Statesville had the momentum and a win at rival West Iredell in its crosshairs Friday night that would have made it playoff eligible.
Then the Greyhounds committed a Cardinal sin. They punted the ball to P.J. Clyburn.
Oops.
Clyburn's 72-yard punt return with 7:24 remaining tied the score, and Bryson Shepherd nailed a 32-yard field goal with 1:37 left to lift the Warriors to a 20-17 victory in the teams' regular-season finale.
"I guess because he loves me," joked Clyburn, an all-state special teams player as a junior, when asked why his friend, Statesville punter Jordan Darty, punted to him. "Nah, I don't think he meant to kick to me."
Statesville trailed 10-7 at halftime, but came out of the locker room on a mission. Darty drilled a 38-yard field goal after West muffed the opening kickoff of the second half to knot the score at 10-all.
Forty-nine seconds later, the Greyhounds (3-8, 1-5 NPC) had the lead. Paul Harold scooped up L.J. Harper's fumble and raced 53 yards for a 17-10 lead.
But it didn't stand.
With the assistance of a big block from Marquis Stevenson, Clyburn, a Shrine Bowl selection, flipped the momentum back in the favor of West (5-6, 2-4 NPC), which is playoff-bound.
"P.J gave us a spark, made a big play to get us back in the ball game," Weycker said. "Defensively we made stops. We challenged the offensive line all night to make something happen, and we were able to drive it down into field goal range there at the end.
"And a young man (Shepherd) that came out three years ago, they named him 'Money,' he earned that tonight."
West quarterback Sayer Robinson carried the ball nine times for 37 yards on the game-winning drive.
It was a tough loss for Statesville to swallow.
"I thought our kids played hard, extremely tough, we just came out on the wrong end of the stick," Hounds coach Randall Gusler said.
Statesville freshman quarterback Carlis Parker finished 5 of 15 passing for 146 yards, including a 95-yard TD strike to Tevin Carr, who had four catches for 128 yards.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement