Western Harnett 39, Gray’s Creek 33
LILLINGTON — The streak is over.
Chris Flack rushed for three touchdowns, Sean MCLean scored three times and and Jared Bohn threw for two scores as the Western Harnett Eagles snapped a 26-game skid dating back three years with a 39-33 victory over Gray’s Creek in the Cape Fear Valley Conference opener for both teams on Friday night.
The Eagles (1-3, 1-0) had to come from behind to pick up the victory, falling behind 20-6 in the second quarter and 26-12 before the end of the half.
Western Harnett trailed just 26-19 at the break following Bohn’s 28-yard scoring toss to McLean, but the Bears answered with a score early in the third quarter to go back ahead 33-19.
But Western Harnett closed out the scoring to earn Mark Kirk his first victory of the season with the Eagles. McLean scored from 3 yards out before Bohn found him for a 44-yard touchdown pass to tie it at 33. Then Flack plunged in from 2 yards out for the winning score, the only score in the fourth quarter.
Flack finished with 88 yards rushing on 18 carries while Bohn was 5-for-11 for 116 yards.
Triton 27, Southern Lee 6
SANFORD — The first play of the game proved to be all the foreshadowing anybody needed.
Lined up in the shotgun, running back Jeremy McLeod was supposed to take the direct snap.
He never got a hand on the ball as it spiraled high in the air above him. McLeod raced after the ball and fell on it to save the possession for the Cavaliers, but it was at the expense of a 21-yard loss.
It didn’t get much better from there.
Triton’s defense suffocated the Cavaliers’ offensive attack, limiting Southern Lee to just 77 yards of total offense in a 27-6 victory in the Cape Fear Valley Conference opener for both teams.
The performance was vastly different than that the Cavaliers (1-3, 0-1) gave in Brick City Bowl III last week against their rival Lee County Yellow Jackets. In that game, a 24-6 win for the Cavaliers, Southern Lee rushed for more than 261 yards and led the entire game.
This time, things didn’t go so well. McLeod recovered from the first play of the game to rush 21 times for 55 yards and a 29-yard touchdown. But the Cavaliers could manage just 10 offensive plays from scrimmage in the entire second half, and held the ball for under 3 minutes in the third quarter.
“I didn’t get the kids ready and prepared to play the game,” said Cavaliers’ first-year coach Bill Mazcko. “We weren’t ready to go, and that’s my fault.”
Northwood 48, Carrboro 35
CARRBORO — Northwood took a big lead, but was forced to hold on against winless Carrboro on Friday night.
The Chargers (5-1, 1-0), who won for the fifth time in six games to start the season, raced out to a 35-0 lead before Carrboro (0-6, 0-1) came charging back, eventually holding on for a 48-35 victory.
“We survived,” said Northwood coach Bill Hall. “Carrboro is much-improved and we’ve got to get much better if we want to defend our conference championship.”
The game was the Mid-State Conference opener for both teams.
In other games, Thomasville beat Chatham Central 42-0 and Overhills downed Union Pines 33-7.
Alex Podlogar 