Sipe
+ High School Boys Track
High School Soccer
Friday, March 26
- Kings
Mountain at
Crest, 7 p.m.
Saturday,
March 27 Kings
Mountain vs.
. Shelby and Ashbrook at Crest, 12
“noon and 2 p.m.
High School Tennis
Thursday, March 25 - Kings
Mountain at South Point, 3:30
Tuesday, March 30 - Forestview .
at Kings Mountain, 3:30
Thursday, March 25 - Forestview #
and Kings Mountain at East #
. Rutherford, 3:30; RS Central, Burns
ad South Point at North Gaston,
:30. ;
High School Softball
Friday, March 26 - South Point at
Kings Mountain, 4 p.m.
Saturday, March 27 - Cleveland
County Invitational at Crest, TBA
Monday, March 29 - Kings
Mountain at Burns, 4 p.m.
. Tuesday, March 30 - East
Rutherford at Kings Mountain, 4
pm.
High School Golf
Thursday, March 25 - Kings
Mountain, Clover and York at River
Hills CC, 3:30 p.m.
High School Girls Track
Wednesday, March 31 - Kings
Mountain and R-S Central at
Forestview, 3:30
High School Baseball
~ Friday, March 26 - Burns at
Rings nn 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday, March 31 - Kings
Mountain at North Gaston, 4:30.
Junior Varsity Baseball
Thursday, March 25 - Kings
Mountain at East Rutherford, 4:30
Tuesday, March 30 - Kings
Mountain at Burns, 4:30 p.m.
Middle School Baseball
Thursday, March 25 - Lincolnton
at Kings Mountain, 4 p.m.
“Monday, March 29 - Kings
Mountain at Shelby, 4 p.m.
Middle School Soccer
Wednesda , March 31 - Kings
Mountain at Burns
Middle School Track
Wednesday, March 31 -
Lincolnton and Shelby at Kings
Mountain, 3:30
Middle School Golf
Tuesday, March 30 - East Lincoln,
Kings Mountain and East
Rutherford at Burns
Middle School Tennis
Thursday, March 25 - Crest at
Kings Mountain.
Tuesday, March 30 - Kings
Mountain at R-S Central
SCOREBOARD
..
High School Tennis
KMHS 8, Burns 1
(Singles)
Kenny Houston (KM) d. Tri
Beam 6-3, 7-5; Zack George (KM) d.
Seth Phillips 6-2, 6-0; ] Chapman
(KM) d. Cline Ingle 6-0, 6-1; Basit
Gangoo (KM) d. Justin Elmore 6-2,
3-6, 7-5; Chris Bennett (KM) d.
Jason Elmore 6-4, 6-2; Jeremy
Owens (KM) d. Adam Larsen 7-6,
6-3; Paul Shergill (KM) d. Seth
Steele 6-3, 4-6, 6-3; BJ Philbeck (B)
d. Kyle Lovelace 6-2, 3-6 6-3; Bill
Demshki (B) d. Matt Bullington 6-3,
6-0. ;
(Doubles)
Houston-Bennett (KM) d.
Phillips-C. Ingle 8-4; George-
Chapman (KM) d. Beam-Justin
Elmore 8-3; Jason Elmore-Larsen
(B) d. Gangoo-Owens 8-5; Steele-
- Demshki & d. Bullington-Shafen
Khan 8-4.
RS CENTRAL 5, KMHS 4
(Singles)
Kenny Houston (KM) d. Josh
Luckadoo 6-3, 6-2; Zach George ;
(KM) d. John Williams 3-6, 6-4, 6-4;
J Chapman (KM) d. Jordan Rowell
7-5, 6-3; Nick Chapman (RS) d.
Basitt Gangoo 7-6, 5-7, 6-1; Seth
Wilson (RS) d. Chris Bennett 6-1 , 6-
3; David Stephens (RS) d. Josh
Rountree 6-2, 6-1; Jeremy Owens
(KM) and Chris Bowen (RS) tied 8-
8; Chris Morgan (RS) d. Paul
Shergill 61, 4-6, 6-4.
(Doubles)
Luckadoo-Williams (RS) d.
Houston-Bennett 6-1, 6-7, 7-6;
Chapman-George (KM) d. Rowell-
Chapman 6-3, 7-5; Nick Freeman-
Jay McKinnon (RS) d. Rountree-
Gangoo 6-4, 6-3.
Pd
‘Mounties
Six home runs,
14 hits highlight
Saturday assault
Kings Mountain's Mountaineers brought out
the heavy artillery in a 17-1 assault on Canton
Pisgah in a non-conference baseball game
Saturday afternoon at Lancaster Field.
Tony Leigh's charges smashed six home runs
and collected 14 hits in their biggest offensive
attack of the year. :
Kendrick Bell went 3-for-5 with two home
runs, Tyler Falls was 3-for-4 with two home .
runs, Joey Proctor was 2-for-4 with a home run,
+ and Brian Thornburg hit a solo home run to
lead the KM assault .
Bell's solo shot sparked the Mountaineers to
a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Joey
Proctor and Tyler Falls had RBI doubles and
Seth Denton singled in a run.
Bell’s smashed his second home run in the
second inning, Andy Leigh had an RBI single,
and Falls hit a two-run homer as the lead grew
to 9-1.
Thornburg hit a solo home run to put the
Mountaineers up 10-1 in the third, and the lead
grew to 13-1 on Falls’ three-run home runin
the fourth.
Chad Jones singled to spark a four-run rally
in the sixth that closed out the scoring. After a
walk to Matt Bridges, Jason Bridges had a two-
run single and Proctor launched a two-run
home run.
Matt Biddix worked the first three innings on
the mound, allowing only two hits and fanning
five. Eric Boyd worked the fourth inning, retir-
ing the Bears three-up, three-down. Derek
Dixon retired the side in order in the fifth, and
Seth Denton struck out three batters over the fi-
nal two innings.
M In a non-conference game last Wednesday
in Gastonia, the Mountaineers trimmed 4A
Hunter Huss 5-2.
Bell and Boyd led the KM plate attack with
two hits each, and Dixon, Falls, Proctor and
Leigh had a hit apiece.
See Pisgah, 3B
Kings Mountain High's first-year women’s soc-
cer team has exceeded all of the early-season ex-
pectations of Coach Dan Potter.
Although the Lady Mountaineers lost their first
game of the season last Wednesday to an experi-
enced West Iredell team, the club bounced back
for three victories to run its overall record to 4-1
heading into the Crest Tournament Friday and
Saturday.
The Lady Mountaineers fell to West Iredell 3-1
after leading 1-0 at the half, but rebounded with
victories over Hunter Huss Thursday 2-0, East
Gaston Friday 3-0, and East Gaston again
Monday, 8-0.
Thus far, West Iredell is the only team to score
on the KM defense.
Kings Mountain grabbed a 1-0 lead at West on
a header by Meredith Ware, but the more experi-
enced West Iredell team came back with three
goals in the second half to win.
“That was an interesting way to score,” Coach
Potter said of Ware's head ball off a throw-in.
“That doesn’t happen that often, especially in
girls soccer. :
“But then as soon as the second half began they
. came out like gangbusters and sort of surprised
us with two goals in the first five minutes.”
McCleary:
NORRIS McCLEARY
———
man Siolo/ Times
INSIDE DIRT TRACK
Racing Feature debuts
in Herald/Times
4B
second baseman Anthony, and shortstop Mathis after his infield hit
Middle School baseball game at Lancaster Field. KM won 19-3
_ GARY STEWART / THE HERALD
Who's on second? It doesn’t matter to Kings Mountain's Chris Jolley, who slides in safely between West Lincoln
got away from the first baseman in Thursday's
Big start keys Patriots’ 19-3 win
Kings Mountain Middle School
baseball coach Monty Deaton said
his players wanted to “come out
and jump on” West Lincoln in their
opening Tri-County Conference
game Thursday at KMMS.
The Patriots did just that, scoring
10 runs in the first inning and 14 in
the first two frames en route to a 19-
3, five-inning win over the Rebels.
“That's always encouraging when
you can get up on a team like that,”
Deaton said. “We had some good
hits and good base-running. Elan
Philbeck started on the mound and
Kicking Lady Mounties on a roll,
eye big challenge in Crest tourney
7 Despite the loss, Potter was pleased with his
team’s effort.
“They have had a team for six years,” he noted,
“but we actually outplayed them. We played real-
ly, really well. We had better scoring chances, out-
shot them, but unfortunately we made a couple
of mistakes and had a little bad luck. The field
was wet and one time our keeper slipped and
they scored. If it hadn’t been for the wet condition
she would have had it. But I was really pleased.
The girls exceeded my expectations.”
Potter said the girls had trouble getting going
in their first-ever home game Thursday afternoon
at John Gamble Stadium against Hunter Huss.
To start with, Huss was 1 1/2 hours late and
the Mountaineers had to spend a lot of time just
waiting around.
“I think our kids got into sun-tanning instead
of the game,” Potter joked. “By game time we
were lulled to sleep. The first ten minutes of the
game they (Huss) got more shots at our goal than
they had the entire game the first time we played
them.”
did an excellent job. He got them
three-up, three-down in the first in-
ning and that’s the way we wanted
to start.”
Ross Ellis, Matt Echols and Caleb
Williams led the KM plate attack
with 3-for-4 each. Tyler Allen was 2-
for-4, and Buddy Black, Warren
Shirey, David Brinkley, Chris Jolly
and Philbeck added one hit each.
“When you get a big lead early
like that you have to try to keep the
team focused throughout the
game,” Deaton said. “I knew we
had six more innings to play and
they can always come back like they
did last year when we were up 7-2
and they came back in the seventh
inning and beat us 8-7.
“Anything can happen, but it was
a well played game on our part.
We're going to have a good season.
We have a good group of kids.
They've been working hard in prac-
tice, and it showed in the game.”
Philbeck left the mound after the
second inning with a 14-0 lead.
Travis Robinson pitched two in-
nings of relief, and Hunter Gaffney
finished up.
See Patriots, 3B
But the Mountaineers finally got untracked.
Thirteen minutes into the game, Meredith Ware
See Soccer, 3B
ECU standout
granted extra
year of football
By GARY STEWART
Editor of the Herald
East Carolina University football
star Norris McCleary spent his
spring break last week working
with his parents, Norris and Margie
McCleary, at their health-care facili-
ty in Kings Mountain.
But, hard work is nothing new for
the former Kings Mountain and
Bessemer City High lineman who is
6-5 1/2, 305 pounds and runs a 5.0
forty yard dash.
Originally a Prop 48 player for the
Pirates, McCleary had to sit out his
freshman year because he didn’t
make the required SAT scores to
_ play as a college freshman. But
through hard work, he earned his
degree in computer information sys-
tems in three years, and is going to
be allowed to play football an addi-
tional year because of a special
NCAA rule that says if a Prop 48
player completes his degree work in
75 percent of his enrollment period
he can be granted an extra year of
eligibility.
So, come next fall, the big tackle
will again the anchoring the Pirates’
defensive line and also working to-
ward a second major in communica-
tions.
With a host of talented younger
players joining McCleary on de-
fense, and a lot of younger starters
returning on offense, Coach Steve
Logan's club could greatly improve
on last year’s 6-5 record and per-
haps be in the running for the
Conference USA title and a bowl
bid.
“We had 20 seniors, but only
about eight or nine of them were re-
ally contributors,” McCleary said.
“We'll be rebuilding all along the D
line except for me, but these boys
are real talented.”
McCleary has been a full-time
GARY STEWART / THE HERALD
Kings Mountain's Heather Kubu (14) battles for control of ball
in Thursday's soccer game with Hunter Huss at Gamble
Stadium. KM won 2-0.
It’s all about hard work
starter the past two seasons after be-
ing sidelined with an injury late in
his initial season at ECU. Last year
he had 60 tackles, including five for
loss and six quarterback sacks, and
he blocked one field goal. He says
he'll be working hard next fall to
improve all of his stats and “just be-
come an all-round complete player.”
McCleary has already drawn
looks from the NFL, and with a
good season next year could become
Kings Mountain's fifth pro football
player. Linemen Pride Ratterree and
Calvin Stephens, and backs Kevin
Mack and Tracy Johnson are former
KMHS Mountaineers to make it in
the pros.
“Hopefully, I'll get to the next lev-
el,” he says. “I’ve already gotten My 1
some looks. Hopefully I can im- ;
prove on that and get drafted. It’s all
about working hard.”
McCleary was well over 300
pounds, and admittedly carried a
lot of “baby fat” when he played at §
KMHS and BCHS in the mid- i
nineties. After three years at Kings
See McCleary, 3B
Sr