By David Rogers. BOONE, N.C. — Even though the Watauga student section was wearing their PJs for “Pajamas Night,” none of the estimated 3,000 people filling the grandstands at Jack Groce Stadium on Nov. 3 dared to fall asleep for the first round game of the North Carolina 4A playoffs vs. Hickory Ridge.
In football terms, it was a blink of an eye. Trailing 20-19 coming out of halftime, Watauga scored three touchdowns in the the first four minutes of the second half, catapulting the Pioneers to a thrilling, don’t-miss-a-minute-of-this, 54-34 win over the Raging Bulls.
If last week against Ashe County was a coming out party for Watauga sophomore running back Matthew Leon, the Hickory Ridge playoff contest was a game-long Mardi Gras. Called to duty a week ago when regular running back starter Everett Gryder went down with a lower body injury, Leon rambled for 206 yards on 20 carries and two TDs in his state playoffs debut vs. Hickory Ridge.
A good chunk of those came in the opening drive of the second half. Two plays into the drive, Leon burst through a gap carved out by the Pioneer offensive line and ripped off the Raging Bulls’ secondary for a 30-yard gain. On the very next play, he finished things off with a 38-yard ramble through the Hickory Ridge defense, his TD and quarterback Maddox Greene’s 2-point conversion giving the Pioneers a 27-20 lead they would never relinquish.
we will not back down.
But Leon’s second half opening fireworks was just the beginning for this thrill-a-minute Watauga team in the first four minutes of the third quarter.
Just four plays after Landon Smith recovered an onsides kick by the Pioneers, it was sophomore Evan “Swiss Army Knife” Burroughs’ turn to put even more points on the board for Watauga. After picking up 27 pass-and-run yards from an aerial from Greene, Burroughs finished things off with a 7-yard scoot around the right side for a TD. The 2-point conversion attempt failed, but Watauga now had a commanding, 13-point lead, 33-20 and the Raging Bulls had yet to touch the ball in the second half.
Keller to Pryor sequence
And they still wouldn’t get that chance when Watauga pulled off yet another successful onside kick. And they didn’t waste any time punching Hickory Ridge in the gut. On the first play of the possession, Greene passed laterally left to backup QB Cade Keller, who was lined up as a wide receiver. Keller, in turn, lofted a pass downfield to a wide open Jackson Pryor for a 51-yard touchdown completion. Hickory Ridge seemed unprepared for the two receiver set on the left side and the single defender froze like a deer in headlights, uncertain whether to cover Keller with the ball or Pryor streaking past him down the field.
The Keller-to-Burroughs score, followed by a successful 2-point conversion with Greene passing to Burroughs, put the Pioneers ahead 41-20 and the second half was not even four minutes old.
For the rest of the third quarter and into the the final stanza, the two teams traded stalled drives. Finally, aided by a Watauga turnover and fumble recovery by the Raging Bulls, as well as a Watauga face mask penalty, Hickory Ridge had a short field with which to find the end zone. Raging Bull QB Cayden Haywood punched the ball in from the 1-yard line on a keeper, Andrew Schmidt’s PAT kick was good, and Hickory Ridge had closed the deficit to 41-27.
But midway through the fourth quarter, time was not a friend to the gridiron visitors from Harrisburg, N.C., a northwest suburb of Charlotte. The Raging Bulls scored once more, but gave up two more TDs to Watauga with Greene and Leon doing the heavy lifting on the ground thanks to holes opened up on the line of scrimmage by the offensive line.
After the game, Wataiga head coach Ryan Habich described a self-pitying atmosphere in the locker room at halftime with the Pioneers trailing, 20-19. He hinted that several of the guys thought this would be an “easy” game because of at 3-7 overall record and 3-3 record in the 4A Greater Metro Conference.
“We told our team all week that (Hickory Ridge) is probably the second best team we had faced all year behind A C Reynolds,” said Habich. “Their overall record was 3-7, but they played a really tough non-conference schedule… We knew this was going to be a tough game. If you just looked at the seeding, you might not think so but when your non-conference schedule playing around Charlotte includes teams like Chambers, Independence, Porter Ridge and Robinso, that is tough competition.
“I think a lot of our guys were shocked in the first half,” said Habich. “It was tough to block those guys. They were big and quick up front. So we had a hard time stopping them and we were missing PATs, which is not good. So at halftime, I told the guys that we were only down by one point, to stop being a bunch of babies, to suck it up and play Watauga football. We are not going to back down.”
Habich said he was very proud of how the guys checked themselves at the half and came out to win the football game in the second half.
Habich said that particularly this year to get a playoff win in the first round is a significant accomplishment.
“The 4A West bracket this year is like the SEC in college football,” said Habich. “It is stacked and the most challenging bracket in North Carolina high school football. A lot of teams from the mountain have had a hard time winning in the playoffs. We’ve won in the the playoffs. That’s one of the things that we’ve done here at Watauga, we have won in the playoffs.I am really proud of our guys and how they responded and took charge of the second half. We scored 35 points in the second half so you have to give a lot of credit to our guys for how they responded in the second half.”
Watauga will face another athletic challenger in Round 2 on Nov. 10 when they host No. 18-seeded Mallard Creek, a 41-7 upset winner over No. 15 Marvin Ridge.
The Mavericks finished the regular season 7-3 overall, 5-2 in the 3A/4 Queen City Conference, where earned runner-up honors behind undefeated Hough and ahead of other historically strong urban programs, including Chambers, North Mecklenburg, and West Charlotte.
Kickoff on Nov. 10 is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Jack Groce Stadium
SCORING SUMMARY
- Q1: Watauga TD, Morgan Henry 34-yard pass from Maddox Greene. Jack Wilson PAT (7-0)
- Q1: Hickory Ridge TD, Connor Shulman 29-yard rush. Andrew Schmidt PAT (7-7)
- Q1: Watauga TD, Maddox Greene 17-yard rush. PAT failed (13-7)
- Q2: Hickory Ridge TD, Dominic Testa 14-yard rush Andrew Schmidt PAT (14-13)
- Q2: Hickory Ridge TD, Dominic Testa 31-yard pass from Caden Haywood (PAT blocked by Jackson Pryor (13-20)
- Q2: Watauga TD, Maddox Greene 44-yard rush. PAT failed (19-20)
- Q3: Watauga TD, Matthew Leon 38-yard rush. Maddox Greene rush on 2-point conversion (27-20)
- Q3: Watauga TD, Evan Burroughs 7-yard rush. 2-point conversion failed (33-20)
- Q3: Watauga TD, Jackson Pryor 51-yard pass from Cade Keller. 2-point conversion, Greene to Burroughs (41-20)
- Q4: Hickory Ridge TD, Caden Haywood 1-yard rush. Andrew Schmidt PAT (41-27)
- Q4: Watauga TD, Maddox Greene 6-yard rush. Jack Wilson PAT (48-27)
- Q4: Hickory Ridge TD, Carter Crosby 28-yard pass from Caden Haywood. Andrew Schmidt PAT (48-34)
- Q4: Watauga TD, Matthew Leon 45-yard rush. PAT blocked (54-34)
ALL 4A WEST BRACKET ROUND 1 SCORES
- No. 1 Weddington 45, No. 32 Providence, 7
- No. 8 T C Roberson 42, No. 25 Reagan 21
- No. 24 Charlotte Catholic 42, No. 9 Myers Park 24
- No. 5 Hough 51, No. 28 Asheville 0
- No. 12 Porter Ridge 41, No. 21 Cuthbertson 0
- No. 13 Sun Valley 44, No. 20 Cox Mill 18
- No. 4 Grimsley 54, No. 29 North Mecklenburg 0
- No. 3 Mooresville 24, No. 30 A.L. Brown 18
- No. 19 Mount Tabor 48, No. 14 Davie 26
- No. 6 Butler, No. 27 Alexander Central 7
- No. 11 West Forsyth 32, No. 22 Ardrey Kell
- No. 7 East Forsyth 42, No. 26 Page 6
- No. 23 Independence 35, No. 10 Lake Norman 0
- No. 18 Mallard Creek 41, No. 15 Marvin Ridge 7
- No. 2 Watauga 54, No. 31 Hickory Ridge 34
