County Football Gets Sweep

Rutherford County did something it doesn't do very often on the gridiron. They just swept up four wins in a weekend. They now are 10-2 on the year. This coming weekend will be the extremely difficult as most get Cleveland County teams as SMAC play begins.

East Rutherford surely needed to win and they got it this past week. East Rutherford nabbed three interceptions and held the T.C. Roberson to 216 offensive yards in a 17-13 victory.

Jarvis Hutchins 60-yard interception return for a touchdown maybe the play of the year so far. Hutchins made a leaping grab just before halftime, ran into two tackles, got of them and then juked another tackler at the goal line for the touchdown. East took the lead on that play and kept it despite dodging a last second effort by the Rams. Kameron Garrison also had a touchdown in the win for East.

Although, the loss to North Gaston hurt the week before, East recovered to beat a fairly good sized Roberson. The Cavaliers were also impressive defensively. Matthew Bennett, Jadacus Logan and Cade Hamilton did a great job on the evening for the Cavs.

East Rutherford (2-1) will go to Kings Mountain this coming Friday (9/11). Kings Mountain is for real. Mountaineers running back Jair McClunney maybe even better this season. Darian McClain should also see a lot of carries for Kings Mountain.

Keys: Keep Kings Mountain's offense off the field. East must continue to build it's offensive confidence with long drives to take care of the first issue. However, against Kings Mountain, they will have to make every offensive chance count. The Mountaineers are capable of scoring a ton of points.

Over in Columbus, R-S Central continue this comeback resilience that they are starting to settle into. For the third week, R-S Central (3-0) has come from behind to win. This past week was a little more convincing in a 31-13 victory at Polk County. The Hilltoppers have now won three of the last four games against Polk in the Battle of 108.

Central went to the half down 7-3, but awoke big time in the second half. They scored four rushing touchdowns in the second half to go up 31-7 before claiming the win. Austin Dorsey and Tyler Simmons are finally getting comfortable in their roles in the Central offense as they combined for over 200 yards rushing at Polk. Defensively, they held Polk to around 250 overall offensive yards.

Things get much tougher as they will host Shelby (3-0) on Friday (9/11). Many suggest that this could be one of the best Shelby teams of all-time. Shelby can pass or run on offense and have enough speed and size defensively to gain the upper hand on any opponent they face.

Keys: Central must follow game plan and stick around like they have all season in games. Play tough. Where ever the chips may fall...is where they fall.

Chase (2-1) ended up in a defensive battle again and came through with a 21-8 victory over Bessemer City this past week. A.J. Potlow scored twice and the Trojan defense held the Yellow Jackets to under 150 yards offense. However, a strong test lies ahead.

Chase finally gets a home game on Friday (9/11) as they welcome in Burns (2-0). Chase hasn't beaten Burns since 2008. Last year, the Trojans fell to the Bulldogs 20-3. Plan for QB Cameron Barbee and running back A.J. Camp to get a ton of carries with the football.

Keys: Chase has to have the better run game in order to prevail. The Trojans must be believe that they are capable of a win here. It's the most athletic team they have had since 2011.

Thomas Jefferson (3-0, 1-0) had no problems with Mt. Island Charter. The Gryphons went up by a 35-0 score early and went on to a 63-36 victory. Thomas Jefferson had well over 300 yards rushing and crossed the pylon eight different times rushing the football.

Chris Mintz and Seth McCraw both scored three times, while Nomi McMullens and Tucker Greene also carried the rock into the end zone.

The Gryphons take on Statesville Christian at home this weekend. Statesville Christian (0-3) has scored just 23 points in three games so far this season.

Keys: Keep running the football. As they say...if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Remain humble though. Anything can happen on any given Friday night.