Eastern Randolph roars back; Trinity rolls again

By MIKE DUPREZ

The Hub

Eastern Randolph appears to have shaken off its season-opening loss to Eastern Alamance and Trinity rolled again. We'll take a look at what happened in the second week of the high school football season.

EASTERN RANDOLPH 69, ASHEBORO 7

The Wildcats zoomed to a 35-0 lead after one quarter. It was 56-0 at halftime. Quarterback Stratton Barwick and tailback Ervodd Cassady had big games. The Wildcats also returned two interceptions for touchdowns.

In a sense, the Wildcats did things they didn't do in their season-opening 42-28 loss to 3-A power Eastern Alamance.

“We dropped five interceptions against Eastern Alamance,” Eastern Randolph coach Burton Cates said. “Two of them were in the flat with no one around. That’s like dropping foul balls. You can't give extra outs to the fourth-ranked team in 3-A.”

That wasn't the case Friday night.

“We tipped some balls at the line of scrimmage, caught them and returned them for scores,” Cates said.

The offense continued to shine. Eastern Randolph had gained 420 yards in the Eastern Alamance game so that wasn't a surprise. 

On the other hand, Asheboro lost its 11th consecutive game.

TRINITY 45, FORBUSH 21

The Bulldogs might be onto something. They raced past a team they lost to 56-6 last season to improve to 2-0.

And they closed with a rush. Forbush led 21-14 in the first half but Trinity outscored the Falcons 31-0 the rest of the way.

It was a spectacular night for Dylan Hodges, who caught two touchdown passes, returned two kickoffs for scores and had a rushing touchdown.

Quarterback Dominic Payne also had a huge night, running for two touchdowns and throwing for two more. The 6-foot-2 junior ran for 154 yards on 8 carries while completing 4-of-5 passes for 126 yards. 

Daniel Torreblanca-Gonzalez led the defense with 13 tackles while Javion Holmes had 11.

SOUTHWESTERN RANDOLPH 49, SOUTH STANLY 13

It was more of the same for the Cougars and they like that.

Adam Cole scored four more touchdowns. The versatile speedster caught two touchdown passes, ran for a third and returned a punt for a touchdown.

New quarterback Easton Clapp threw for three touchdowns and ran for two more.

PROVIDENCE GROVE 42, SOUTHERN GUILFORD 0

The Patriots used six takeaways to storm to a 35-0 halftime lead. 

Andrew Canter completed 9-of-14 passes for 141 yards and a pair of touchdowns for the Patriots. Zane Cheek had 11 carries for 62 yards and 2 touchdowns. Lemuel Coltrane and J.C. Cruz each caught a touchdown pass.

Chase Whitaker intercepted a pass, recovered a fumble and ran for a touchdown. Brady Collins, Zach Lohr and Karson Bowman also had interceptions. Parker Hall recovered a fumble.

CENTRAL DAVIDSON 46, RANDLEMAN 21

The Tigers weren't able to sustain the success they had last week in their season-opening win over Asheboro.

Central Davidson is still having great success with the run-oriented double-wing and the Spartans pounded out 490 yards.

Amarion Moton had a rushing touchdown for the Tigers and Tyshaun Goldston caught a 20-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Christian Long.

EAST DAVIDSON 41, WHEATMORE 0

The Warriors were overwhelmed by East Davidson’s ground game. All the points were scored in the first half.