By Mike London
mlondon@salisburypost.com
LEXINGTON ó Salisbury back Dario Hamilton continued his relentless assault on Central Davidson, and his defensive teammates were equally dominant throughout a 60-0 CCC rout in a Monday makeup game.
Hamilton rushed 10 times for 164 yards. The least successful of his three second-half touches gained 26 yards. In his four-year varsity career, Hamilton averaged 15 yards per carry against the Spartans, piled up 712 yards and scored 10 TDs.
“If we played Central Davidson 11 times a year, Dario would shatter all of K.P. Parks’ records,” Salisbury coach Joe Pinyan quipped.
Hamilton boosted his career totals to 3,027 rushing yards and 46 TDs. He needs 81 yards to break Tyris Davidson’s school rushing record and won’t have to wait long to try. The Hornets (5-0, 1-0) entertain East Davidson at Ludwig Stadium on Friday.
“That’s something I know about, but it’s not something I’ve ever publicly talked about or worried about,” Hamilton said. “All I can do is go out and play as hard as I can every night. If records happen, they happen. The thing that matters to me is 5-0.”
Salisbury started slowly. Quarterback John Knox threw his first pick of the season on the Hornets’ initial snap, but a track meet broke out late in the first quarter.
The Hornets didn’t score during the opening 9:10 or the last 8:22. They crammed 60 points into 30 minutes. Salisbury would have challenged the most lopsided beating it’s ever inflicted ó 75-0 against North Stanly in 1995 ó if starters hadn’t sat down in the middle of the third quarter.
“A kid that has earned a start deserves to play the first half and to start the second,” Pinyan said. “A few kids were sitting out at the start for different reasons, but their backups did well.”
Central’s Kirk Brown put the ball in the air 43 times, including 30 attempts in the first half. Only 10 in the game were complete, and eight were for very short gains.
“We came out playing awesome,” cornerback Martin Hosch-Cathcart said. “Eyes open and ready for anything because we’d seen this same quarterback last year. We stopped the run, made them throw, and I’m just disappointed we didn’t get more picks. They challenged me a lot.”
Central (2-3, 0-1) was in Salisbury territory four times in the first half when it still had a chance to make things interesting, but the Hornets’ defense, as has been its pattern all year, was rugged in the red zone.
“Ryan Crowder, our defensive coordinator, does a great job studying tendencies and making a gameplan, and the kids work hard at it,” Pinyan said. ” I thought we dropped about eight interceptions, but we kept up the pressure against the Brown kid, and he’s a good quarterback. A lot of the first half was played on our half of the field, but we bowed up whenever they had a chance to score.”
The defensive highlight of the first half was a crushing hit by Pierre Jimenez and O’Bryan Graham that sent Central ballcarrier Sterling Cross’ helmet flying.
Jimenez and Ike Whitaker turned in first-half sacks, and Darien Rankin pounced on a fumble.
In the second half, Graham returned an interception 40 yards for a touchdown, and Patrick Evans broke through for two sacks.
Salisbury led 28-0 at halftime on a 6-yard run by Hamilton, a 38-yard keeper by Knox, a 65-yard dash by sprinter Romar Morris and a 2-yard run by A.J. Ford after Central had messed up a snap on a punt.
Morris returned the second-half kickoff past midfield, and Hamilton cruised to the end zone for a 46-yard TD a few seconds later.
“It was a veer play,” Hamilton said. “Everybody got their man, and A.J. made a great block.”
After that, the touchdowns kept coming, including two that were 18 seconds apart. Salisbury backups drove for the final six points, with Deshaun Lyles scoring from the 9-yard line.
“I can’t argue about how our kids came out and played,” Pinyan said. “This was the CCC opener, and that’s sort of like qualifying night at the race track. We came out of the gate pretty fast.”