Cap 7 dominates N&O football rankings; Leesville makes a bid for the top

Cap Seven teams have held 10 of 35 opponents to 100 or less yards in rushing offense.

Wakefield builds lead, loses lead and rallies

By Keith Cramer
Correspondent
KNIGHTDALE — It was a matter of trust for the young Knightdale squad — trust in first-year coach, Kamelio Johnson, trust in a new defensive system and trust that the grueling practices would pay off.
Knightdale’s reward was a hard-fought 26-17 victory over visiting Wakefield on Thursday night.
“We got to trust each other. When you hit some adversity you have to have some resolve, and tonight we showed a little resolve,” Johnson said.
Senior running back Josh Gorham supplied the resolve, sparking the Knights (1-2) with 149 yards rushing in the second half.
Gorham’s 15-yard touchdown run on a fourth-and-2 play with 1:18 remaining sealed the win.
Gorham, who has seen all four years of the school’s history, sat out the first half because of disciplinary issues but showed the leadership needed by the young team.
“Trust is the biggest difference, because we’ve been through a lot, and now we’re a lot stronger,” Gorham said.
The defense also showed its resolve picking off Wakefield (2-1) four times. One interception was a 60-yard return by John Scott for the Knights’ first touchdown and a 6-3 lead in the first quarter.
    WAK    KNI
Rushes-Yards    28-82    44-243
Comp-Att-Yards    10-26-178    6-14-95
WAK    3    7    0    7    —    17
KNI    0    12    0    14    —    26
SCORING SUMMARY
WAK—B.Bean 26 FG; KNI—J.Scott 60 interception return (pass failed); WAK—V.McDuffie 9 pass from D.Wilkinson (B.Bean kick); KNI—I.Tripp 8 pass from B.Bollings (kick blocked); KNI—T.Davis 2 run (J.Gorham run); WAK—N.King 50 pass from D.Wilkinson (B.Bean kick); KNI—J.Gorham 15 run (kick failed)
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing: WAK—M.Jones 9-37, D.Gibson 4-20, D.Brown 6-17, D.Wilkinson 7-7, T.Rause 1-1, K.Rojas 1-0; KNI—J.Gorham 13-149, T.Davis 13-39, D.Lassiter 3-32, M.Hinnant 5-14, B.Bollings 8-5, A.Smith 2-4.
Passing: WAK—D.Wilkinson 10-26-178-4; KNI—B.Bollings 6-14-95-0.
Receiving: WAK—N.King 4-68, D.Richardson 1-44, V.McDuffie 2-33, K.Rojas 3-33; KNI—I.Tripp 3-50, A.Smith 2-39, J.Gorham 1-6.

Wakefield rallies in final minutes to beat Holly Springs

Wakefield survived seven turnovers Friday night to defeat Green Hope 34-13 in a non-conference game.

The Wolverines had five turnovers in the first half, which ended in a 7-7 tie.

"We just executed better in the second half," said Wakefield coach J.D. Dinwiddie. "In the first half, we played a lot like we practice last Wednesday, but in the second half we played a little better. Maybe we had the jitters.

Pat Kennedy, an assistant girls basketball coach at Wakefield High for the past four years, has been named as the school's boys varsity head coach.

Kennedy, 42, is a native of California and had been a head boys coach at Santa Rosa High and Montgomery High in northern California before moving to Wake Forest.

He has been a big part of the women's program at Wakefield, helping coach  teams that lost only five games during the past three years. He filled in for Coach Danielle Blackburn four seasons ago when she was on maternity leave.

"I'm very excited to get the boys job," Kennedy said. "I had always coached boys until I came here. This was the third time the boys varsity job had opened since I have been here. I didn't apply either of the other times, but felt the time was right this time."

Kennedy, who received degrees from Chico State and Sonoma State in California, said he and his wife were ready to relocate and chose North Carolina.

"We had a friend move to Cary and we heard nothing, but good things about the area," Kennedy said. "I visited during spring break and decided it would be a great place to live."

Wakefield athletics director Dexter Cooley said he was pleased to have someone has capable on the staff.

"He is great with the kids," Cooley said. "He works a lot with our SGA [Student Government Association] and is known throughout the school."

Kennedy replaces Paul Dooling as coach. Dooling resigned after one season.

Green Hope, the top-ranked boys soccer team in the area, opened its season impressively on Tuesday with a 4-0 victory over Wakefield.

Stephen Clowes scored three goals and Jared Girard added another.

Green Hope is at home against Leesville Road on Thursday. Leesville tied Panther Creek 2-2 on Monday night. 

The suspended principal of Knightdale Elementary School is getting a new job and a pay cut.

This afternoon, the school board transferred Michael Williams over to Wakefield High School in North Raleigh to become one of the assistant principals. School officials say Williams will take a cut in his $55,000 a year salary.

School officials aren't saying if the suspension and transfer are connected to ongoing investigations of test irregularities at Knightdale Elementary.

Test administration is a big deal because it impacts No Child Left Behind  and state ABCs bonuses. DPI is waiting for Wake to complete its investigation first.

This is for you folks who may not receive the North Raleigh News.

As noted in today's article, delays installing an eight-classroom modular unit at Wakefield High School's ninth-grade center will force some changes for this fall. Freshmen will get calls today telling them that those kids who will take fine arts classes will spend the entire fall semester on the main campus instead of splitting time with the ninth-grade center.

One of the goals of having an off-campus ninth-grade center is to help freshmen make the transition to high school away from upper classmen.