Newton-Conover High did what it had to do to get back in the Catawba Valley Athletic 2A football race on Friday night.
The Red Devils bounced back from last week's loss to Bandys to earn a 28-6 win over host East Burke.
Three games into the conference schedule, Newton-Conover is in a four-way tie for second place with East Burke, Maiden and South Iredell.
Bandys leads the league at 3-0 in conference games.
Newton-Conover coach Nick Bazzle believes getting back into the conference race was a big motivation for his team.
"We told the kids the next two weeks are crucial," said Bazzle. "I was more nervous about this one than I have been in two years.
"You don't play East Burke unless you coach and play hard.
"Offensively, we get into a lull.
"I think it took them the first half to calm down."
The Red Devils controlled both sides of the line of scrimmage.
Newton-Conover (6-1, 2-1) held a powerful East Burke offense that was averaging nearly 300 yards rushing to 114. That forced East Burke to do something it does not like to do – pass.
"They took our running game away," said East Burke head coach Mike Biggerstaff. "Their offensive and defensive lines are the best we've seen in two years.
"We couldn't run."
Both teams had scoring opportunities early on but were couldn't capitalize.
Newton-Conover's Jake Cansler intercepted a Justin Lail pass and returned it to the East Burke 11.
Three plays later, Red Devils quarterback Sam Royall fumbled and Ethan Hull recovered for East Burke.
East Burke's Kenneth Gaither then fumbled after an 8-yard gain and Aaron Brinn recovered for the Red Devils at the East Burke 10, but the Cavs forced a 32-yard field goal attempt by Spencer Linquist that was wide.
Another Newton-Conover drive stalled inside the Cavs 20' in the second quarter. Hull again recovered a fumble by Royall, but East Burke ended up having to punt.
Jamal Coates ran for 43 yards to set up the first Newton-Conover TD, which came on an 11-yard run by Octavius Harden.
After Linquist kicked the PAT, he found the end zone again on his kickoff. East Burke then drove 80 yards for its only TD. The big play was a 67-yard pass from Lail to Joseph Jacomine.
Lail finished the drive with a 4-yard run, but the Cavs (5-2, 2-1)missed the PAT kick and Newton-Conover led 7-6 at halftime.
The Red Devils came back with three second-half TDs while limiting East Burke to 90 yards of offense in the last two quarters.
"We settled down in the second half," said Bazzle. "We found a few spots we could get into and (Jamal) Coates did a good job.
"He ran the ball hard and blocked well."
Offensively, Newton-Conover moved the ball well enough to score two rushing TDs in the second half.
Coates had scoring runs of 23 and 26 yards.
Defensively the Red Devils forced East Burke to pass.
"Normally that is something we would want," said Bazzle. "But after last week I didn't know.
"We want to force people to do what they don't want to do."
Newton-Conover's secondary was up to the challenge as the Red Devils intercepted four East Burke passes. Cameron Shuford returned his interception 103 yards for a touchdown.
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