(Notes, minutiae and other tidbits of information about the eight games of
the 96th annual North Carolina High School Athletic Association state
football championships on December 11-12, 2009)
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? OFFENSIVE OUTPUT: A couple of players put up some big numbers with great
individual performances in the NCHSAA football championships.
Quarterback Tyrell Houghton of Reidsville completed 16 of
24 passes for 291 yards and three touchdowns and ran 13 times for 49 to lead
Reidsville past Newton-Conover 28-6 at Kenan Stadium in the 2-AA
championship game. Houston was named the Wendy’s Most Valuable Player for
his efforts.
Kevin Parks of West Rowan was limited to a season low 154
yards (how is that for a season low?) as he was the Wendy’s MVP as the
Falcons downed Eastern Alamance 28-21 for the 3-A title at Carter-Finley
Stadium.
Parks, the NCHSAA’s all-time leading rusher, unofficially
ended his career with an amazing 10,911 career rushing yards, shattering
Toney Baker of Jamestown Ragsdale’s previous mark as the only two running
backs ever to best the 10,000-yard barrier. Parks finished the season with a
single-season state record of 3,794 rushing yards and will further his
career at the University of Virginia.
In terms of durability, Aaron Crumbley of Belmont South
Point demonstrated it in the Red Raiders’ 42-28 victory over South Johnston
in the 3-AA championship contest. Crumbley, the Wendy’s MVP in that one,
carried a whopping 38 times for 122 yards and five touchdowns in the
victory.
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? DOMINATING THE BALL: South Point had a huge edge in time of possession in
its game with South Johnston for the 3-AA crown, keeping the ball away from
the Trojans’ high powered offense. The Red Raiders ran a whopping 82 plays–
the most ever in the 20-year neutral site history–and held the football for
an amazing 33:47 to 14:11 for South Johnston. In the second half, South
Point owned the ball for a whopping 18:24 to just 5:36 for South Johnston.
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? ANOTHER 3000 YARD RUSHER: Casey Randolph of Mountain Heritage carried the
ball 30 times for 106 yards as his team fell to Tarboro in the 2-A
championship game at Kenan Stadium. That gave Randolph a total for the
season of 3,055 yards. Mountain Heritage enjoyed its best year ever,
finishing as state runners-up and 13-3 overall.
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? TELEVISION: All eight of the NCHSAA state football championship games are
now available on Time Warner Cable systems across these state. Time Warner
digital subscribers may go to channel 1234 to download any of the games for
free and watch them at their convenience. The NCHSAA volleyball
championships from earlier in the fall are also available for viewing.
The Jack Britt-David Butler game was televised live across
the state on Time Warner Cable systems.
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? LONG PLAY: A.J. Little of Albemarle broke loose for a 94-yard scoring run
in the Bulldogs’ 45-21 victory over Southwest Onslow in the 1-AA title game
at BB&T field. That tied the longest scoring run of scrimmage in the 20-year
history of the NCHSAA championships at neutral sites. In 2004, Bryan Haywood
of Southside rambled 94 yards against Swain County.
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? WEST WINS THIS TIME: The West representative won five of the eight state
football championships this year, with Wallace-Rose Hill, Tarboro and
Reidsville winning from the Eastern side of the brackets in their respective
classifications. Last year the West team won six of eight and in 2007 it was
the East having tremendous success, winning seven of the eight titles. Only
Lincolnton, the 2-A West representative, broke through for the Western
squads by winning the 2-A title 28-14 over previously undefeated South
Columbus in 2007.
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? IMPRESSIVE STATS: David Butler quarterback Christian LeMay had a big game
in leading the Bulldogs to their initial NCHSAA football title as Butler
downed Fayetteville Jack Britt 48-17 at Carter-Finley Stadium in a game that
was tied at 17-all late in the first half. LeMay connected on 17 of 26
passes for 189 yards and three touchdowns in the state final, earning the
Wendy’s Most Valuable Player honor giving him a total of 3,296 yards passing
on the season. Perhaps more impressive, however, is that LeMay fired 44
touchdown passes on the year and had only two (2!) intercepted.
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? WILD GAME: Perhaps the wildest game of the championship weekend was the
1-A championship that went into overtime as Wallace-Rose Hill upended
previously unbeaten and defending state champion Mount Airy 38-37 at BB&T
Field in Winston-Salem. In OT from the 10-yard line after a 30-30 deadlock
in regulation, Mount Airy went first and scored and kicked the extra point
to go up 37-30. Wallace then got the ball, scored on a fourth-down one-yard
run by Dawan McKenzie, and then elected to go for two and Omar Carr ran it
in to end the game. Wallace-Rose Hill converted on three of five fourth down
conversions while Mount Airy had an impressive 10 for 15 in the third down
conversion category.
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? TITLE SPONSOR: For the fifth year in a row, BB&T served as the title
sponsor of the NCHSAA football championship. Every player on each winning
team received a special commemorative hat and all of the schools in the
championships were supplied with championship helmet stickers for the game.
Representatives of BB&T were on hand at each title game to assist in the
awards ceremonies.
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? FAMILIAR WITH CHAMPIONSHIPS: Reidsville has had a remarkable program
through the years, as the Rams played in a amazing 20th state championship
football game all-time and now have earned 15 championships: 1930, 1931,
1932, 1937, 1939, 1940, 1943 (co-champs), 1945, 1950, 1954, 2002, 2003, 2007
2008 and 2009. In addition, Reidsville captured three regional titles
(1963, 69, ¹70) when there was no overall state championship and the
furthest a team could go was to the regional championship game.
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? PERFECT: A total of four football teams out of the entire NCHSAA
membership finished the season undefeated: Albemarle, Reidsville, West Rowan
and Matthews David Butler. Reidsville is working on a 48-game winning
streak, tied for the third longest all-time in NCHSAA history.
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? LOTS OF RADIO: a total of 19 different play-by-play originations were
done by radio stations at the eight NCHSAA championship games.
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