Starter Ben Jones broke a blood vessel in his right hand when he hit it on the helmet of Northern Durham defender last Friday in Durham County Memorial Stadium, East Chapel Hill coach Bill Renner said. Jones, a 6-0, 185-pound senior, left the game with five minutes left in the second quarter and never returned.

East Chapel Hill already was without Connor Stough, a promising freshman receiver who saw plenty of action at quarterback in middle school in Smith’s undefeated season in 2011; he suffered a concussion earlier this season. So Renner turned to sophomore Adam Bussian, who had started less than 24 hours prior in leading the Wildcat JVs to a come-from-behind win over Northern.

Jones had hit 55 percent of his passes for the season and was 6-of-10 passing for 56 yards before leaving Friday. Facing a 7-0 hole, Bussian got picked off on his first pass attempt and gave up two more picks before finishing 7-for-17 for 27 yards. It was a tough debut for a sophomore who had led the JVs to a 4-2 record by mid-season

Northern turned each interception into a score, while the Wildcats were held to 75 total yards, including a minus-8 on the ground.

“They are a very good football team,” said Renner. “They are very physical and just wore us down.”

Northern Durham (5-2 overall, 4-0 PAC-6) racked up over 420 yards of offense in its dominating, 35-7 PAC-6 victory over East Chapel Hill. The win was the Knights’ fifth straight after losing two nonconference games to start the season, and it kept them one-half game ahead of Durham Hillside (5-2, 3-0) in the conference standings.

“We played better as the game went on,” Northern coach Gary Merrill said. “We have tweaked some things and fit our offense to the personnel we have.”

Northern’s rushing attack generated 407 of the 423 total yards. Senior running back Kylyn Flemming and senior quarterback Brandon Brown ran for 314 yards.

Flemming, quarterback Brandon Brown and his “little” brother Jordan Brown gave Northern a commanding 28-0 lead on TD runs of 79, 20, 8 and 2 yards. The Wildcats (4-3, 2-1) broke the drought when Luke Arlotto recovered a botched punt and running back Colby Owens took it in on the next play with just under eight minutes left in the game.

Bonitta Best

Panthers 25, Warriors 0

OXFORD Orange still likes running a tailback-by-committee in its offense, but Patrick Pettiford established himself as the chairman of the board Friday with his 177 yards and a touchdown on just 14 carries.

Jalen Pittman picked up 44 yards on 11 rushes – half of that on three touchdown runs of 9, 8 and 5 as Orange ran away, literally, with a 25-0 shutout of Oxford Webb (2-6, 1-1).

Michael Bolden added 53 yards on 5 rushes for Orange. Jamal Pittman, Garrett Cloer and Marquiese Morrow combined for 40 yards more on the ground.

Sean Motley completed 4 of 12 passes for 54 yards without an interception to help Orange (6-1, 2-0 Carolina 2A) win its fourth straight and to keep pace with Cardinal Gibbons (7-0, 2-0) atop the conference.

Red Wolves 37,

GC Panthers 6

HILLSBOROUGH Cedar Ridge celebrated its homecoming in style and gave first-year coach Chris Casey his inaugural victory by rolling up more than 400 yards total offense against winless Granville Central.

Tailback Jaylin Grady rushed for 187 yards and touchdowns on runs of 51, 31 and 4 yards to lead Cedar Ridge to its 37-6 win. The Red Wolves (1-7, 1-0 Carolina 2A Conference) led 23-0 before the Panthers’ lone score with 5:50 left in the game.

Josh Keihle completed 11 of 20 passes for 155 yards. He connected with Julius Walton on a 16-yard TD pass to put Cedar Ridge up 10-0 with 10:36 left in the second quarter. Walton scored the game’s last TD on a 9-yard run.

W.E. Warnock