Page 4B
The Kings Mountain Herald
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Explosive Weddington comes to KM on Friday
GARY STEWART
Sports Editor
Kings Mountain’s Mountaineers
face another of North Carolina’s
outstanding quarterbacks Friday
when Weddington’s Warriors in-
vade John Gamble Stadium for the
first time. Kick off is at 7:30.
Drew Podrebarac, a 6-3 senior
who is a strong runner and passer
and is being highly recruited, is
picking up right where he left off
last year when he passed for over
2,200 yards and 22 touchdowns
and ran for over 300 yards and
eight more touchdowns.
So far this year he has led the
Warriors to lop-sided non-confer-
ence victories over Cuthbertson
and Forest Hills, including a 48-27
win over perennial 2A power For-
est Hills last week when he ac-
counted for four touchdowns.
The Mountaineer defense could
Spikers beat Shelby, lose to Providence
Kings Mountain High’s
volleyball team defeated
Shelby 3-0 last Tuesday be-
fore falling to defending
state 4A champion Provi-
dence 3-0 on Wednesday.
The Lady Mountaineers
jumped out to a quick lead at
Shelby but had to hold off
the Lady Lions 25-23 in the
first game. The KM ladies
rolled 25-9 and 25-15 in the
final two games.
Morgan Robinson had 11
kills and six aces for the
Mountaineers. Nicole Ford
added 19 digs and six kills,
and Logan Smith had four
aces and 12 assists.
face a similar situation as last week
when it faced off against Burns’
Brandon Littlejohn.
“Weddington has a very good
team that puts points on the board,”
says KM Coach Greg Lloyd.
“They’re about a 50-50 run-pass
team. They throw it a lot.”
Weddington competes in the
rugged Southern Carolina 3A/4A
Conference. The Warriors finished
2-3 in the league and 9-4 overall
last year, going two rounds in the
state 3A playoffs.
Last year’s head coach Justin
Hardin, who was the quarterback
for A.L. Brown in its classic battles
with Kings Mountain in 1997 and
1998 and son of former A.L.
Brown Coach Bruce Hardin, left
during the off-season to take the of-
fensive coordinator’s job at Rock
Hill South Pointe. But Tim Carson,
former offensive coordinator at
Sun Valley High, has taken the
reins and the team hasn’t lost a
beat.
“They’re -very good,” Lloyd
says. “They are a top 10 to 15 3A
team. It’s not getting any easier for
us. They run a 3-4 on defense and it
looks like their offense may be a
little ahead of the defense.”
Kings Mountain has proven to
be just the opposite so far as its de-
fense has played remarkably well
considering the amount of time it
has spent on the field, while the of-
fense has crippled itself with fum-
bles and pass interceptions. KM
has turned the ball over 10 times in
its first two games, a 17-14 win
over East Rutherford and a 28-0
loss to Burns. :
To win, Lloyd said the Moun-
taineers have to put points on the
board and continue to play hard on
defense.
“We need to find the end zone
and build some confidence,” he
said. “We don’t need negative
thoughts creeping in. We need to
keep playing defense like we have
and make some plays on special
teams. We need to put four quarters
together on offense.’
Lloyd feels confident his of-
fense is going to get a boost this
week from sophomore tailback
DaShon Guest, who ran the ball
hard against a Burns defense that is
probably as good as any in the
state. .
“He hasn’t practiced very much
(because of an injury) but he ran
the ball very hard,” Lloyd said.
“We look forward to getting him
going.”
Dontarius
Simmons, who
started at tailback the first two
games, will move back to the slot
position Lloyd said it is his “nat-
ural” position. Simmons is not only
a good runner, but a good receiver.
“It helps us to have somebody
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who can run the ball from another
position,” Lloyd said.
Lloyd said he was highly
pleased with the special teams play
last week and looks forward to it
becoming even better.
“I thought Edward Blackburn
did an exceptional job with his
kicking,” Lloyd said. “We won the
field position battle just like we
wanted to do. We just couldn’t
score.
If the Mountaineers can get a
big game on offense this week and
next week at Alexander Central, it
could be the boost they need to get
ready for Big South Conference
play.
“I hope we can get some mo-
mentum going,” Lloyd said. “We
are not a bad team. We just need to
keep playing hard ard hold on to
the ball. If we cut down on
turnovers we will be fine.”
South Point.
Hannah Christenbury won her singles match for Kings Moun-
tain’s Lady Mountaineers in last week’s Big South loss to
KM netters fall to SP
Kings Mountain broke on
top 1-0 in each of the games
against Providence Wednes-
day at Donald L. Parker Gy-
mansium, but the Charlotte
power stormed from behind
to win 26-24, 25-20, 25-19.
Kings Mountain battled
from six points down to tie
the first game at 24-all be-
fore Providence scored the
last two points.
Kings Mountain built a 5-
1 lead in game two and had
me ry |
GARY STEWART/HERALD
New KMHS volleyball coach Ashley Pridgeon talks to her team as Providence warms up for
Wednesday’s non-conference match at Parker Gym.
the lead on four other occa-
sions before Providence took
advance of two straight outs
to take a 21-19 lead and go
on to win by five.
After KM’s early point in
game three, Providence
scored two straight points
and never trailed again.
Kings Mountain won the
JV game 25-16, 25-21.
Kings Mountain opens
Big South 3A Conference
play today at South Point.
Kings Mountain fell to
South Point 6-3 in the open-
ing Big South tennis match
Tuesday.
The only winners for the
Mountaineers were Eliza-
beth Baker and Hannah
Christenbury in singles; and
Awanda Rithiphong and
Elizabeth Baker in doubles.
Singles
Madeline Killen (S) d
.Madison Lutz 6-0, 6-0; Kel-
lie Patz (S) d. Awanda
Rithiphong 6-2, 6-1; Eliza-
beth Baker (KM) d. Morgan
Jones 6-2, 4-6, 7-3; Kristin
Rivera (S) d. Emily Peeler. 6-
"1, 6-1; Ashley Mull (SP) d.
Katie Holland 6-4, 6-2; Han-
nah Christen bury (KM) d.
Brooks Churn 6-4, 6-2.
Doubles
Killen/Jones (SP) d.
Lutz/Peeler 8-0;
Rithiphong/Baker (KM) d.
Patz/Rivera 8-5; Mull/Jamie
Mendoza (SP) d. Hannah
Mosley/Cheyanne Stirewalt
Free Blood Pressure Checks
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Healthy Refreshments