Redhawks Swarm Huskies

The Monroe Redhawks closed out the Union Power Cooperative event blowing out Hunter Huss 45-0 and it wasn’t even that close. In fact, Monroe scored on six out of seven of their drives in the opening quarter. The Redhawks did just about everything they wanted by scoring at will and shutting down the Huskies offense.

Monroe’s Braxton Knotts did most of the scoring damage in the first half with two five-yard touchdown runs, a 23-yard touchdown run and a 50-yard punt return for a touchdown. The other score in the first half was a Zephaniah "Zeph" Wall 23-yard touchdown pass to Jaylen Nixon.

Just before the half, kicker Brian Diaz got in on the fun with a 44-yard field goal. That made it 38-0 at half-time. Diaz was also six-for-six on his extra points. Monroe received the second half kickoff. Jadarious "JD" McManus took the kickoff and ran it 87 yards for the touchdown. The clock then starting running continuously and the subs started coming in.

Monroe did make one mistake in the first half when Knotts fumbled a kickoff near midfield, but it wouldn't matter as the Huskies were unable to capitalize. The Huskies made it as far as the Monroe 25-yard line at some point in the first half, but that spark was knocked out due to a fumble.

Knotts's four touchdowns won him the Player of the Game Award.

"We can't say that we are where we want to be but we are getting better." said Monroe head coach Johnny Sowell.

"The last time we were 3-0 and faced Weddington at 3-0, we left at 3-1 and I tell our kids about it." Sowell said about their matchup at Weddington "We got to have a good week of practice. Wednesday is a tune-up day and our coaches need to put them in the right position."

Given that this wasn't a county game or a conference game, Sowell decided his team should treat this as a statement game.

"We just got to learn and grow from this game." said Hunter Huss head coach Jamar McKoy "We are young and this is a great ball club we just played. We can't fumble the ball against a good ball club and we can't have penalties against a good ball club."

The Huskies had two fumbles on the night.

"We have to make adjustments on the offensive line and defensive line." McKoy said "Hickory is a physical ball club."

Asked if a short week for Hickory, who plays Newton-Conover Tuesday in a make-up game, will help his team, his reply was "Any given Friday night, any ball club can win."

Hunter Huss will host the Red Tornadoes next Friday.

Earlier: Weddington shuts down Charlotte Christian

This was a defensive battle throughout the game. The only touchdown scored was a Grayson Willingham 21-yard touchdown pass to Mark Tyulyu. From that point forward, the Knights held Weddington out of the end zone.

Kicker Keith Duncan would kick field goals of 32 and 24 in the first half. He would then hit a 45-yarder in the third quarter. He would win the MVP Award of the game.

Charlotte Christian was not able to get anything going offensively. Their running game was shut down for most of the game. They did get on the board with one minute left when John Turley threw a three-yard touchdown reception to Jonathan Durham. Turley was sacked on the two-point conversion attempt, however.

The final was 16-6, but it could have been worse had the Warriors not dropped a couple of big passes.

"Today, we made some mistakes." said Weddington head coach Tim Carson "Penalties hurt us. We don't have a 2nd-and-25 play. We run a ball control offense."

"Christian came out and did some different things in the second half and we had to adjust to them."

Overall, Tim Carson was pleased with his Warriors' performance against one of the top private schools in the area.

Weddington hosts Monroe next week for a big county showdown.

"We have to put four quarters together." said Charlotte Christian head coach Jason Estep "Our goal is to win a state championship regardless of who we play."

"We are playing against stiff competition, but we are not getting hurt. We are playing the top at each level (4A and 3A)."

The Knights lost to Charlotte Catholic 5-0 to open the season. They beat Myrtle Beach last week 24-3. They will host Hoggard next week.

South Mecklenburg shuts out Porter Ridge 34-0

South Mecklenburg had little trouble from the Porter Ridge Pirates. The Sabres opened up with a 28-0 half-time lead. Nigel Brown got the Sabres started with a fumble recovery in the end zone for a touchdown. Running back Travis Prince's touchdown pass from quarterback Antonio Wallace gave the Sabres a 14-0 lead. Deangelo Blair-Young got in on the fun with a 60-yard fumble return for a touchdown. He would add a 20-yard touchdown run to give the Sabres their 28-0 half-time lead.

The only score in the second half was a Wallace 17-yard touchdown pass to Moryah Johnson. The extra point was blocked, however. Johnathan Doerer was 4-for-5 on extra points.

"I thought they played really well." said South Mecklenburg head coach Rocky White "The heat and the amount of plays Porter Ridge was running, we had to suck it up."

The Sabres get ready to host Myers Park, a 38-8 winner over Providence.

"Myers Park played a great game last night." White said "It's a big game next week. They are a big rival."

Porter Ridge did have a bright spot in the loss. Running back Mason Mills amassed 130 yards on 26 carries. The Pirates travel to take on in-town rival, Sun Valley, next week. The Spartans lost 46-39 to Rocky River, Friday.