From staff reports

DENTON — Naz Stinson was a surprise starter at quarterback for North Rowan on Friday, and the versatile athlete threw two touchdown passes to record-breaker Amari McArthur.

In the Cavaliers’ 40-6 victory at South Davidson to open Central Carolina Conference play, McArthur broke a couple of long-standing North career records. He topped Alfonzo Miller’s mark for touchdown catches as well as Bryson’s Gaymon’s mark for receiving yards.

Jeremiah Alford, who normally quarterbacks the Cavaliers, was still feeling the effects of a physical game with West Rowan.

“Jeremiah got banged up a little bit,” North head coach Nygel Pearson explained. “He was cleared to go for South Davidson, but we wanted to be extra-cautious, so we went with Naz.”

McArthur, a 6-foot-3, 190-pound wideout who has offers from Richmond, Elon, South Carolina State and Lenoir-Rhyne, did not get off to a dynamic start this season.

Through four games, McArthur, who earned the nickname “The General” during his monster 2021 season, owned a modest 12 catches for 150 yards and a touchdown.

Stinson hit McArthur for the touchdown pass that started the scoring at South Davidson. It was the 23rd TD catch of McArthur’s career.

The rest of the half belonged to North’s junior running back Jameias Morrow. Morrow had a 13-yard scoring run and a 30-yard scoring run. When a snap was fumbled, Morrow picked it up and bolted 73 yards for another touchdown.

South Davidson scored late in the second quarter. The Cavaliers took a 26-6 lead to halftime.

When a South Davidson onside kickoff was unsuccessful at the outset of the second half, North had great field position and scored in just 30 seconds. Stinson connected with McArthur from 27 yards out for his second touchdown pass and McArthur’s 24th career touchdown.

“We got Amari going a little bit tonight,” Pearson said. “That was good.”

When Stinson got banged up, Alford entered the contest and proved he was healthy. He hit Ason Best for a 57-yard touchdown with 2:12 left in the game. Morrow’s 2-point conversion run made it 40-6.

North generally beats South Davidson by more than that, but Pearson was satisfied with the effort.

“South Davidson is better than they were last year, and we were down quite a few guys,” Pearson said. “Most of them should be back next week.”

McArthur came into the game with 1,881 receiving yards and was able to surpass Gaymon’s school record of 1,990. Gaymon set that record in 2007.

McArthur is in the all-time top 10 for receiving yards in the county.

Now the Cavaliers have to get ready to host a hard-running Thomasville team that was whipped 35-12 on Friday by Salisbury.

North didn’t play well on the road against Thomasville last season and got pounded 59-18.

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Northwest Cabarrus 67, South Rowan 6

KANNAPOLIS — Northwest Cabarrus (4-1, 1-0) scored 41 points in the second quarter to lead the South Piedmont Conference contest 60-6 at halftime.

“They were good on both sides of the ball,” South Rowan coach Chris Walsh said. “That’s an athletic team.”

It was 6-6 at one point, with South (1-4, 0-1) pulling even with the Trojans when Bronson Hunt took a snap, turned the left corner and out-ran the defense.

Hunt had 136 rushing yards and threw for 71 yards. Naceir Parker had a 57-yard catch. Parker and Trae Rucker had exciting kickoff returns.

•••

Concord 35, East Rowan 14

CONCORD — East (0-5, 0-1) had a chance in the South Piedmont Conference game until Alex Petroff’s 80-yard pick-six locked it up for the Spiders with about five minutes left to play.

Concord (1-3, 1-0) got its first win for new coach Darren Shepherd on the new turf at E.Z. Smith Field at Robert Bailey Stadium.

Keyon Phillips ran for three TDs for the Spiders and also threw a scoring pass.

East got a turnover and scored early in the second quarter to cut Concord’s lead to 14-7.

Down, 28-7, East got its second touchdown in the third quarter.

Josh Roman-Soto and AJ Goodman scored the touchdowns for the Mustangs.

•••

Hickory Ridge 45, A.L. Brown 24

KANNAPOLIS — Caden Haywood completed 19 passes for 355 yards to lead Hickory Ridge to a 45-24 win at A.L. Brown in a Greater Metro Conference opener.

Christian Hamilton had a monster receiving game for the Bulls (3-2, 1-0). He had eight catches for 220 yards, including a decisive 61-yard touchdown.

It was closer than it sounds. The Wonders (3-1, 0-1) led several times.

The Wonders jumped out 10-0 on an Ashnah Lowery to Gerard Evans touchdown pass and a 45-yard field goal by Ty Woods.

Jamare Robinson’s short scoring run gave the Wonders a 17-13 edge at the half.

Lowery’s 73-yard TD pass to Xavier Chambers gave A.L. Brown a 24-20 lead with 6:47 left in the third quarter, but it was all Bulls after that.

•••

Davie 37, R.J. Reynolds 13

FARMINGTON — Davie’s defense got  11 third-down stops to key a 37-13 Central Piedmont Conference win against R.J. Reynolds (1-3, 0-1).

Davie (2-2, 1-0) had a quiet night through the air, but had two 100-yard rushers, with Markel Summers getting 118 yards and three TDs and Taye Maddox adding 112.