Staff report

THOMASVILLE — North Rowan’s football program has felt the bite of the Thomasville Bulldogs often over the years.

The Cavaliers were crushed by Thomasville 45-13 in Spencer in 2022 and they took a 59-18 pummeling in 2021, the last time the Cavaliers went on the road to face the muscular men in red and white.

Thomasville’s Cushwa Stadium has been a haunted house for many good North teams, but there was some payback on Friday. The Cavaliers won 16-12.

It was huge road victory for North (5-1, 2-0) as well as a huge Central Carolina Conference win. As far as regular-season wins, they don’t come much bigger.

“None of our guys had ever beaten Thomasville (3-2, 0-2), so the most important thing was believing they could win,” North head coach Josh Sophia said. “They believed it.”

If North needed a confidence boost, it got one right away.

After the third play from scrimmage, about two minutes into the game, North was up 7-0. Jaemias Morrow broke a 63-yard touchdown sprint, and Daniel Montes Medrano added the PAT.

“You have to give our offensive coordinator Pedro Truesdale a lot of credit for what happened early,” Sophia said. “We had a good plan. We came out heavy (more big guys, tighter formations) and surprised Thomasville some.”

North’s defense had to dig in to contain Thomasville’s first drive. It took a while to stop the Bulldogs, but North got the stop inside the North 20.

The Cavaliers faced a long field, but Morrow’s wheels took care of that. He ran for 41 yards, and then he ran for 31 yards. With the Bulldogs looking for Morrow, Tsion Kelly got the touchdown from the 4-yard line. North’s try for two points failed, but the Cavaliers led 13-0.

Thomasville QB Keshawn Carpenter is too good to stay down long, and he made sure momentum started swerving Thomasville’s way in the second quarter.

Thomasville blocked a punt and was able to start a short-field drive at the North 39, Carpenter put it in the end zone quickly. The PAT kick failed, and North led 13-6.

Carpenter scored on a 40-yard run with a little over a minute left in the half to make it 13-12. This time Thomasville tried for two. North stopped it and kept the lead.

In the final seconds of the half, Montes Medrano kicked a 35-yard field goal for a 16-12 North lead.

“That was big because Thomasville had changed momentum with the blocked punt and that field goal got it going back our way a little bit,” Sophia said.

The defenses took over in the second half. Neither explosive team was able to score.

Thomasville drove often, getting yards, but not points, as the Cavaliers bent but never broke.

North recovered three fumbles, two of them in the red zone, to stop the Bulldogs. Khor’on Miller pounced on one, and Montes Medrano, the kicker, got the last one at the North 35.

North got the final stop it needed on a fourth-down play at the North 37.

“We played hard and we played focused,” Sophia said. “It may have been ugly in the second half, but that’s how we win. The only way we were going to beat Thomasville was to win ugly.”

Morrow did so much damage in the first half that he ended up with 18 carries for 181 yards.

Miller ran the ball 12 times for 32 yards.

North only completed three passes for 21 yards, one catch apiece for A’son Best, Amir Alexander and Kelly. Both of those numbers may be record lows for North, but QB Jeremiah Alford directed an offense that was able to eat some clock and refused to turn it over.

North stays on the road next week at East Davidson (2-3, 0-1) and will try to avoid a letdown after this watershed win. Thomasville will be expected to bounce back at home against West Davidson.