LINCOLNTON – Maiden High's Cody Beal wasn't concerned Friday night about the margin. Just getting knocked out of the state 2A playoffs, he said, is painful enough.
"We tried but we couldn't get it going on the ground or air," Beal said after Lincolnton dismantled the visiting Blue Devils 55-6 in a first round game. "A loss is a loss…
"It's just like if you lose by one or 100… it's just a killer."
Sixth-seeded Lincolnton went for the jugular early and dealt the 11th-seeded Blue Devils the worst loss in their 78-game postseason history (topping a 37-point win margin by Hudson in 1960).
Lincolnton (9-3) beat Maiden (6-6) for the second time this season and earned a trip to Winston-Salem next Friday to play third-seeded Carver (8-3), a 31-0 first-round winner over West Davidson.
The Wolves rocked the Blue Devils by jumping on them at opportune times, then ran away from them with three touchdowns in less than two minutes late in the game.
Ahead 13-6, Lincolnton began to pin Maiden when sophomore quarterback Matt Johnson went out with a knee injury with 8:08 left in the first half.
After Johnson hobbled off with help, Beal moved from running back to quarterback. On Beal's second play, Michael Cunningham intercepted his pass and went 48 yards for a touchdown.
Down by 15 points and without their onfield leader, Maiden head coach Brian Brown said he knew trouble was brewing.
"I told Coach (Butch) Parker then that I felt right there was the dagger, that I don't know if we can come back from that," Brown said.
Lincolnton led 27-6 at the half, scoring again with 34 seconds to go in the half when Carnell Wilson made a diving catch for a 19-yard TD.
"When I came in and threw the interception for a touchdown, we knew that was when they were going to come at us," Beal said.
It was, Wolves head coach Scott Cloninger, a chance to seize control.
"That was probably the momentum shift we needed," Cloninger said. "That was a huge play for us and that was what hurt them the most.
"It's a mental thing… now they (the Blue Devils) are looking around for another leader and that's hard to do."
Johnson, who scored Maiden's only TD by breaking a run 69 yards on the game's first play from scrimmage, came back in just before the half and finished 8-of-18 for 110 yards passing and with eight rushes for 72 yards.
Maiden had 96 yards on 28 rushes.
"He was playin' on one leg," Cloninger said of Johnson. "It wouldn't surprise me if he drove the bus home, too."
Lincolnton led 34-6 when it widened the lead to 49 points by scoring three times in 1:58.
A 2-yard run by quarterback Brian Wilson made it 41-6, then Jed Beam's block of a punt was returned 22 yards for a TD by Cunningham, who had four scores.
The final Wolves score came 10 seconds later, when Maiden lost a fumble that was recovered at the Maiden 21, and Khalid Poole scored on the next play.
"It kind of snowballed," said Brown, whose team had fallen 21-13 at home to Lincolnton earlier in the season and, for the second straight year, finished 6-6.
Beal missed the first game with an injury and the Wolves' Wilson also sat out with an injury. This time, Wilson completed 8-of-13 passes for 131 yards to add to the Wolves' 271 rushing yards.
Cunningham ran seven times for 91 yards and Littlejohn had 64 yards on seven carries to lead Lincolnton.
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