By Mike London

mike.london@salisburypost.com

THOMASVILLE — Thomasville’s football team gained as many yards as Salisbury, but the scoreboard at Cushwa Stadium was one-sided.

Salisbury played without leading rusher Hez Krider on Friday, but the final score was Hornets 32, Bulldogs 6, in the 1A/2A Central Carolina Conference opener for two programs that always expect to contend for titles.

The difference was five Thomasville turnovers. Salisbury’s defense kept forcing fumbles and recovering fumbles and kept getting sacks.

Ny’Gel Elliott had three tackles for loss for the Hornets. Keial Matthews was all over the place. Matthews, Emmanuel Asare and Vamara Jabateh had solo sacks.

“There was a storm right before kickoff,” Salisbury head coach Clayton Trivett explained. “So it was wet and it was sloppy offensively. But we played well as a team and our defense was really good all night.”

With Krider out, Jackson Sparger, who had a tackle for loss on defense, led the Hornets’ ground attack with 16 carries for 52 yards. Sparger, Jamantay Cox and quarterback Hank Webb had rushing TDs for the Hornets (4-1, 1-0).

Webb was 10-for-21 for 117 passing yards, including a touchdown strike to Jay’lin Johnson.

Webb’s 18-yard scoring run was exciting, as he scrambled, was able to turn the right corner and eluded several tacklers. That was the play that gave the Hornets a 14-0 lead.

Salisbury added a safety when Thomasville was called for intentional grounding in the end zone.

The Hornets took a 22-0 lead to halftime.

Thomasville (2-3, 0-1) made halftime adustments and scored its touchdown early in the third quarter to get within 22-6.

The Bulldogs got a stop and got the ball back and had a chance to make a run at the Hornets, but that’s when Salisbury’s defense came up with another fumble recovery.

Webb kicked a field goal, his ninth of the season, for 25-6, to regain momentum and after recovering a fumble at the Thomasville 10, the Hornets scored another TD to put the game out of reach.

Webb averaged 40 yards on five punts and put five kickoffs in the end zone.

Thomasville totaled 204 yards of offense, but was only 3-for-10 on third-down conversions.

Next for Salisbury is West Davidson. Thomasville plays North Rowan.

 

 

 

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