Red Devils’ Dominance Continues Over Mustangs
What looked on paper to be a close game between two strong playoff teams just 20 minutes away from each other in a late November playoff game, at times, looked more like two unfamiliar teams struggling with early season jitters in late August. However, Newton-Conover turned a 7-7 first quarter game into a 28-7 blowout by half-time. The Red Devils never looked back as they rolled to a 35-14 victory over East Lincoln to advance to the fourth round of the state 2AA playoffs.
The Mustangs broke the ice early in the game when Cole Bowen took a blocked punt by the Red Devils and took it 29 yards for the first score of the game. The Red Devils were not phased, however. Rashad Kissler got the Red Devils on the board with a three-yard touchdown run to tie the game up at 7-7. The Mustangs would begin to self-destruct in the second quarter when Preston Perry was intercepted by Paul Forney and he took it 50-yards to give the Red Devils a 13-7 lead. Spencer Linquist’s extra point made it 14-7. Jamal Coates and Kissler each scored one time in the second quarter to assist with the Red Devils’ 28-7 half-time lead.
The third quarter would see no scoring. The Mustangs did not quit and their efforts paid off with a Josh Wilson one-yard run to cut the Devils’ lead to 28-14. Wilson took over at quarterback in the second half in place of Preston Perry. However, the Red Devils were able to muster up a drive that resulted in a Sam Royal five-yard run for a touchdown with less than four minutes to go to put the game away for good.
“The difference is we could not run (the ball) on them and they could run it on us.” East Lincoln head coach Mike Byus said “The bottom line, when you know you can’t run the ball on them and you have to try and make plays a different way. You got to make plays and you can’t have turnovers. We didn’t make plays and we had four turnovers.”
“Our seniors have won 46 games in the last four years so I can’t fault them. They brought us a long way. I thank them just for letting me go along for the ride.”
“When you get down seven (points), the big thing is don’t panic. So we didn’t.” Newton-Conover head coach Nick Bazzle said “We knew we had a lot of time left and if we could just get a little offense established, we could get the ball in the end zone. When we tied it up and Paul (Forney) came right back down the field and picked that (pass) and went to the house with it, that just made a huge swing for us momentum-wise. I said coming in that the team with the least amount of mistakes will win this ball game. When two good football teams play, that’s what happens.”
As big a part of Newton-Conover’s offense as Octavius Hardin is, Jamal Coates has been as big a work-horse.
“He’s (Coates) has done it all year. Octavius is not all we got. Jamal Coates has got a big heart and he runs the football hard and he just keeps churning and keeps churning. He came in this season as a back-up because Paul Forney was already the starter going into this season and he just kept working and working and kept on getting the coaches’ attention all preseason. Finally I just said he’s good enough to start for us and Paul Forney is good enough to put in the slot because he’s physical, he can run and he’ll block. So Jamal enabled us to be better because he came up and took that fullback spot and we were able to move Paul and make us a lot more effective.”
Newton-Conover will be back at home next week to take on Salisbury, a 35-7 winner over Pisgah.
“That’s incredible.” Bazzle commented “Here we go all the way around this thing and then get all the way back home. I’m glad we’re there. I don’t know much about Salisbury except they’re good. So we got our work cut out for us, but we’ll work, we’ll prepare. This time a year you just hope you can advance, but you’re not going to play a bad football team.”