Gaston, Lincoln and Cleveland Week 5 Picks

Kings Mountain 28 - Burns 21

Lincolnton 45 - West Lincoln 14

Parkland 21 - Ashbrook 14

East Gaston 28 - Cherryville 24

Crest 17 - T.C. Roberson 14

Shelby 41 - Chase 7

Bessemer City 47 - North Lincoln 13

Mountain Island Charter 34 - Pine Lake Prep 20

Thomas Jefferson 34 - Central Academy 27
　
Game of the Week, Burns @ Kings Mountain: Both teams opened conference play last week with big wins. Kings Mountain throttled East Rutherford 62-16. Burns handled Chase 31-14. These two teams are not expected to knock off Shelby for the conference title. But a win will put them closer to being the top 3A team of the conference although defending conference champion, Crest, will have something to say about that later. Kings Mountain is a tough place to play but Burns has been good so far this year.

In The Sweet Bye And Bye: Believe it or not, this will be a relatively quiet week for area high school football as many teams are on a bye including South Point, Forestview, Hunter Huss, North Gaston, East Lincoln and Highland Tech. The bye week probably could not come at a better time for these teams. Only one of these teams has a winning record (East Lincoln). The Mustangs are 4-0. Forestview is 2-2 after being dismantled by East Lincoln 28-3. South Point, Hunter Huss, North Gaston and Highland Tech are all 1-3. The bye week at this point could give these teams some much needed rest and time to heal before conference play.

Getting An Early Start: Two teams that opted to have their conference game moved up a week early are the Lincolnton Wolves and the West Lincoln Rebels. They will open their conference game up this Friday at Lincolnton. So these two teams will have their bye week next week. The Rebels are 3-1 after wins over Fred T. Foard (24-0), Cherryville (21-0) and North Lincoln (39-14). The Wolves will be a totally different beast for West Lincoln with lopsided wins over North Lincoln (63-7), North Gaston (61-34), East Gaston (54-14) and an overtime win against a dangerous South Point team (25-24).

Still Looking For The W: East Gaston and Cherryville are two area teams that have not gotten a win on their record as of yet this year. These two teams will square off in Cherryville. The Ironmen came up just short last week against North Gaston in a 34-33 decision. Will they be able to take down East Gaston or will the Warriors prevail?

Gaston, Lincoln and Cleveland Week 4 Picks

Forestview 28 – East Lincoln 21

South Point 24 – Clover 21

Ashbrook 35 – Garinger 0

Lincolnton 56 – East Gaston 14

Hunter Huss 49 – Hickory 14

Bessemer City 16 – Stuart Cramer 10

North Gaston 28 – Cherryville 12

Kings Mountain 35 – East Rutherford 13

Burns 24 – Chase 7

Crest 37 – Jimmy Draughn 7

Shelby 45 – R-S Central 7

Thomas Jefferson 51 – Christ the King 6

Fred T. Foard 28 – West Lincoln 13

Lake Norman Charter 48 – Highland Tech 0

 

Some Key Notes and Summaries

 

Game of the Week: Forestview travels to take on East Lincoln in a game that should be a defensive battle. The Mustangs have shut out their last two opponents and held their first one to 13 points. It’s worth noting that all of East Lincoln’s opponents have a combined record of 0-9. Forestview has played stiffer competition as they have faced Providence Day, Clover and Kings Mountain. Forestview lost 19-13 to Clover, but beat Providence Day 27-6 and shut out Kings Mountain 28-0. Those teams have a combined record of 5-3.

Getting Back On Track: After a one-point overtime loss to Lincolnton and suffering their first shutout loss since 1998 against Shelby, the South Point Red Raiders are looking to get back on track before the bye week and before conference play. South Point faces another tough task as they travel south of the NC/SC border to face an undefeated Clover squad. The Blue Eagles defense has not surrendered any more than 13 points in both of their wins. This could be another defensive struggle. South Point does not want another 1-3 start on the year. Should they lose to Clover however, it is not the end of their season.

If You Love Defense, You Might Want To Watch This Game: Stuart Cramer will travel to the other side of the county to take on Bessemer City. Both defenses have been very impressive to start the year off. The Storm have allowed only 19 points on the year. The Yellow Jackets have allowed 27 points total. They allowed 20 points in their season opening win against East Gaston before pitching a shutout in their 16-0 win over conference foe, Mountain Island Charter, and narrowly losing to Chase 7-0. The Storm opened up with a 20-6 win over Cherryville, before dropping a tough one to R-S Central 6-0. Cramer’s offense broke through last week with 35 points in a 35-7 win over West Iredell. Don’t look for much offense in this game, though.

The Battle of the 0’fers: 0-3 North Gaston hosts 0-3 Cherryville. 0-2 Ashbrook hosts 0-3 Garinger. 0-3 Hunter Huss travels to 0-3 Hickory. Needless to say, there will be three teams getting their first win of the season. Ashbrook plays host to a Garinger team that has not won a game since 2011. The Wildcats have been outscored 130-29 this year. Ashbrook held their last opponent (Crest) to only 14 points in their loss. Look for the Green Wave to win this one big. Hunter Huss has lost by a combined nine points in all three of their contests. Hickory, on the other hand, has not lost a game by any less than 20 points this year. The Red Tornadoes were blown out by Newton-Conover 57-13 last Friday. North Gaston and Cherryville could actually be more competitive than the other games listed. Cherryville has struggled to put points on the board this year. The Ironmen have only scored 12 points total on the year. Meanwhile North Gaston has had two games in which they have surrendered 50+ points.

Gaston, Lincoln and Cleveland Best To Last Week 4

1. Shelby (3-0) - Shelby's defense put to rest any doubt of how great they are by shutting out South Point last Thursday. Make no mistake, Shelby is the real deal and looks like they are heading for another state title. Shelby opens conference play with R-S Central.

2. Lincolnton (3-0) - Lincolnton moved a spot up with their dominant 61-34 win over North Gaston and Kings Mountain's 28-0 loss to Forestview. Lincolnton will face East Gaston this Friday before starting conference play. The Wolves are still favored to win their conference.

3. East Lincoln (3-0) - East Lincoln is coming off two big shutout wins, a 69-0 win over Christ the King and a 48-0 win over North Lincoln. Now, the Mustangs will get a much stiffer test this week from visiting Forestview (ranked below). East Lincoln escaped in their first game against Hunter Huss 14-13. Will the Jaguars be a taller mountain for the Mustangs to climb?

4. Forestview (2-1) - Following a heartbreaking 19-13 loss to Clover, Forestview made a statement last week in their 28-0 win over Kings Mountain. The Jaguars forced five Mountaineer turnovers in the win. They will travel to East Lincoln Friday and are looking to wrap up their nonconference schedule with a winning record. A win over East Lincoln will be a huge momentum boost heading into conference play.

5. Kings Mountain (2-1) - The Mountaineers fell for the first time this year and they fell hard against the Jaguars. Kings Mountain is still a very dangerous team but if they are to contend, they will need to do away with the turnovers especially if they want to run with Shelby and have the upper hand against Crest.

6. South Point (1-2) - The Red Raiders sufferred not only their second loss in a row, but a big shutout against Shelby. Make no mistake, the Red Raiders are not dead. South Point has another test as they travel south of the border to take on Clover. A win will move them up.

7. Burns (3-0) - It was really a tossup between Burns and Crest for the #7 spot. But since Burns is still undefeated, I ranked them just above Crest. Burns will open conference play against Chase. The Trojans are coming off a 7-0 win over Bessemer City but the Bulldogs will be a stiffer challenge for Chase.

8. Crest (1-1) - Crest is coming off a bye week. The Chargers are hoping to rejuvenate their offense after a slow start. They have averaged 13 points in their first two games. They scored 12 in their 27-12 loss to South Point and 14 in a 14-7 victory over Ashbrook the following week. They should have no problem against their conference opener, Draughn, this week.

9. Bessemer City (2-1) - The Yellow Jackets fell for the first time last week as they were defeated by Chase 7-0. Bessemer City will host Stuart Cramer. The Storm is ranked just two spots below the Yellow Jackets. Look for this game to be a big defensive struggle.

10. Mountain Island Charter (2-1) - After suffering a 16-0 loss to Bessemer City, the Mountain Island Charter Raptors made a statement by whipping Thomas Jefferson 31-13. With the Raptors losing to Bessemer City and playing one less conference game than them as they don't play Cherryville, it is highly unlikely they will win the conference title but they are on the move up this year. The Raptors are off this week.

11. Stuart Cramer (2-1) - After struggling on offense the first two weeks, the Storm came alive offensively by scoring 35 points in a 35-7 win against West Iredell. Cramer has not allowed any more than 7 points in the first three contests. Their only loss was a 6-0 defeat to R-S Central. This could be a low scoring game between the two.

12. Hunter Huss (0-3) - Another week, another narrow loss for the Huskies. This time they fall 17-14 to Porter Ridge in a game that Huss was intercepted six times by the Pirate defense. The Huskies have lost three games by a total of nine points. Huss travels to play Hickory this Friday. The Red Tornadoes are 0-3 and have not been anywhere near as competitive as Hunter Huss. Look for the Huskies to get their first win of the season.

13. Ashbrook (0-2) - Ashbrook is coming off a bye week. Before that bye week, however, Ashbrook looked like a Jekyll and Hyde team. The Green Wave was trounced 48-13 by Clover in week 1. But in week 2, Ashbrook only suffered a 14-7 loss to Crest. Their next opponent is Garinger. The Wildcats have not won a game since 2011 and that was a season finale 16-14 win over Harding. Ashbrook should dominate early and often in this game.

14. Thomas Jefferson (1-1) - Thomas Jefferson started the season with a 56-0 victory over Hickory Grove Christian but came back to Earth last week as they fell hard to Mountain Island Charter 31-13. The Gryphons travel to take on Christ the King on Friday. The Gryphons should win that one easily.

15. West Lincoln (2-1) - The Rebels are coming off two straight wins after their season opening loss to Draughn. The two teams they beat, however, are North Lincoln and Cherryville. Both of them are ranked near the bottom. West Lincoln welcomes Fred T. Foard, another team that is 2-1 on the season. West Lincoln could move up a spot with a win.

16. East Gaston (0-2) - East Gaston's bye week probably came at great time. The Warriors have had it rough to start the season with lopsided losses to Bessmer City and Kings Mountain. However, coming off the bye week they will have to face 3-0 Lincolnton. The Wolves just trounced North Gaston 61-34. It will probably get worse before it gets better for East Gaston.

17. North Gaston (0-3) - The Wildcats were crushed 61-34 last week against Lincolnton. However, the Wildcats did put up a fight for a while. They were down 27-20 at some point, but the Wolves pulled away in dominant fashion. North Gaston will host Cherryville, another team that is 0-3. The winner of this game could move up the rankings.

18. North Lincoln (0-3) - With three lopsided losses to start the season, a bye week could not have come at a better time for North Lincoln. The Knights were shut out by East Lincoln last week 48-0.

19. Cherryville (0-3) - Cherryville was also held scoreless last week as they fell 21-0 to West Lincoln. Cherryville will travel to North Gaston. The Ironmen have only scored 12 points on the year so far.

20. Highland Tech (0-2) - Highland Tech travels to face Lake Norman Charter. The Rams ended up with a bye week last week as the school they were scheduled to face dropped their football program. Lake Norman Charter is 3-0 on the season. The Rams have been shut out in both of their contests.

Mallard Creek’s Defense Smothers Byrnes

                Many people who came to watch the Mallard Creek Mavericks take on the Byrnes Rebels expected to see a shootout. But there was not much offense going on as both defenses kept each other’s offenses out of the end zone. But on the last play of the first quarter, Mallard Creek got on the board with a 17-yard touchdown run by quarterback Chauncey Caldwell. Josh Silverstein’s kick for the extra point made it 7-0.

                The Mavericks extended their lead to 14-0 with a 15-yard touchdown run by Joel Gilmore. The Maverick defense, on the other hand, continued to shut down Byrnes’s offense. Their running game was going nowhere and quarterback Brock Carroll was constantly running for his life. That forced the Rebels to have to air it out. Byrnes got on the board before half-time with a 17-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Brock Carroll to Demarcus Gregory. Luis Hernandez’s kick cut the Maverick lead to 14-7.

                Byrnes would struggle to get anything going after that. The Rebel defense would prevent the Mavericks from putting more points on the board. But it was the Mallard Creek defense that would draw first blood in the second half. Larry Matkins intercepted a pass from Carroll and he took it 25 yards for a touchdown. Silverstein’s extra point made it 21-7.

                Byrnes cut the Mallard Creek lead in half once more with a Carroll eight-yard pass to Quez Mayes and Hernandez’s extra point. Byrnes would not get any closer. Each team would exchange two turnovers. Though Caldwell and Gilmore scored for the Mavericks, it was senior running-back Darnell Walker that did most of the dirty work with 139 yards rushing.

                “It’s a big win. It’s a great win for the program. We expected a tough game. We watched them last week. They got a lot of fight over there. We just made a couple more plays then they did.” Said Mallard Creek head coach Michael Palmieri

“That’s our style of offense. We are a physical football team. We try and play physical football.” Palmieri added “We are happy with the result. All we care about is winning. We don’t care about stats. We don’t care about who scores. We are going for our fourth title so when we get to that level, we just keep winning games. We’ll worry about stats later. We got to cut down on penalties. We’re killing ourselves with penalties.”

Mallard Creek is off next week. After that, they travel to Rock Hill-South Pointe, S.C before beginning conference play.

“Two good football teams playing each other. The team that made the most mistakes lost.” said Byrnes head coach Brian Lane “They’re a great defense. We couldn’t get anything going. We play top caliber teams. We don’t shy away from anybody. That’s what gets you ready for the playoffs.”

Byrnes will host Rock Hill-Northwestern, S.C. next week.

Turnover Plagued Hunter Huss Falls To Porter Ridge

                Usually when a team is losing the turnover ratio 6-1, you wouldn’t think they would have a chance in the game. That was not the case for Hunter Huss. With five turnovers already in the game, the Huskies had a chance to either send the game into overtime with a field-goal or win it with a touchdown in the closing seconds. That’s when the Huskies committed their sixth and final turnover in their 17-14 loss to Porter Ridge.

                Hunter Huss started freshman Zoe Wallace at quarterback. He threw one touchdown pass to Antwanez Barnett for 63 yards. That gave Hunter Huss a 7-3. Wallace was intercepted six times in the game, however. After going up 7-3, the Huskies fell behind immediately when Pirates’ senior running-back Mason Mills scored on a 66-yard rushing touchdown. Sophomore quarterback Grayson McCall extended the Pirates’ lead with a four-yard touchdown pass to fellow sophomore Jake Myers. Kicker Jared Wheatley was 2-for-2 on extra-point kicks. He also got the Pirates on the board with a 35 yard field goal.

                The second half was more of a scoring drought as both defenses stiffened. The Huskies finally broke through to cut the Pirates lead in the fourth quarter when junior running-back Dallas Danner scored a two-yard touchdown run. They would not get any closer.

                Mason Mills led the Pirate offense with 141 yards and a touchdown. Jake Horstkamp registered three interceptions for the Pirates. Matthew Cambria, William Kilgo, and William Reed each had one. Isaiah Moran sacked Huskies quarterback Zoe Wallace once. Dallas Danner led the Huskies offense with 136 yards rushing and a touchdown. Akeythio Carson recovered a Porter Ridge fumble for Hunter Huss. Devin Harrell and Antonio Washington each registered a sack for the Huskies.

                “No question the turnovers were the Achilles’ heel today. There’s no way you can win a ball game with six interceptions. And to be down by only three points?” said Hunter Huss head coach Jamar McKoy “We harped all week on keeping our penalties down. We got our penalties down today but our turnovers went through the roof.”

                “Defense was on the field about 85-90% of the ball game. So the defense was sucking wind. One time we put our heads down they blow by us with a (66 yard) by the big back (Mason Mills). That’s the tale of the tape. If we can get the offense clicking and get on the same page and keep the defense off the field. Our defense is lights out. We harped on giving up big plays and again today big plays beat us.”

                “No question it’s preparing us for the conference.” McKoy said of his narrow losses “But I can tell you what. My guys, especially my seniors, are sick of losing. I’m sick of losing. We need wins. That’s what matters right now, wins and losses.”

                Hunter Huss will have a chance to do that this Friday as they travel to take on 0-3 Hickory.

                “It was a battle. We came out feeling good after half-time and Hunter Huss just came out and hit us in the mouth in the second half.” said Porter Ridge head coach Michael Hertz “For 75% of my team, last week was their first varsity game. We’re very inexperienced and we’ll take a lot from this. I am glad, happy and proud how we battled and hung in there and held on for the win. We bent but we didn’t break I’d like to be better against the run. But when it mattered, we held.”

                “We worked hard in the offseason. I have a great group of seniors. We worked from February all the way up to the season. We’re just trying to change the culture around here and I’m happy for the community.”

                Porter Ridge plays host to their cross-town rival, Sun Valley (3-0) next week.

                “It’s exactly what we need. They’re our rival and we’re playing them at home. We’re coming off a subpar performance today even though we won so I’ll be anxious to see how our team responds.” Hertz said.

Forestview Defense Shuts Down Kings Mountain; Mountaineers No Longer Undefeated

Coming into this game, Forestview knew they had a big task of having to slow down Kings Mountain’s potent offense which has scored 110 points the past two weeks. The Jaguars did just that. Forestview pitched a shutout in a 28-0 win over visiting Kings Mountain.

The game started out as a defensive battle as both teams were unable to punch it in early. Kings Mountain drove down deep into Forestview territory on their first drive, but stalled near the Forestview 15. The Jaguars had a hard time moving the ball early. Everything they tried to do offensively, the Mountaineers shut it down.

But the Jaguars would soon go to their heavy package which included using NG Nate Whitaker as a fullback. That started to pay off. Whitaker got Forestview on the board with a five-yard touchdown run. Dylan Disarro’s extra point made it 7-0. That would be the score at half-time.

Kings Mountain received the second half kickoff but was not able to do anything with it. The Jaguars would find the end zone again later in the third quarter. Jayveon Love finally broke through and scored on a 15-yard rushing touchdown. Love would score again early in the fourth quarter with a 26-yard touchdown run. Forestview put it away with just over five minutes to go with a two-yard touchdown run. Kicker Dylan Disarro was 4-for-4 on extra points.

Kings Mountain was their own undoing many times in the game with penalties and turnovers. The Mountaineers lost five fumbles in the game. Two of them were on special teams. Three of them on offense. Forestview only lost one. Aveon Reid recovered two fumbles for Forestview. Anthony Nance, Chase Payne and Jacob Ash each recovered one for Forestview.

"We were fortunate. We got some breaks early on. Then we got momentum and it kind of carried us and (Kings Mountain) is a good team so I’m proud of our guys." Forestview coach Chris Medlin said "We hung around early to gain confidence and I thought as we gained confidence, we started to play really well. I hope this propels us going forward because we accomplished something because of who we beat. They are such a good team. Our defense was outstanding."

Medlin said of his team’s next opponent, East Lincoln "They are a great football team. They’ve made deep playoff runs and won state championships. It’s going to be another big challenge."

"I just think we played smashmouth football tonight. We came out very physical." said FB/NG Nate Whitaker "We made a statement tonight. They’re a great team and so are we. We came together as a team. We had a great week of practice and tonight we came out hyped."

The Jaguars travel to play East Lincoln next week. Kings Mountain opens up conference play at East Rutherford.

Gaston, Lincoln and Cleveland Week 3 Picks

Shelby 21 – South Point 14 *

Kings Mountain 35 – Forestview 21

Lincolnton 48 – North Gaston 14

Thomas Jefferson Academy 21 – Mountain Island Charter 14

East Lincoln 55 – North Lincoln 7

West Lincoln 28 – Cherryville 6

Stuart Cramer 21 – West Iredell 14

Bessemer City 20 – Chase 10

Burns 28 – Central Cabarrus 10

Hunter Huss 21 – Porter Ridge 14 ^

 

*= Game is played tonight

^= Game is played Saturday @ Monroe High School