By Mike London

mike.london@salisburypost.com

LANDIS— Ask South Rowan head football coach about his family, and he’ll tell you he has one daughter and 80 sons.

The number of sons changes annually depending on the number of players in South’s program. It’s a family atmosphere that Walsh and his wife have built in the community, and once that sort of foundation has been laid, winning usually follows.

Walsh’s current seniors were freshmen his first year at South, and he’s learned and grown with them, as they have learned and grown — and occasionally groaned — with him.

“We watched film of our jayvee game with Concord when they were freshmen, our jayvees actually played Concord twice that season, and the thing that struck everyone was how small our guys were,” Walsh said. “A lot of them bought into the weight room. They’ve changed a lot as seniors.”

South isn’t winning big yet, but the Raiders are winning some. They had a good 27-18 South Piedmont Conference victory at Central Cabarrus last week. Central is talented. South (2-4) won by playing well on offense and defense, by creating game-changing turnovers on defense, by winning special teams, by being patient with mild running success and hitting big pass plays.

“We played five playoff teams the first five weeks, and ran through a gauntlet with A.L. Brown, Northwest Cabarrus three straight weeks,” Walsh said. “The SPC is a grind. So Central was really important. We talk a lot about turning the corner, and if we’re going to turn that corner, that was one we needed to get. We did the little things. We made three PATs and stopped their PATs. We did just enough with our running game that it opened up big plays on play-action passes.”

Two of South’s seniors made those plays. Walsh got to see both of them break school records. South began playing football in the fall of 1961, 63 years ago, so the school records broken by quarterback Brooks Overcash and receiver Jadon Moore are meaningful.

“Both of them had really great games,” Walsh said.

Overcash had a sensational effort, 8-for-11, almost 200 yards passing on limited throws. A three-year starter, he broke his leg in the first of those two JV games with Concord when he was a freshman. Now he has broken the South record for career passing yards that Nathan Lambert set in 2012 with 3,014.

Lambert was a three-year varsity QB who actually did most of his damage as a junior in 2011. His senior year, he suffered a season-ending ankle injury in the Raiders’ seventh game.

Overcash finished the Central game with 3,034 passing yards … and counting.

“I had a start to the season where just about everything that could go wrong, went wrong, but it’s turned around,” Overcash said. “The record means a lot. I grew up as a South Rowan fan, as a South Rowan ball boy, so South Rowan football has meant everything to me. I really want to have a great senior year. You want yards and touchdowns, but mostly you want wins.”

An area where Overcash has made major strides is as a runner. While he’s fourth in most Rowan passing stats, he’s actually 10th in the county in rushing with 196 yards. There was a time when his only runs were sacks.

“We don’t call a lot of runs for me, but I think I’ve gotten better at taking what the defense gives me,” Overcash said. “I used to throw no matter what, but if I can see 10 yards in front of me now, I’ll take it.”

Moore had six catches for 151 yards to break Adrian Parker’s record for receiving yards in a game.

Parker had 150 against Mount Tabor in a 4A Central Piedmont Conference game in 1994. South was behind by a lot that night and was throwing more than usual. With the help of QB Kevin Sides, Parker set a number of school records in 1994 and had three 100-yard games. He still holds South records such as career catches (91), receiving yards in a season (949) and career receiving yards (1,493).

Moore had to come up even bigger than usual with South’s No. 2 receiver Marshal Faw out for the Central game due to the altercation with West Rowan. Moore also has been dealing with a groin injury, which explains why Tristian Littlejohn, who went 3-for-3, was kicking the extra points.

“Breaking a record means a lot to me,” Moore said. “It’s kind of hard to put into words right now. I think what I’ll remember is all the work that it took to get from where I was to being a guy who was good enough to break a school record.”

On the first two big-chunk plays Overcash and Moore connected on in the Central Cabarrus game, Overcash under-threw the streaking Moore, who sprinted past one-one-one coverage.

“Jadon is one of the fastest guys around, and he can go up and get balls,” Overcash said. “He’s been a big part of those 3,000 yards. I made throws that weren’t great, but he bailed me out.”

Moore made a key catch on a post route. It looked like he scored, but officials ruled the ball down inches from the Central goal line. Overcash got the touchdown on a sneak.

“Jadon is only 5-foot-9 — a 6-footer would have had a touchdown,” Walsh said with a laugh. “So Brooks got to steal that touchdown away from him.”

On the play that sealed victory for South with about four minutes left to play, a 42-yard strike from Overcash to Moore, both players did their jobs perfectly. Overcash launched a sweet strike down the left sideline and Moore grabbed it and took it to the end zone.

“When we get that look, Moore one-on-one with anyone, we’ll take our shots down the field,” Walsh said. “We’ve done that all season and we’ll continue to do that.”

It was a beautiful coincidence that both school records were broken on that same 42-yard play. That’s going to be a lasting memory for Walsh, Moore, Overcash and their classmates and teammates.

Overcash did some jumping around after that touchdown.

“I felt like we came back and beat a good team,” Overcash said. “A win like that can give you some fire.”

Overcash is close to more school records, including the South mark for career touchdown passes.

Moore finished the Central game with 58 career catches for 957 yards, so he’s going to be a 1,000-yard receiver. South hasn’t had a lot of those over the years.

South celebrated their feats at the annual senior dinner hosted by the Walshes, complete with table cloths with a football theme. Stag & Doe provided the food.

“We talked about to all the guys about where they were as freshman and where they are now,” Walsh said. “You always want to leave a place better than you found it. They’re all going to be able to say they did.”