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Thursday, November 2, 1989-THE KINGS MOUNTAIN HERALD-Page 5A
SPORTS
KM'S LEADING RUSHER - Kings Mountain tailback D.J.
Williams (42) picks his way through the North Gaston defense for
some of his 107 yards rushing in last Friday's Southwestern 3-A
Mounties B
It wasn't a pretty game, but
Kings Mountain's Mountaineers
pleased their fans by defeating
"North Gaston's Wildcats 27-0 in
the final home game Friday night
". ,/ #dt John Gamble Stadium.
The victory moved the
Mountaineers to 4-1 in the
Southwestern 3-A Conference and
6-3 overall heading into Friday's fi-
nal regular season game at East
Rutherford.
The victory kept the
Mountaineers tied with Shelby for
first place in the SWC. Burns,
which had been tied for the lead,
lost to South Point 33-26 to drop
into third place, Kings Mountain
can clinch at least a tie for its first
SWC title since 1986 with.a victo-
ry Friday at East Rutherford but a
loss to the Cavaliers would drop
the Mountaineers out of the state 3-
A playoffs if South Point beats
Shelby.
Kings Mountain drove down
field on its first possession and
scored on a 23-yard field goal by
Scottie Hopper for a 3-0 lead, and
on their next possession the
Mountaineers scored on a 34-yard
touchdown pass from Timmy
McClain to Darius Ross. Actually,
the pass covered about five yards
across the middle and the talented
junior wide receiver used his excel-
lent moves to avoid a couple North
Gaston defenders and then our-ran
everyone into the endzone.
The extra point attempt failed
and that left KM on top 9-0. The
rest of the game, even though the
Mountaineers scored three more
touchdowns, was a ho-hum affair.
"We won, and that's the bottom
line as far as Friday's game," said
KMHS Coach Dennis Hicks. "It
was not a well-played game but we
did what we had to do in order to
win. We did a few things that
would have lost the game against a
good team. We had a real letdown
in concentration."
~~ Shortly after grabbing the 9-0
lead, the Mountaineers drove to the
North Gaston one-foot line and had
two cracks to score, but on both at-
tempts the North Gaston defense
held.
Late in the game, the
Mountaineers had a punt blocked
deep in their own territory but
North Gaston couldn't advance the
ball against a strong KM defense
and KM' Brent Wilson picked off a
Mike Patton pass and returned it to
the one yard line.
"There's just really no excuse for
Conference football game at Gamble Stadium. Kings Mountain was
sluggish but was still able to win 27-0 and maintain a share of first
place with Shelby.
MOUNTAINEER OPTION - Kings Mountain quarterback
Timmy McClain (3) has to try to decide whether to keep the ball
himself or pitch back to running back Victor Bell (40) in Friday's
"We're going to have to do a
better job as players and
coaches to get back that
intensity that will be necessary
to carry us to the rest of the
season."
-DENNY HICKS
those kinds of things happening,”
Hicks said. "We're not getting the
ball in the endzone when we get in-
side the 10. That cost us the game
at Shelby and any time you get a
punt blocked against a good team
it's going to cost you the game.
We're going to have to do a better
job as players and coaches to get
back that intensity that will be nec-
essary to carry us the rest of the
season."
The Mountaineers tacked on
three touchdows in the second half
to put the game on ice. Daniel
Honeycutt returned a punt 37 yards
for a 15-0 lead midway of the third
quarter. Junior fullback Alan
Moore, making his first start,
scored from five yards out early in
the fourth quarter to make it 21-0
and senior quarterback Ryan
Hollifield, taking his first snap
since the third game of the year
when he was injured at East
Lincoln, scored on a one-yard
quarterback sneak on the last play
of the game to make it 27-0. His
touchdown was set-up when
Wilson intercepted the North
Gaston pass following its block of
a KM punt and returned it 80 yards
to the one.
Hicks said the fact that the
. Wildcats hadn't won a game in the
SWC could have contributed to the
poor Kings Mountain showing.
"We didn't have a real good
week of practice,” he said.
"Athletes sometimes have the ten-
dency to rank their opponents and
decide themselves when they have
to play hard and maybe when they
Photo by Gary Stewart
lank Wildcats 27-0
CS
At East Rutherford Friday
Playoff Picture
ls Still Unclear
Kings Mountain's Mountaineers
could face their toughest test of the
season Friday when they travel to
East Rutherford for their final reg-
ular season game.
The Cavaliers, 2-3 in the
Southwestern Conference and 6-3
overall, probably are the most
physical team in the league and
could easily be unbeaten at this
point. Their losses have been to
Burns 12-7, South Point 3-0 in the
rain, and Shelby 14-13 in overtime.
On the line for the Mountaineers
is a share of the SWC title and pos-
sibly the top seed for the upcoming
state 3-A playoffs. If Kings
Mountain beats East and Shelby
loses to South Point, the
Mountaineers would be the SWC
champions and play at home in the
first round of the playoffs. If KM
loses and Shelby wins, Shelby will
win the conference and KM will
get the number two playoff seed
because of its regular season win
over Burns, which has already
completed its regular season with a
4-2 confernce and 8-2 overall
record.
There's also a possibility of a
four-way tie for the SWC champi-
onshipbut if that happens Kings
Mountain will not advance to the
state playoffs. For that to happen,
both KM and Shelby would have
to lose. That would give KM,
Shelby, South Point and Burns 4-2
conference marks. KM Coach
Denny Hicks said the way he inter-
game with North Gaston at Gamble Stadium. McClain kept the ball
and ran it inside the one yard line but the Mountaineers failed to
score. KM won 27-0.
don't. But a coach's biggest con-
cern when that happens is that if a
team happens to put everything to-
gether that night they can beat you. .
And, a lot of times when you don't
play with intensity you start getting
people hurt. We were very fortu-
nate that didn't happen, but it could
very well have happened if North
Gaston had had a good night and
everything had fallen into place for
them. It could have been a tough
situation.
"But," he went on, "we've got
enough speed that if we just play a
good solid football game, every-
thing's going to be okay."
MOUNTAINEER TOUCHDOWN - Kings Mountain wide receiver Darius Ross (5) catches a short pass
prets the. tie-breaking rules of the
North Carolina High School
Athletic Association, KM should
go to the playoffs because the
Mountaineers fared better against
the other taems involved in the tie
in head-to-head competition.
However, he said, the state rules
committee has ruled that the tie
could not be broken by the head-
to-head method and that the three
playoff berths would be decided by
the way the three teams did against
"common" opponents. In that case,
Shelby, South Point and Burns
have all beaten East Rutherford
and KM would be eliminated from
the playoffs if it loses to East.
So, the Mountaineers' fate is in
their own hands and they can as-
sure themselves of a playoff berth
by defeating East Rutherford.
Hicks and his assistants remem-
ber 1986, when the Mountaineers
had the conference title all but
locked up but lost to East
Rutherford 6-0 in the last game of
the season.
"Obviously, we don't want that
to happen again," he said. "So the
best thing for us to do is beat East
Rutherford and not worry about
what someone else is doing."
Beating East won't be easy, but
Hicks says the Mountaineers have
the talent to do it if they return to
the mid-season form, when they
knocked off R-S Central, South
Point and Burns in succession.
"Going into the season I said
Burns: should win the conference,"
Coach Hicks said. "But based on
early games and after talking to
some other teams that have played
them, I'd say that, physically, East
Rutherford is definitely the best
team in the conference. They lost!
three close games and with a break
here and there they could be unde-
feated.
"They've got a tremendous
amount of talent,” he added. "Their
size is above average. They're the
second largest team in the confer-
ence behind Burns. They have
great speed and get on the perime-
ter as fast as any team I've seen in a
long time."
The Cavaliers have another out-
standing defense (the most points
they've given up were 14 in over-
time against Shelby) and their of-
fensive backs, although not as large
as in past years, are quick and tal-
ented. Fullback Robert Gray ranks
as one of the leading rushers in the
conference.
"We can play with East
Rutherford but our defensive line is
going to have to do the best job it's
ever done," Hicks said. "Our de-
fensive line, ends and linebackers
will have to have a heck of a game.
See East, 7-A
and turns it into a 34-yard touchdown play in first half of Friday's game with North Gaston at Gamble
Stadium. The Mountaineers won 27-0. They close out regular season play Friday at East Rutherford need-
ing a win to assure themselves a spot in the state playoffs.
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