The big play hurt Mooresville's football team more than it helped Friday night.
Host North Mecklenburg scored four touchdowns on plays covering 25 yards or more to fuel the Vikings' 35-23 I-Meck Conference win.
An 86-yard punt return for a TD by North Meck's Taylor Chiesa, his second strike of 26 yards or more, provided the Vikes with the third-period punch to take the lead for good.
North Mecklenburg (6-4 overall and 2-3 in the I-MEC) squelched a three-game losing skid to make a success of its final regular season home game, keeping Mooresville (0-10 and 0-6) without a win.
"Sounds familiar, don't it?'' shrugged Steve McCurry, Mooresville's first-year head coach, of his team's second-half struggles. "We're just snake-bitten. Our kids want to win one so bad, but we just can't seem to get over the hump."
Not quite two minutes into play, Marshaun Edwards, who chugged his way for nearly 100 yards overall, ran eight yards for a score that he also helped set up on a 52-yard ramble.
The Vikes knotted the score later in the opening period on Chiesa's 26-yard pass reception from quarterback Bradley Clay.
Mooresville took the lead again on kicker Michael Watson's 22-yard field goal also in the first quarter for a 10-7 lead.
North Meck cornered its first lead early in the third frame on Xavier Joplin's two-yard scoring plunge.
Mooresville then used some fourth-down trickery on back Jay Willis' pass on a fake punt to Bakary Torrence, setting up receiver Dalton Piece's catch of quarterback's Patrick O'Brien's toss for a 14-yard score.
It was on the Devils' ensuing possession when the game's tide turned. North Meck's Chiesa ran back the punt to put the Vikings on top to stay.
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