Roberts-led Cougars smack Hibriten, finish in fourth

Senior running back Corey Roberts rushed for a season-high 211 yards and scored three touchdowns on 27 carries on Friday night, leading visiting Alexander Central over Hibriten, 48-19.

The win left the Cougars (5-6, 3-3) in fourth place in the Northwestern 3A-4A, while Hibriten finished 4-7, 1-5 and tied Fred T. Foard for last place.

 “He (Roberts) played like a man possessed tonight,” said Alexander Central head coach Tom Harper.

Roberts previous season-high was 201 yards against Statesville and he also surpassed 1,000 yards rushing.

Alexander Central dominated in every phase, finishing with 458 yards to the Panthers 270. That included 326 on the ground and scores on seven of 11 possessions.

Defensively, the Cougars stifled Hibriten, limiting the Panthers to negative yardage on nine plays and three or fewer yards on nine plays.

Of 51 plays, Hibriten had three yards or less on 18 plays.

“We played well and we haven’t done that a lot this year,” said Harper.

Alexander Central scored on four of its first six possessions to take a 27-7 lead at halftime.

With the scored tied at 7-all, Matt Quigley scored on a 22-yard reception from Nick Salyer, as the Cougars took a 14-7 lead with nine minutes, 55 seconds left in the first quarter.

From that point it, was all Alexander Central as the Cougars scored 27 unanswered points for a 41-7 advantage with 5:55 remaining in the third quarter on a 4-yard run by Salyer.

“We didn’t play good enough to win,” said Hibriten head coach Clay Lewis. “It was the same old same old. We turned the ball over and couldn’t stop the run.

“We are not a passing team so it’s hard for us to play from behind.”

Turnovers also hurt Hibriten as the Panthers lost two fumbles and the Cougars converted both into scores.

Freedom 63, Patton 0

Quarterback Michael Helms’ final game for Freedom was another big one – 169 passing yards and five TDs – in a South Mountain Athletic 2A-3A victory at Patton.

Helms completed 10-of-14 passes and threw scoring passes of 8 and 5 yards to Marcus Kincaid, 16 to David Burgess and 22 and 12 to Raymond Beam.

Freedom finished 10-1 overall and 5-1 in the league to post back-to-back 10 wins seasons under Coach Mike Helms.

But the Patriots will not go to the state playoffs because they had five players ejected for fighting in an Oct. 21 game against Chase.

The Patriots appealed an North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) ruling to the association’s executive committee on Thursday, but it was denied.

NCHSAA rules on ejections say any team that has three players ejected for fighting in a game – or six ejections over the course of a season for any reason – forfeits playoff privileges.

Helms, a senior who will play next season at Western Carolina, ends his prep career with unofficial passing totals of 420 completions on 772 attempts for 5,590 yards and 76 TD passes.

Helms and Kincaid, a senior wide receiver, will play for North Carolina in the annual Shrine Bowl game on Dec. 17 in Spartanburg, S.C.

South Caldwell 48, R-S Central 14

South Caldwell’s 1-2 rushing punch – Devin Potter and Zac Pollard – combined for 207 yards and four TDs as the Spartans picked up a non-conference victory over the Hilltoppers.

Potter ran 11 times for 122 yards and scored on runs of 14 and 25 yards and Pollard had scoring runs of 5 and 8 yards and eight carries for 85 yards for the Spartans (10-1, 6-0).

South Caldwell -- the Northwestern 3A-4A champion -- reached 10 wins for the third time in school history by winning, matching the teams of 1977 and 2005 (the school record for wins is 11 by those two teams).

The Spartans finished with 366 yards rushing and held the Hilltoppers (2-9) to 110 and 120 yards total.

South Caldwell had an early 13-0 lead via an 18-yard TD run by David Crouch and Potter’s 14-yard scoring run.

The Spartans tacked on 28 points in the second quarter to lead 41-0 at the half.

Dustin Atchley had both scores for R-S Central, a 25-yard run and a 1-yard run that was the only score of the final quarter.

 Record Sports Correspondent W.D. Fisher contributed to this article.