SPORTS
POSTGAME
PLAY OF THE GAME
On the third play of the
game freshman receiver Jake
Merchant hauled in a 43-
yard flea flicker from Bran-
don Bell at the East Gaston
12 to get the Mountaineer of-
fense rolling to a 40-23 vic-
tory.
YARDSTICK
KM EG
First downs 21:12
Yds. Rushing 318 211
Yds. Passing 126 97
Passes 5-13 4-10
Fumbles lost 0:52
Yds. Pen. 55 30
Punts 2-28 2-43
BY THE NUMBERS
KM 2006 14 -40
EG 70160 -23
HOW THEY DID IT
FIRST PERIOD
KM - 9:26 - Brandon Mc-
Clain 1 run (Cameron Hord
kick). 65-yd drive, 6 plays
following opening kickoff.
Key plays 43-yd. reception
by Merchant, McClain 4-13
rushing, Tico Crocker 9-yd.
run.
EG - 7:57 - Austin Woods
9-run (Matthew Marks kick).
55-yd. drive, 4 plays. Woods
3-52 rushing.
KM - 6:49 - McClain 36-
run (kick failed). S58-yd.
drive, 3 plays, including 15-
yd. reception by Chance
Frederick and 7-yd. run by
Bell. .
KM - 0:51.6 - McClain 5
run (Hord kick). 88-yd.
drive, 10 plays following
fumble recovery by Chaz
Gamble. McClain 4-24 rush-
ing, . Bell. 1-24. rushing,
Crocker 3-7 rushing and 17-
yd. reception.
THIRD PERIOD
KM - 11:21 - McClain 3
run (kick failed). 21-yd., 2
plays (both runs by Mec-
Clain) following fumble re-
covery by Josh Beheler on
2nd half kickoff.
EG - 10:09 - Woods 1 run
(Woods run). 75-yd. drive 4
plays following KM kickoff.
Key play 56-yd. reception by
Bailey Crane.
EG - 0:07.9 - Woods 1
run (Crane pass from
Woods). 83-yd. drive, 13
plays.
FOURTH PERIOD
KM - 7:08 - Merchant 16
pass from Bell (Hord kick).
62-yd. drive, 6 plays plus 2
15-yd. penalties against EG.
KM - 1:14 - Crocker 4
tun (Hord PAT). 76-yd., 8
play” drive''after KM "def.
stopped EG on downs at the
KM 24. Key plays 25-yd.
runs by McClain and Bell.
STAT LEADERS
KM RUSHING - Mc-
Clain 24-168, Crocker 13-
31, Bell 12-121. EG - Woods
24-129, Walker 9-51, Rob-
. bins 4-24, Miller 3-13.
KM PASSING - Bell 5-
13-0-126. EG - Woods 2-7-
0-59, Adams 2-3-0-19.
KM RECEIVING - Mer-
chant 2-59, Crocker 2-52,
Frederick 1-15. EG - Woods
1-9, Jeffries 1-30, Crane 2-
66.
THIS WEEK
Forestview at Kings
Mountain, 7:30 p.m. Friday,
John Gamble Stadium (This
is Kings Mountain’s’ last
non-conference game. They
play their first-ever SMAC
conference game next week
at home against East Ruther-
ford.
NOTABLE
Running backs Bishop
Ford and Moe Neal of
Forestview and offensive
lineman Graham Keeter of
Kings Mountain are being
recruited by D1 teams.
Brandon McClain be-
came the first Kings Moun-
tain freshman to rush for
over 100 yards in a single
game in last week’s victory
at East Gaston,
The Kings Mountain Herald | www.kmherald.net
Kings Mountain freshman Brandon McClain (23) picks up some of his 168 yards rushing in Friday’s non-conference victory at East Gaston.
Quick start, strong finish key to KM’s
40-23 victory over East Gaston eleven
Kings Mountain’s Moun-
taineers scored on their first
three possessions of the first
half, withstood a third quar-
ter East Gaston rally and
then put the Warriors away
with touchdowns on their
final two possessions for a
40-23 non-conference vic-
tory Friday night on the War-
riors’ turf.
The win was the second
straight for the Moun-
taineers, marking the first
time since 2009 that they’ve
won their first two games of
the season. That year they
began with victories over
Kennedy Charter and Burns.
Kings Mountain contin-
ued to get good play from its
young skill players, good
blocking from its veteran of-
fensive line and big plays
from the defense. :
Freshman running back
Brandon McClain scored
four touchdowns and accu-
mulated 168 yards rushing
on 24 attempts. Junior quar-
terback Brandon Bell added
120 yards rushing and hit 5
of 13 passes for 126 yards,
including a spectacular flea-
flicker pass to freshman
wide receiver Jake Merchant
that covered 43 yards on the
third play of the game.
Most of KM’s touchdown
drives were not time con-
suming. It took only six
plays to drive the opening
kickoff 65 yards for a 7-0
lead. McClain scored from
one yard out after gaining 12
yards on three previous car-
ries.
Led by quick junior quar-
terback Austin: Woods, the
Warriors didn’t waste any
time getting on the board, ei-
ther. Woods had two runs of
17 yards, and following a
15-yard penalty against the
Mountaineers for hitting him
out of bounds he rambled in
from nine yards out to tie the
game.
McClain broke a 40-yard
touchdown run to put KM up
13-7; and after Chaz Gamble
recovered an East Gaston
fumble the Mountaineers
drove 88 yards in 10 plays to
go up 20-7 on McClain’s
five-yard run.
East Gaston’s return man
couldn’t hold on to the sec-
ond half kickoff and KM’s
Josh Beheler recovered it at
the Warrior 18 to set up Mc-
Clain’s fourth straight TD of
the night, this one from three
yards out. That resulted in a
27-6 lead which at the time
seemed comfortable.
But East Gaston re-
sponded by driving the kick-
off 75 yards, highlighted by
a 58-yard reception by Bai-
ley Crane, and Woods scored
from two yards out at the
10:09 mark of the third quar-
ter. Woods added a two-point
_conversion run to bring the
score to 26-15.
East Gaston successfully
executed an onside kick, but
eventually lost the ball on
downs. But, after forcing a
Mountaineer punt the War-
riors got on the board again
on another one-yard run by
Woods and Woods found
Crane alone in the back of
the end zone for a two-point
conversion pass which
brought the Warriors to
within a field goal, 26-23,
with 7.9 seconds left in the
third period.
After forcing the Warriors
to punt with 9:10 remaining
in the game, the Moun-
taineers took over at their
own 38. Aided by two 15-
yard penalties against the
Warriors for personal fouls,
KM got solid running efforts
See Quick Start, 3B
KM kickers blank Draughn,
Kings Mountain High’s
men’s soccer team defeated
Draughn and Cherryville by
1-0 scores last week to run
its record to 1-1 in the
SMAC and 3-1 overall.
The Mountaineers were
scheduled to host Crest in a
conference game last night.
Robbie Lysek scored the
winning goal 10 minutes
into the second half Wednes-
day at Draughn.
After a sloppy first half,
Coach Dan Potter said his
Mountaineers came out with
a new purpose in the second
half. Isaiah Cole sent
through ball after through
ball up the gut of the
Draughn defense, and Lysek
capitalized. :
-Lysek, Weston’ Harmon
and Max Sappia each had
good looks at the Draughn
defense.
Jordan Sweezy also
played well with Cameron
Hord helping solidify the
Mountaineer midfield. Jon-
mark Smith, Jack Zyble, Lee
Bridges, Adam Kiser and
Dylan Beaver contributed to
the solid defensive effort in
front of Jarrett Ledford, who
recorded the first shutout of
his soccer career.
“Without any doubt, our
fitness really played into the
much improved effort of the
team,” Coach Potter said.
“As our warm-up shirts say
on the back, it was ‘TED
TIME,” meaning all the
physical strength and condi-
tioning that the players en-
dured over the summer
really is paying dividends for
them now.” v
At Cherryville Thursday,
Max Sappia scored on a
through ball from Jack Zyble
10 minutes into the second
half to give the Moun-
taineers their second shutout
in two days.
The Mountaineers out
See Kickers, 3B
Ironmen
Courtesy of Angie Lysek
Kings Mountain defenders Brian Lysek, JonMark Smith, Lee Bridges and Adam Kiser, left to
right, swarm a Cherryville player in soccer game last week at Cherryville. KM won 1-0.
Play of the Game
Kings Mountain freshman Jake Merchant hauls in a 34-yard flea-flicker on the third play of:
the game in Mountaineers’ 40-23 win over East Gaston Friday.
Kings Mountain
Mountaineers
Athlete of the Week
a
105 York Rd., Kings Mountain
704.734.4782
Jarrett Ledford
Soccer
ow
Serving
Breakfast!
All Day...
All The Time...
a
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