chapelhillnews.com | No rest for the weary

CHAPEL HILL -- As he watched his team limp to the locker room after another loss, East Chapel Hill football coach Darian Harris couldn't hide his disappointment.

His team, now 0-3, has already been through a long season.

A month ago, Coach Harris bubbled with enthusiasm about the potential of his second Wildcat team. He had a new quarterback, a new tailback, the return of his top four skill players and a steady free safety in Greg Alston. They were not only more experienced, but a series of off-season activities made them a stronger and closer team.

Since then, this is the hand his team has been dealt:

In the team's first scrimmage against Carrboro, East lost top rusher Jonnie Armstrong for 5-6 weeks with a broken thumb.

The top returning receiver, Omar McFadden, was suspended for the opener against Northwood after missing several team meetings. James Whitney, the second leading receiver, suffered an injury in the second scrimmage at Wakefield High and has played sparingly since.

The top returning quarterback, Ethan Keyserling, suffered so much shoulder trauma during his first varsity season he couldn't throw as sharply as before. He's been rendered solely to punting duty.

Fortunately, Armstrong's constant lobbying of senior Malcolm Huntington-Meath (who last played football two years ago) to return to the gridiron paid off. He got reacquainted quickly, because he started the season opener.

With all the shuffling, East Chapel Hill suited up 24 players total for its first two games, both against 2-A schools, each with half of East Chapel Hill's school enrollment yet twice the football participation.

It's bad enough that all those problems have gone against East, but Mother Nature has been an enemy, too. Tropical Storms Fay and Hanna forced two games to be rescheduled. Hence, East, with an undersized, undermanned team, had to play its first three games in a span of 13 days.

It wouldn't be unfair to compare Harris to Scotland's William Wallace in "Braveheart," leading men into battle while knowing they're outnumbered and overmatched. But even Wallace eventually found enough volunteers to get a win.

Monday night on the road, East Chapel Hill was missing a couple more players because of illness as the Wildcats fell 20-6 at Orange.

On Thursday night, Cedar Ridge's Domonic Currie put up an individual effort that would have made UNC's Brandon Tate proud. He shredded the tired Wildcats for 454 all-purpose yards and four touchdowns as the Red Wolves (1-2) defeated East 44-13.

In the third quarter alone Thursday, Currie returned two kickoffs for touchdowns of 90 and 94 yards, plus had a 22-yard rushing touchdown. The second kickoff return for a TD all but crushed East's spirit, coming seconds after McFadden had provided a spark with his 98-yard kickoff return for a TD.

Currie finished with 220 yards rushing on 21 carries; he only amassed a combined 99 rushing yards in Cedar Ridge's first two games.

"No question, he's a great player," said Harris. "My hat is off to him and Cedar Ridge. He did a phenomenal job. We knew coming into the game he was the guy we had to stop. We didn't do a very good job of slowing him down at all."

Even worse, Currie had touchdown runs of 75 and 35 yards called back because of holding penalties.

The final score made the result even more painful for the Wildcats, since many around the team thought it was a golden opportunity to end a 16-game home losing streak. Cedar Ridge came into the game off a shocking loss to Bartlett-Yancy, and had only averaged 141 yards total offense through its first two games.

"This was a huge game for us," Cedar Ridge coach Lou Geary said. "We talked about it all week with the guys: lose this one and we're 0-3, and we couldn't stand that."

CEDAR RIDGE 44, EAST CHAPEL HILL 13

Thursday, at Chapel Hill

Cedar Ridge	0	10	21	13 -- 44

East CH	0	0	13	0 -- 13

CDR--Nick Dunn 28 FG; CDR--Alex Gregory 2 run (Dunn kick); CDR--Domonic Currie 90 kickoff return (Dunn kick); CDR--Currie 22 run (Dunn kick); ECH--Omar McFadden 98 kickoff return (Thomas Moore kick); CDR--Currie 94 kickoff return (Dunn kick); ECH--Matthew Nelson 1 run (kick blocked); CDR--Currie 5 run (kick blocked); CDR--Brent Burnette 2 run (kick blocked)

Rushing: CDR--Domonic Currie 21-211, Brent Burnette 7-65, Cole Wagner 4-39, Will Roberts 218, Jake Geary 2-10, Josh Pappas 1-5, Alex Gregory 2-(-2), Caleb Goodnight 1-(-2); ECH--Spencer Dew 7-23, Omar McFadden 5-22, Jont'e Armstrong 3-5, Thomas Moore 4-(-2), Matthew Nelson 4-(-14), Malcolm Huntington-Meath 8-(-20).

Passing: CDR--Caleb Goodnight 1-5-0, 5 yards, Alex Gregory 0-1; ECH--Huntington-Meath 9-14-1, 99 yards, Matthew Nelson 3-9-2, 35 yards).

Receiving: CDR--Currie 1-5; ECH--McFadden 6-95, Moore 4-5, Greg Alston 1-26, Armstrong 1-8.

Records: Cedar Ridge 1-2, East Chapel Hill 0-3

ORANGE 20, EAST CHAPEL HILL 8

Monday, at Hillsborough

East Chapel Hill	 6	0	0	2 -- 8

Orange	0	7	6	7 -- 20

ECH--Spencer Dew fumble recovery in end zone (kick failed); OHS--Drevis Torain 3 run (Durbin Nunez kick); OHS--B.J. Riley 2 run (kick failed); OHS--Thomas Covington 28 run (Nunez kick).

Rushing: ECH --Omar McFadden 7-49, Jon'te Armstrong 2-6, Spencer Dew 7-2, Thomas Moore 3-2, Malcolm Huntington-Meath 9-(-7). OHS--Thomas Covington 11-155 TD, Mike Williams 15-67, Torain 9-32 TD, Riley 6-16, Luke Hawsworth 4-4)

Passing: ECH--Huntington-Meath 6-14 88 yards, OHS -- Hawksworth 6-13 137 yards)

Receiving: ECH -- Moore 3-30, McFadden 1-36, Greg Alston 1-15, John Evans 1-7) OHS -- Lucas Herweyer 3-64, Donovan McCulley 2-74, B.J. Riley 1-1)

SSS 22, CHHS 12

At Smithfield, running back/defensive back D.J. Bunn turned in two big plays for Spartans touchdowns after he put his team ahead 9-3 on a 6-yard touchdown run. In the second quarter, Bunn raced 76 yards for a touchdown and a 15-3 lead.

After Chapel Hill's Justin Kircher kicked his second field goal to cut the deficit to 15-6, Bunn caught a Anthony Rouse pass in a crowd and pulled away for a 34-yard touchdown play.

Chapel Hill's defense was led by Jared McAdoo, a 280-pound senior defensive tackle who was one of three UNC commitments in the game, along with Bunn and SSS linebacker Justin Dixon.

-- David Justice, Correspondent

Chapel Hill	3	3	0	6 -- 12

Smithfield 3 12 0 7 -- 22

Thursday, at Smithfield

SSS--H.Johnson 32 FG; CH--J.Kircher 27 FG; SSS--D.Bunn 6 run (kick failed3; SSS--D,Bunn 76 run (run failed); CH--J.Kircher 27 FG; SSS-- D.Bunn 34 pass from A.Rouse (H.Johnson kick); CH--C.Moore 2 run (pass failed).
Rushing: CHHS--J.Haus 7-(-10), N.Holland 1-(-5), S.Moore 14-38, D.Watson 1-03, SSS--D.Bunn 8-112, J.Dixon 5-0, J.Jones 3-4, T.Reddick 1-(-1), A.Rouse 6-37, J.Snead 8-41, K.Wilson 3-(-1).
Passing: CHHS--J.Haus 20-36-1, 223; SSS--A.Rouse 3-10-1, 70.
Receiving: CHHS--K.Duffy 10-121, D.Farrington 2-27, D.Peretin 4-22. D.Stoltz 4-51); SSS--D.Bunn 2-4, C.Ryais 1-223.

GIBBONS 41, CARRBORO 32

Home for the first time this season, Carrboro led 26-20 in the second half before the Crusaders rallied with 21 straight points.
Jaguar quarterback Derek Bryant connected on 15 of 29 passes for 226, but made his biggest contributions with TD runs of nine and four yards. David Brooks rushed for 85 yards and two TDs on 21 carries.
Cardinal Gibbons countered with four different backs who ground down the Jags, each getting at least 20 yards. Carrboro struggled to contain Clarence James, who scored four touchdowns on big runs of 20, 17, 15 and 13 yards. He scored all three of Gibbons' second-half touchdowns.
Carrboro tried to answer with a 23-yard TD pass from Bryant to Brooks with 7:44 to play, but could get no closer than the final margin after an attempted two-point PAT failed.

Car. Gibbons 7 13 14 7 -- 41

Carrboro 6 14 6 6 -- 32

Thursday, at Carrboro

CGB--B.J. Vaughn 85 kickoff return (Nathan Steele kick) 11:47; CAR--Derek Bryant 9 run (run failed) 4:32; CGB--Tim Buckley 3 run (run failed) 7:40; CAR--David Brooks 3 run (Eduardo Velez kick) 4:08; CAR--Brooks 4 run (Velez kick) 1:33; CGB--Clarence James 15 run (Steele kick) 0:17; CAR--Bryant 4 run (kick failed) 11:13; CGB--James 20 run (Steeie kick) 7:54; CGB--James 17 run (Steele kick) 3:32; CGB--James 13 run (Steele kick) 10:21; CAR--Brooks 23 pass from Bryant (pass failed), 7:44.
Rushing: CGB--Clarence James 11-82, Tim Buckley 4-63, Bryce Burkey 1-23, Sterling Jukes 5-20, Kevin James 2-4, Mark Forbes 5-(-11); CAR--David Brooks 21-85, Evan Avant 1-9, Derek Bryant 10-6.
Passing: CGB--Forbes 4-9-0, 63; CAR--Bryant 15-29-2, 226.
Receiving: CGB--Andrew Shafer 4-63; CAR--Cardin Jones 1-68, Andy Knapp 3-60, DeQuan Bradley 4-55, Brooks 7-43.P
Records: Gibbons 1-1, 1-1 MidState 2-A; Carrboro 9-3, 0-3.

JM 34, NORTHWOOD 10

Jordan-Matthews gave Northwood its worst loss since 2006 and beat the Chargers for the second time in three years on their home field. Brothers Kasey and Jonathan Glover put the spurs to the Chargers with two touchdowns apiece.
Northwood did all its scoring in the first quarter, then saw their 1-A arch-rivals from Siler City reel off 34 unanswered points.
Northwood hadn't lost at home since a 45-14 win in 2005 by 4-A Lee Senior, and hadn't lost by that many points since eventual state champion Burlington Cummings topped the Chargers 50-21 on Oct. 13, 2006.

JM 7 6 7 14 -- 34

Northwood 10 0 0 0 -- 10

Thursday, at Pittsboro

NWD--Andrew Easterling 12 field goal; NWD--Terrell Goldston 38 pass from Sam Griffin (Easterling kick); JM--K. Glover 88 kickoff return (L. Bray kick); JM--K. Glover 5 run (kick blocked); JM--J. Glover 7 run (Bray kick); JM--J. Glover 7 run (Bray kick); JM--Cory Wilkerson 57 run (Bray kick).
Rushing: NWD--Goldston 10-4, Sam Griffin 5-5, Ridge Smith 2-(-3), Demetrius Johnson 5-21, Jacob Haulk 4-20; JM--K. Glover 11-55, J. Glover 17-167, C. Wilkerson 13-103, J. White 2-11, D. Jones 1-(--3).
Passing: NWD--Griffin 10-39-1, 27; Smith 0-1-0, 0, Haulk 0-1-0, 10; JM--Jones 1-1-0, 17; Glover 0-4-1, 0.
Receiving: NWD--Ryan Epps 2-43, Goldston 2-47, Smith 2-81, Preston Mason 3-51, Haulk 1-49; JM--K. Glover 1-17.
Records: Northwood 2-1, Jordan-Matthews 3-0.

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