Good Things do Happen too

Intro

In case anybody missed it, Brendan Thompson ran for a 67-yard touchdown at the end of last Friday's game at Crest. Nicknamed "Twink", who is a special needs kid was set up on the last play of the game to do so by coaches on both sides. After the touchdown, players from both sides ran to the end zone to congratulate the young man. It was a scene that you don't see hardly in the sports. Although it rained, it didn't dampen the spirits of good sportsmanship. Kudos to those involved in handling that whole thing.

While we are on the subject of football, former Chase grad, Carlos Watkins helped the #12 Clemson Tigers seal the game against #6 ranked Notre Dame last Saturday. Watkins fought through a double team and made the game saving tackle on a two-point conversion with seconds to spare in a 24-22 Tiger victory.

There is some good and bad news in this next local story.

Jimmy Means, who runs his shop out of Forest City in the NASCAR Nationwide Series had his hauler catch fire on his way back from Kentucky last week. Former Chase grad, Jared Allen was hurt in the fire and is recovering at home with a hand injury.

A wheel bearing caught fire as Means and Allen were driving down the road. Means checked all the hubs before getting back on the road just 30 minutes prior and all was okay. The fire toasted the entire hauler as they had to use all of their water onboard to put it out the first time. The driver of the #22 team in the Nationwide Series owned by Roger Penske saw the problem and pulled over to help when the blaze began for a second time. The tractor was spared, but a fire truck had to finish to putting the blaze out.

While the fire destroyed a good portion of the Means Racing equipment onboard, the race cars were not damaged.

As a result, an online fund has been set up to purchase some of the equipment they lost in the fire. Family, friends and people in general have been generous as over $10,000 has been raised in just one week. The NASCAR community has offered to loan a trailer and one unnamed big time car owner directed his employees to give Means whatever he needed to make the Dover race. With Joey Gase driving, they managed a respectable 24th place finish at Dover and were 21st at Kentucky.

High School Football

East Rutherford finally earned Rutherford County a hard-earned SMAC win this past Friday. East won 21-20 as they denied Burns the go-ahead two-point conversion at the goal line with just seconds remaining in the contest.

Defensively, the Cavaliers were solid with Kendall McGowan, Tyrese Carson, Jarvis Hutchins, Fonzbee Clyburn, Malik Hamrick, Demetrius Mauney, Matthew Bennett, Tyzell Hunt, Dupree Gray and Jadacus Logan all pitching in along with others to get the win.

East Rutherford (3-3, 1-2) will have their hands full as perennial power Shelby (6-0, 3-0) comes to town on Friday.

The big game in county will be in Harris. R-S Central (3-3, 0-3) is at Chase (2-5, 0-4) this Friday. Both teams are reeling from injuries and depth. Both have recently lost close games to Draughn. Chase only lost 27-12 last week to Crest, which is sort of a moral victory in a sense.

The Hilltoppers are more rested with last week's bye and both teams are in dire need of a win right now. R-S Central has started slowly in nearly every game this season and the Chase offense has just struggled. Expect a defensive battle in the first game of the season that determines the Rutherford County Championship.

The Gryphons have their biggest game of the season and it is on the road. Thomas Jefferson (5-0, 1-0) goes to Cherryville (0-6) this Friday for their first Southern Piedmont Conference game of 2015. Quarterback, Preston Elliott can run or throw, but depth has been a issue this season for Cherryville. They have also played bigger schools and all of the Ironmen losses have been by 27 or more. Don't overlook that.

The Gryphons will have to get the running game going and contain Elliott while on defense.

On the NFL scene, the Panthers win again and are now 4-0 at the bye week. The schedule gets tougher and six teams are undefeated at the moment. Considering the wide receiving core Carolina has to work with and being without Kueckly, that's impressive. There is still a lot to prove with Atlanta being unbeaten too in the NFC South.