From staff reports

BOILING SPRINGS — Carson, a heavy underdog, made a game of it with Crest before losing 28-7 in the first round of the 3A state playoffs Friday.

Seeded 29th, Carson (4-6) controlled the ball for most of the first half and was able to keep a talented Crest offense off the field.

“We executed the game plan to perfection as far as playing keep away,” Carson head coach Daniel Crosby said. “We moved it from 20 to 20 all night long, but we left two scores out there. We needed to punch them in if we were going to pull off a major upset.”

Carson put together a drive that lasted the entire first quarter, but was stopped inches from the goal line.

Down 7-0 late in the half, Carson faked a punt on fourth-and-10, and Hunter Burris passed to Makani Guida for a big play. Guida bolted down the sideline and set up a Carter Dowd touchdown for 7-all.

Then Carson recovered an onside kick, but was stopped. Crest got the ball back with about a minute to go in the half and used a tunnel screen to score a go-ahead touchdown just 15 seconds before halftime.

“They’ve got a lot of speed,” Crosby said. “Their guy made a big play.”

Carson tried another onside kick to start the second half. Crest recovered and drove to make it 21-7.

Carson tried to answer, moving the ball as far as the Crest 12, but a fourth-down pass was batted down by the fourth-seeded Chargers (8-2).

Crest tacked on another touchdown in the fourth quarter

“Crest is very good on defense as well as offense, but we had our chances,” Crosby said. “We couldn’t have done much more than we did as far as our effort and as far as executing the game plan against a really good team.”

West Rowan will go to Crest next week.

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ASHEVILLE — Davie ended the season with a 61-28 loss at Asheville in the first round of the 4A state playoffs.

Davie (6-5) just couldn’t stop the Cougars, who won their ninth game in a row.

Ninth-seeded Asheville (9-2) got off to a terrific start and led 35-0 before the War Eagles could get anything going.

Seeded 24th, Davie broke the ice on an Alex Summers scoring pass to Zaharee Maddox.

In the third quarter, Davie scored two quick touchdowns to get within 35-21, but Asheville turned it on again.

Tate Carney scored the last TD for the War Eagles,