From staff reports
Head coaches often praise individual players who don’t make headlines ólike offensive linemen.
Salisbury coach Joe Pinyan decided to single out a different group of guys Friday night after a 49-7 victory against East Davidson.
“Everybody talks about win one for this guy or win one for that guy,” Pinyan said. “And the guys that always get overlooked are the assistant coaches. All we told them before the game was, ‘Listen, we want you to win this game for the assistant coaches. We want you to make your position coach proud.’
“And I don’t know a position coach right now that’s not proud. Every one of our assistant coaches is probably beaming ear-to-ear because the kids really played well.”
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NO TIME TO REST: With Salisbury completely dominating East Davidson early Friday, Pinyan had to search to find ways to implore his players to play even better.
“You’re up 28-0 and you say, ‘What can you get onto them about at halftime?’ ” Pinyan said. “Our defense is really playing pretty exceptional, and then they’ll do something crazy. Like the third-and-28 and the guy gains 32 yards. How does that happen? And the pass interference on a ball that lands in the middle of the track. We’re making mistakes to shoot ourselves in the foot.
“You can do that, but you get in a tight game and you make that mistakes and it’s gonna cost you a football game.”
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TOUGH TO STOP: East Davidson coach Bryan Lingerfelt said there wasn’t much his team could do to stop a Salisbury rushing attack that gained 440 yards.
Even when East Davidson appeared to have the Hornets stopped, Salisbury running backs made a play.
“We might get in the right spot, then they keep churning, we knock each other off a little bit, and that guy’s gone,” Lingerfelt said. “Or if we overplay something ó like our inside linebacker was overplaying because he was worried about them outrunning him ó they kept cutting back inside of him.”
Chris Smith is back.
After dominating in the first two games, the defensive lineman took a couple of steps back, according to coach Scott Young. But in a 37-22 win over West Iredell, the 6-2, 235-pound stud returned to his menacing self.
Smith came up with two sacks, two tackles for losses and created havoc all night long, forcing the West Iredell coaches to adjust.
“From the first quarter on, they were double-teaming him,” Young noted. They knew they had to account for him and it opened things up for other guys.”
West Iredell finished with minus-30 yards rushing on 22 tries.
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WORKHORSE: Young doesn’t like players going both ways, but senior Matt Bishop did just that on Friday, seeing time at fullback and strong safety.
“It’s a pretty rare occurence,” Young said.
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DEE-FENSE: Young said he was very pleased that West Iredell was held to only one offensive touchdown. The Warriors have Quan Rucker, who has committed to Wake Forest, and P.J. Clyburn, who has been offered by Illinois.
“It speaks volumes for our kids,” he said.
West Iredell broke a long NPC streak for the Falcons last year and it was a revenge game.
“We mentioned it,” Young said, “but we didn’t talk about it a lot. I think our kids were aware of it.”
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TOTING THE ROCK: K.P. Parks ran for 249 yards on a season-high 37 carries.
“We didn’t know how many he had until after the game,” Young said. “We’d like to get him less but we were really struggling with the reads in our passing game. My confidence wasn’t as high calling passes.”
Josh Wike was South’s most talented player as a sophomore, rushing for 633 yards and returning two kickoffs for touchdowns.
He’s accepted a whatever-it-takes role on a much stronger team as a senior, running the ball a bit (136 rushing yards), but contributing more with his work on special teams, his blocking and his defense.
One of Carson’s best-looking plays on Friday had 10 guys moving right, and then QB Ryan Jones pivoting and throwing back to the left to Travis Hayes, who had one-on-one coverage deep.
Hayes ran a nice route and Jones threw a good ball, but Wike was able to break up a potential touchdown.
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DROPS: Blake Houston’s passing line against Carsonó 3-for-11 ó didn’t tell the rest of the story.
The Raiders dropped two big plays and some short ones.
“Blake managed the game well, running the clock down and keeping Carson’s offensive off the field,” assistant coach Steve London. “But we didn’t catch it for him at all.”
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KICKING GAME: South’s Preston Penninger has had a punt downed on the 1-yard line two weeks in a row.
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PICK: B.J. Grant, who has caught 44 passes in his varsity career, made his first interception in the 15-6 victory against Carson.
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MANN DOWN: South lineman Adam Mann was tossed from a late fracas Friday and Rollins confirmed he’s expected to miss this week’s game.
Dakota Jones appeared to be tossed on the Carson side, but no confirmation on that one.
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FLAGS: South committed 10 infractions that were accepted by Carson ó mostly 5-yarders for false starts.
There were also quite a few off-setting penalties.
Several factors, including constant change along the line, have contributed to East Rowan’s offensive struggles.
Four of the five starters on last year’s team were seniors, and returning starter Nathan Robbins has been banged up.
“We haven’t started the same five all year,” East coach Brian Hinson said. “We’ve had a new group every week. These kids are learning on the run, and we’re trying to simplify some things for them. Just growing pains.”
The line featured right tackle Kevin Gillespie, right guard Greysen Gordy, center John Lohman, left guard Chris Demitraszek and left tackle Alex Lawson in a 23-7 loss to Lake Norman.
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DIRECT APPROACH: Athletic senior Ben DeCelle rushed 65 yards to Lake Norman’s 2 the first time he took a direct snap. The Mustangs used the same formation three other times, including on the very next play, and DeCelle totaled 2 yards on three carries.
“Once Ben ate ’em up with that, next time we went to it they rolled 11 in the box and had no free safety there,” Hinson said. “We had a pass play for Ben to throw off it, but when we got back in it the next time, they kept the safety back there.”
Carson’s offense wasn’t on the field often in the second half of a loss against South Rowan on Friday.
Carson had only 20 offensive snaps in the second half ó six incomplete passes, 12 rushes (four went for no gain or a loss) and two punts.
“Our defense did some good things,” coach Mark Woody said. “But we left them out there too long.”
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HURT: Carson sophomore defensive end Joseph Basinger will miss the rest of the season with a serious knee injury.
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SACK: Zack White and Micah Honeycutt combined for a 12-yard sack of Houston.
North, a 16-6 loser to West Davidson last week, has scored 26 points in six games, 4.3 points per game.
The record for the lowest-scoring team at North (6.0 points per game) was set by the first North team in 1958.
The lowest-scoring North teams in the modern era were the 1980 and 1990 squads that averaged 11.2 points per game.
The current Cavs have scored one TD each of the past four weeks, so they’re moving in the right direction.
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RATINGS: The popular Massey Ratings, which attempt to rank 382 N.C. high school teams, don’t hold the CCC in high regard.
Salisbury (69th) is the only CCC team ranked among the state’s top 150 teams. Lexington is 156th.
North Rowan is ranked 330th, but this week’s winless opponent, East Davidson is ranked 325th, so there’s a reasonable chance for a breakthrough.
North is ranked 83rd among 2A teams, while East Davidson is 81st.
When quarterback Jamill Lott was shaken up, Martel Campbell came in and performed admirably in a 45-21 victory against Parkwood.
Campbell threw a TD pass to tight end Jacob Newman before Lott returned.
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BIG NUMBERS: Kicker Morgan McDaniel has scored 39 points, including five field goals.
Trampled in the first half by Page, Davie’s defense contributed to a 50-49 victory in the second half.
“We didn’t clock in in the first half,” defensive coordinator Devore Holman said. “At halftime, I’m fortunate to have defensive coaches who collaborate. We said we were going to put some heat on them. We went back to our attack defense and kids believed. Every time they got to the sideline, we asked them what the most important play was. They said, ‘The next one.’ ”
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HUGE NUMBERS: Davie’s had a recent string of great receivers, and Joe Watson isn’t taking a backseat to any of them.
Watson has eight TD catches among his 22 receptions and is averaging 26.6 yards per reception.
Zach Illing has thrown for 1,340 yards and 11 TDs.
Friday, he had the seventh four-TD passing game in Davie history. His 377 passing yards was second in Davie annals.
Illing’s father Doug, earned his 95th career win against Page.
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Mike London, Ronnie Gallagher, Bret Strelow, Nick Bowton and Brian Pitts contributed to the notebook.