Freedom's playoff status up in air after ninth victory

Freedom High’s 55-13 dismantling of visiting Chase on Senior Night may serve as merely the epitaph on what could have been a promising postseason.

After a short Patriots punt return near the Chase sideline late in the third quarter with Freedom leading 38-13, five Patriots and two Chase players were ejected for fighting, possibly dooming Freedom (9-1, 4-1 South Mountain Athletic 2A) to a postseason ban.

Under North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) rules for fighting, if a team has three players ejected specifically for fighting during a season – or six for any reason – the team forfeits its right to appear in the state playoffs.

Already this fall, the playoff ban has been enforced on Southwest Guilford, which had four players tossed from a game against Eastern Guilford on Aug. 26.

Five football teams in the state were banned from the playoffs in the 2010-11 school year, marking the most teams affected in one season since the rule took effect about 10 years ago.

Witnesses near the field said a Trojans assistant coach made contact with Freedom senior wideout David Duckworth after Duckworth was pushed out of bounds near the Chase bench, starting the melee.

The Freedom bench emptied and players ran towards the opposite sideline, prompting the officiating crew to stop play for around 20 minutes to make a ruling with 1:16 remaining in the third quarter.

The five Patriots who left the game could also be forced to sit out next week’s final regular-season finale at Patton.

Freedom senior Michael Helms threw a 59-yard TD pass to classmate Raymond Beam on the game’s third play. Helms later ran for two scores, as did junior David Burgess. Matthew Watson nailed all seven extra point tries and tacked on field goals of 24 and 22 yards.

Sophomores Khris Gardin (60-yard punt return TD) and Chris Bridges (3-yard run) had Freedom’s other scores.

The Patriots won’t know their postseason status until the NCHSAA reviews what happened.

A key will be if the five players were given ejections or ejections for fighting or whether the officiating crew’s game report lists any of the players as “disqualified” from the game.

Under the rules, ejections and disqualifications aren’t the same, and the NCHSAA has written specifics on why players or coaches would be ejected or simply disqualified from a game.

Watauga 42, Hibriten 31

The Pioneers rode running back Kyle Chambers’ best rushing game of the season – plus two defensive scores – to a Northwestern 3A-4A victory in Boone.

Chambers ran 40 times for 253 yards, his fifth 100-yard game of the year, as Watauga (6-4, 4-1) kept alive its shot of finishing second in the conference.

South Caldwell, which completed its league schedule with a 29-0 victory over Alexander Central, wrapped up the championship with that win, while Watauga is one game up on Hickory in the battle for second place.

Chambers, who unofficially has 1,088 yards rushing this year, scored twice on 4-yard runs to help offset a big game by Panthers quarterback Jordan Rutherford, who ran 12 times for a season-high 188 yards and completed 6-of-9 passes for 81 yards.

Hibriten (4-6, 1-4) was ahead 32-28 with 10 minutes, 18 seconds to play but Watauga went ahead to stay when quarterback Ethan Greene scored on a 6-yard run with 6:02 to play.

Alex Fox returned an interception 74 yards for a TD with 42 seconds to play for Watauga, which also got a 64-yard fumble return for a TD by Collin Augustine in the first half.