116 yards and a touchdown. Fullback Trip Marcum had 10 carries for 73 yards and two TDs. Quarterback Griffin Barber made the correct reads and pitches on a lot of option plays and added 62 rushing yards of his own.

“He did a good job of reading East’s fronts,” Lowe said. “And we’ve got some very good young backs.”

Everyone agreed the biggest play  was a 47-yard touchdown run by Broussard, a tight-rope act down the sideline with just 11 seconds left in the first half. Instead of leading 20-14 at the break, Carson held a two-TD advantage.

East (0-8, 0-5) continued to fight in the second half but couldn’t get the stops that were required to catch up.

On the positive side, the Mustangs had their best offensive numbers of the season.

Will Klinger threw for 174 yards and two TDs, with Nathan Chisholm and Jaden Reid making the TD catches. Reid’s score came in the final seconds of play.

East posted respectable rushing numbers. Sam Blackwelder and Kaleb Whiteous had rushing touchdowns.

“We are playing a little better there,” East head coach Brian Flynn said.

East will take some hope into Friday’s game with South Rowan. Carson will get ready for a must-win game against a Central Cabarrus team that is struggling, but has some horses.

“We’ve still got some questions to answer with our defense,” said Lowe, a former Mustang who enjoyed returning to the field that molded him. “We allowed the most points that East has scored.”