Panthers roll over Lions

MAGNET COVE -- Magnet Cove extended its win streak Friday night as the Panthers routed the Clarendon Lions 36-8 to advance to the second round of the Class 2A state football playoffs. Magnet Cove will host McCrory on Friday.

"It was a really good night," Magnet Cove head coach Caleb Carmikle said. "We came out from the very beginning and set the tone. Hats off to Clarendon -- they were a very athletic football team. They scored one early on us."

Junior Landon Stone scored his three touchdowns in the first half, putting up 308 yards on 31 carries. As time expired going into break, junior Alex Ordonez booted a field goal to make it 23-8.

Sophomore Evin Ashcraft connected with Levi Horton for a score and freshman Julius McClellan found the end zone to set the final.

Senior Logan Walker tallied 16 tackles and sophomore Jacob Hawthorn had 11.

"I thought our defense did a really good job," said Carmikle. "They had a great athlete, Quincy McAdoo. The plan was to contain. ... They played sound, defensive football. That really was the tone of the game.

"Offensively, we took what they were giving us. We ran for a little over 400 yards and did a great job up front. Landon Stone had a great night. It was a good game."

With 10 carries for 55 yards and one touchdown, McClellan has stepped up since the end of junior high football.

"Julius is gonna be a really good football player," Carmikle mentioned. "We knew whenever the junior high season was over that he was gonna make an impact on the high school team this year, and he's done a great job. He starts for us in the secondary on defense. He's really helped our defense out just adding more speed."

Senior quarterback Tyler Hodges was 1-for-2 passing for 17 yards and had six carries for 41 yards while Ashcraft completed 2 of 3 for 43 yards.

McCrory 25, Cutter Morning Star 12

MCCRORY -- Cutter Morning Star's role in the Class 2A state playoffs was cut short after the Eagles fell to the Jaguars Friday night on the road.

"We went up there -- our goal in mind was to win a ball game and advance to round two," CMS head coach T.C. Shamel said. "Just started off kinda tough, we got behind early. Didn't play real well in the first half and missed some things. The last two weeks we capitalized on some opportunities but just didn't do that last night."

The Eagles were held scoreless in the first half by the Jaguars with 19-0 on the board at the break.

"Their defense came out and pressured us right off the bat, and we had to make some adjustments," Shamel recalled. "We really didn't adjust what we needed to until the second half. Threw the ball a little bit. We stopped them on defense most of the night. They had some big fourth down plays; their quarterback made some plays. Their running back got loose just a couple times. We moved the ball but just couldn't get into the end zone."

The Eagles picked up their first score in the second half as senior Tyler Mace scooped up a fumble, running it 92 yards for the touchdown in the third frame, but his kick failed for a 19-6 deficit. In the fourth, junior quaterback Sam Moore found junior Kaden Prather on an 80-yard touchdown pass to set the final.

Moore was 9-for-26 passing for 169 yards with eight carries for 7 yards. Junior Keshawn Blevins logged 12 carries for 40 yards with two receptions for 8 yards. Prather reeled in a pair of catches for 110 yards, senior Matthew Cook had four for 45, and senior Tyrone Harris had one for 6.

The Eagles are losing some valuable players this year with eight seniors graduating, but Shamel said a lot of skill players will fill the empty roles.

"Our goal kinda this year was to make the playoffs," he said. "We've already talked now about our goal next year is to win a playoff game. We're gonna change our goal. We feel good about getting back in. Got a new conference, so it's not gonna be easy. We've got some tough teams that are gonna be in our conference next year, but we're just gonna have to have a good off season and rally the troops -- get back after it.

"I think they saw how close they got last night. It's one of the closest playoff games we've been in, and we had our chances. Even late in the game, we had our shots to win the game. We're looking forward to next year, for sure."

Sports on 11/17/2019

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