Asheboro shuts down Eastern Randolph, 14-3

ASHEBORO — A No. 1 RPI ranking is really just a number. And with so much time left in the high school football season, that number could very well change the very next time that team takes the field.

But while a team has that prestigious number, it sure can be used for motivation, much like it was last Friday night when Asheboro High School, the No. 1-ranked 6-A team in the state of North Carolina, met its biggest rival in Eastern Randolph at Lee J. Stone Stadium.

The Blue Comets’ defense was outstanding, holding the Wildcats to 146 total yards of offense and AHS managed two long scoring drives in recording a 14-3 victory in one of the longest-running rivalries in the county.

The win for the Blue Comets, who held ER to its lowest point total in the series since a 7-0 shutout win in 2008, improved their season record to a perfect 5-0, the second straight season AHS has won its first five games of the season. ER still holds a 32-21-1 edge in the series, but the Blue Comets have won the past two meetings.

The Wildcats (2-3) are off to their worst start since they were 1-4 in 2017.

This season, AHS entered the contest after earning wins over Scotland County, Northwood, Randleman and Rockingham County, earning the Blue Comets the No. 1 RPI ranking a few weeks ago.

The Blue Comets will now take a week off before traveling to Northern Guilford to open Triad Area Athletic Conference play.

“I told our guys we’re number one for a reason, we earned it,” AHS coach Calvin Brown said. “What we’ve done in this non-conference stretch, we earned that. But as we step into conference, we have a target on our back. They proved tonight they can handle that, so I’m excited to see what we can do.”

What they did against a very good skill-position team was to stuff the running game and force veteran quarterback Cade McCallum into an 11-for-24 passing performance for just 79 yards with two interceptions.

“That fuels us, gives us energy,” junior Ayden Letterlough said of the No. 1 ranking after he showed his athleticism by being all over the field against the Wildcats. “In previous years, Asheboro wasn’t a good program. Now that Coach Brown and the coaching staff is here, it fuels us a lot.”

Once again, a tough running game paved the way for AHS as junior running back Connor Brinton rushed 18 times for 108 yards and a score and senior quarterback Dallas Brinton added 63 hard-nosed yards on 23 carries with a touchdown.

“Its a great feeling,” Connor Brinton said of the top ranking. “We knew we would be good coming into the season. I don’t think it has any pressure on us. We just come out and play every week.”

They certainly came and played last week as both teams failed to put points on the board until late in the first half. On ER’s first possession of the second quarter, it drove to the AHS 20 before seeing that drive end on an interception by Connor Brinton in the end zone.

“The second quarter, we had a chance,” ER coach Burton Cates said. “We switched centers this week and it kind of blew up on us. It’s going to be a good move. With injuries, you have to make some adjustments. We just haven’t been consistent on offense. We have to get more consistent offensively.”

The Blue Comets took over on their 20 and drove 80 yards in 14 plays, getting a 3-yard scoring run from Connor Brinton to cap a 6:57 drive, which left just 12 seconds on the clock before halftime.

“It’s three and three and four yards you to death,” Cates said of both time-consuming scoring drives, the second of which came in the final quarter. “We knew that was a possibility going into it. Their backs are very patient and they follow their blocking well.”

The AHS defense continued to make things difficult for ER in the second half with Letterlough, Shane Immel, DJ Scott, Micah McLaughlin and others leading the way.

“We knew coming in they like to run and spread it out with Cade,” Immel said. “We just needed to stop the run and make them throw it and we made him throw it. They had a couple of good passes, but for the most part, we shut it down. They didn’t get anything over us. We have dogs. We had great defensive coverage all across the board whether we were in man or zone.”

ER’s only points came in the third quarter when they started possession on the AHS 40. They moved the ball to the AHS 8-yard-line before Joel Salinas nailed a 25-yard field goal to make it 7-3.

But the Blue Comets responded with a 14-play, 81-yard scoring drive, which featured all runs by the two Brintons and Garrison Cheek. Connor Brinton broke through for a 37-yard run to put the ball on the ER 3. On fourth-and-goal from the 1, Dallas Brinton scored.

“They shut us down a little, we struggled a bit offensively,” Brown said. “But we stuck to our game plan, we didn’t waver off that. We kept running it and we kept pounding it. Eventually, Dallas and Connor started breaking some long ones.”

Jefferson Aguilar nailed his second PAT and is now a perfect 20-for-20 on PATs this season.

The Wildcats will host West Stanly Friday to close the non-league season before heading into Four Rivers Conference action, where they will look to extend a 24-game conference winning streak. ER hasn’t lost a league game since April 2, 2021, when it fell to Randleman.

ER’s Caiden Glover had six receptions for 44 yards against the Blue Comets and Cameron Hinton had 34 yards rushing on six carries.

“We now have a real tough conference schedule,” Dallas Brinton said. “I think that will show us. We’ve had some tough tests so far. This was a really good win going into conference. We have a lot of games to win and hopefully we can execute in those games.”

There is no reason to believe that won’t happen.