Comets begin season with romp

ASHEBORO — There are always positives and negatives when a high school football season plays its first game of a new season. However, Asheboro High School coach Calvin Brown and his staff had to look deep to find any negatives in the Blue Comets’ season-opening game with High Point Central Friday night.

AHS rolled from start to finish and completely dominated a program that has hit hard times of late, rolling to a 59-0 victory to start 1-0 for the third straight season under Brown.

The Blue Comets will take to the road this week for a Thursday night battle with Northwood, which dropped a 55-7 decision to Harnett Central last week.

“We’ll study film and work next week and hopefully we improve next week against Northwood,” said Brown after the game which saw AHS grab a 35-0 lead in the first quarter, a 49-0 lead at halftime and hold a struggling HPC offense to an unofficial total of minus-26 yards.

AHS held the Bison, who were 0-10 last year and outscored 539-19, to just nine plays of plus yardage the entire game and only one of more than five yards. 

“It’s huge, 1 and 0 to start the season is a good stepping stone,” said linebacker Cole Trogdon, who recovered a fumble in the end zone for a score less than five minutes into the contest. “The defense was out there a lot and the offense showed up. The defense came out hot and if you can get the first shot, everything is fine.”

The defense was swarming, registering 16 tackles for loss in the contest which saw the clock run continuously in the second half, even through injuries.

“The (linebackers) played really fast, hitting their gaps once they saw their reads and they made a lot of tackles for loss,” Brown said. “The (defensive line) did what they needed to do and we were able to control the line of scrimmage.”

Quarterback Dallas Brinton wasn’t forced to drive his team very far in the opening quarter as the Blue Comets converted on scoring drives of 1, 2, 14 and 39 yards after the fumble recovery in the end zone. HPC killed itself with 12 first-half penalties. It got so bad, Asheboro started declining penalties on special teams and throughout the entire second half.

“You always just want to come out of Game 1 1-0 and we were able to do that,” Brown said. “They kind of imploded a little bit, some things went in our favor and it kind of fell apart early, but I was proud of our guys who continued to play and continued to do what we needed to do. We talked about, especially as the score got up, making sure we got better and I think our guys did that.”

First-quarter scoring drives were capped by Connor Brinton, who scored on runs of 1 and 10 yards, a 2-yard run from DJ Scott and an 11-yard pass from Dallas Brinton to William Sherrod. Micah Garcia was 5-for-5 on PATs in the quarter and 7-for-7 in the game. Backup kicker Ethan Muro nailed the final PAT in the fourth quarter.

“We worked for this all summer and knew what we had to come out and do,” Dallas Brinton said. “The defense did the job and it led to scoring opportunities.”

Garcia nailed a 21-yard field goal in the third quarter and Gavin Allen scored on a 1-yard run in the fourth quarter.

The win over HPC snapped an eight-game losing streak to the Bison. AHS last defeated HPC in 1992, winning 21-20.

Dallas Brinton spent a good deal of time handing off to brother Connor Brinton, who finished with three touchdowns in the game.

“You put those two guys back there with DJ Scott and we have three guys who are dangerous,” Brown said. “Those three will be special back there. They all work so well together and they will make each other better.”

Everyone worked well together in the season opener.