By Paul Hershey
sports@salisburypost.com
KANNAPOLIS ó Battling illness most of the week, A.L. Brown standout Travis Riley saw only limited action Friday night.
That certainly wasn’t going to affect the Wonders chances of beating winless Central Cabarrus.
It just gave others a chance to grab some of the offensive spotlight.
Backup Antwoine Jordan, quarterback Martel Campbell and receiver Tevin Jones each took advantage as Kannapolis cruised to a 45-0 shutout that was just as easy as one would’ve expected.
Jordan rushed for 171 yards and two scores, Campbell had his best passing game of the season and Jones had a touchdown catch as the Wonders (5-1, 2-0) won their fourth straight game.
“There were a lot of good things,” Wonders head coach Ron Massey said. “They threw a lot of fronts at us, which we thought might happen and we were able to run the ball pretty good. I thought Martel threw the ball better tonight. I was glad to see that. We made some good plays throwing the football and the defense did a great job keeping them out of the end zone.”
The Wonders scored on their first two possessions, outgained Central 262-45 in the opening half and did all of their scoring in the first three quarters.
Jordan capped it off with touchdown bursts of 47 and 36 yards. The speedy senior needed only 11 carries and three quarters to amass his yardage.
“Antwoine was due for a big game,” Massey said. “He’s worked hard too. We’ve got two outstanding running backs and that just makes us better when both of them can produce like that.”
Campbell, whose development early in the season was hampered by an injury, ran the offense efficiently, except for one interception. He completed 7 of 10 passes for 128 yards ó all in the first half.
The junior threw a strike to Jones on a short slant for a 3-yard touchdown that made it 21-0 in the second quarter. He also showed poise in routinely checking plays off at the line of scrimmage.
“You have to remember it’s only his third game as a varsity quarterback. He’s getting along and getting better,” Massey said. “He does a good job keeping his composure and the receivers did a good job of catching the ball tonight too.”
Jones had three receptions for 57 yards, including a diving 36-yard catch while being interfered with along the sideline.
Not to be completely outdone, Riley still managed to score two touchdowns on just seven rush attempts ó each capping Brown’s first two drives of the game. He totaled 50 of the Wonders’ 286 rushing yards.
“We wanted to hold him back a little bit, but we still wanted to play him some,” Massey said.
Brown’s defense got into the scoring act for the third straight week on Mike Robinson’s 29-yard interception return off a deflection in the second quarter.
The Wonders limited Central’s offense to 92 total yards in the first three periods and forced three turnovers in the game ó leading to 17 points.
Fumble recoveries by sophomore Kaleel Hollis and senior Trenton Nobles set up Jordan’s first touchdown run and a 32-yard field goal by Brenden Brown.
“We gave up some chunks of yardage at points, but when we had to make plays they did a good job of making plays,” Massey said.
“Special teams were pretty good tonight. It was a good win for us. We’ve just got to keep working to get better.”
The blowout gave sophomores Damien Washington (the junior varsity quarterback) and Demetrius Jackson a chance for playing time in the second half. Jackson rushed for 49 yards on seven carries.
“I’m happy for the kids,” Massey said. “All of them work extremely hard and to be able to have success like this is good. We were able to get a lot of people in the football game.”
The youngsters will likely get a chance for more action next Friday against first-year school Cox Mill.
Massey, meanwhile, is focused on the Wonders continuing to make strides on the practice field in the midst of a weak stretch in the schedule.
“That’s where you’re going to improve and that’s what we want to try to do,” he said.