After three excruciating years of falling to arch-rival, Concord, the A.L. Brown Wonders are celebrating that elusive victory with a 26-15 win. The win also snapped a 23-game regular season win streak for the Spiders. Their last regular season loss was to Hickory Ridge 24-21 in overtime on October 19, 2012.
“We shot ourselves in the foot.” Newsome said about the penalties and turnovers that plagued his team “We didn’t handle the ball as well as we could. But we showed the resilience to overcome that.”
The Wonders drew first blood with a Damon Johnson 24-yard touchdown pass to Dominique Washington. Nate Williams’s kick gave the Wonders a 7-0 lead early. The Spiders tied it up in the second quarter with a one-yard touchdown plunge by quarterback Keenan Black and Marisa James’s kick for the extra point.
Concord had a chance to go up 10-7 at half-time, but the field-goal attempt was no good.
After stopping Concord on their first drive, A.L. Brown went back to work. Johnson and Washington connected again. This time it was a short pass that Washington took 45 yards for the touchdown.
But Concord would answer again. Black scored on another one-yard run. After the Wonders jumped off sides twice on the extra point, the Spiders opted to go for the two-point conversion. Black gave Concord the lead with the two-point conversion run.
But that would be the end of their fun. Running-back Jalen Cagle finished off the Spiders with runs of three and eight yards. The extra point attempts (one run and one kick) both failed, but it didn’t matter.
“I’m very proud of our young men’s effort.” Said Concord head coach Glen Padgett “We are inexperienced. It’s game one. We will see how we have grown between next week and this week. It’s not something that happens overnight.”
Concord not only lost running-back, Rocky Reid, to graduation but also the five offensive linemen that opened the holes for him.
Concord will be home against Albemarle next week. Brown will travel to rival South Rowan. The Wonders will square off with Northwest Cabarrus and Mooresville after that. Then they will enter conference play with Mecklenburg teams.
“Playing our rivals in nonconference does change the dynamic.” Newsome said about his team’s schedule “The Charlotte teams’ fanbases don’t participate like these community teams like South Rowan, Northwest Cabarrus and Mooresville do.”
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