By Bill Kiser
sports@salisburypost.com
KINGS MOUNTAIN ó At the start of the season, A.L. Brown’s coaches believed they had the players to make a run for the state championship.
On Friday night, the Wonders officially became title contenders, winning their first regional championship in 11 years with a 30-14 victory against Kings Mountain.
Brown, the No. 4 seed in the 3AA West bracket, will play in the state final for the fifth time in school history. The Wonders (13-2) will face Greensboro Dudley (15-0) next weekend in Winston-Salem.”It’s a great feeling for our kids to get the experience of playing for a state championship,” said Wonders head coach Ron Massey, who coached Kings Mountain from 1995-99.
“I don’t think we played the best game we’ve played this year, but the kids were resilient ó they did what we had to do to win, and when you’re in the playoffs, that’s all that matters.”
Eastern champ Dudley, which will play A.L. Brown at 4:30 p.m. next Saturday at BB&T Field, was a 52-7 winner over Northeast Guilford on Friday.
Brown advanced thanks to its defense, which kept the second-seeded Mountaineers’ offensive punch of quarterback Michael Roberts and running back Joe Chambers in check.
While Kings Mountain (11-4) managed to open with a 91/2-minute, 21-play drive ó capped by Roberts’ 14-yard TD pass to Devon Thompson ó its offense struggled at times throughout the rest of the game.
“They started off like they had been throughout the playoffs ó running time off the clock,” Massey said. “But after that, our defense just played outstanding.”
Roberts had a big game a week earlier in a 56-55 slugfest win over Anson County, throwing for 295 yards and four TDs and running for 160 more and two scores.
Against the Wonders, Roberts was held to 123 yards passing and one TD as well as 31 yards rushing and one score. Chambers, who ran for 1,317 yards and 18 TDs this season, managed just 22 yards.
In all, Brown’s defense held Kings Mountain to 180 yards of total offense, sacked Roberts three times and even forced him into an interception for the first time in two months.
“That was a tremendous play,” Massey said of Billy Simiton’s pick, which set up the first of three second-quarter touchdowns for Brown. “That gave us great field position.
“Our defense played lights out ó we didn’t let Roberts escape, which we were so worried about and worked so hard to contain him.”
With Kings Mountain’s big-play threats contained, that opened the door for the Wonders’ own skill players to do their thing.
Quarterback Jamill Lott threw for one touchdown and ran for a second during the second quarter, with Travis Riley also adding a touchdown run as Brown pulled ahead 21-7 at the half.
After Riley’s 1-yard run helped tie the game at 7-7 early in the second quarter, Lott put Brown ahead to stay on a 12-yard TD run with 4:40 remaining. Then, with time ticking away, Lott found T.J. Johnson in the corner of the end zone for an 8-yard TD pass with 3.3 seconds left in the half.
“He’s a great receiver,” Lott said. “I know he can catch the ball anywhere I throw it. He did what he had to do to come down with it.”
The Mountaineers managed to cut the Wonders’ lead to 21-14 early in the fourth quarter on Roberts’ 1-yard run. Brown responded with a pair of scoring drives ó capped by Morgan McDaniel’s 20-yard field goal and Antwoine Jordan’s 14-yard TD run ó and a pair of fourth-down stops.”This is a great feeling,” Lott said. “We had no doubts ó no doubts at all ó that we could do it. … We’ve played a lot of good teams this year, but we knew that if we played our hearts out, we could do it.
“We always believed we could do this … but it was our defense that helped us tonight. You know what they say ó offense wins games, but defense wins championships.”