SANFORD - Fuquay-Varina scored 21 unanswered points in the second half to overcome Lee County 31-10 and claim a share of the Tri-Nine 4A conference championship on Friday.
The Bengals (10-1 overall, 7-1 Tri-9) will be seeded behind Panther Creek, who tied F-V for the title but finished ahead on the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Catamounts one-point victory over the Bengals earlier this season.
CARY – Panther Creek celebrated its senior night Friday with a 28-0 rout of Lee County. The Catamounts’ defense stifled the Yellow Jackets offense all evening – holding them to a mere 136 yards of total offense.
“This win is huge,” Panther Creek coach Wayne Bragg said. “Lee County is a good football team. They’re big, physical and have some really good skill guys. It seems like we keep playing playoff caliber teams every week now. We know we have to win these, and our guys really played well.”
ROANOKE RAPIDS – North Johnston quickly found out the best way to score against powerful Roanoke Rapids Friday night — return kick offs for touchdowns. The Panthers' Jacques Alston returned the opening kick off 90 yards for a TD, then went 91 yards for another score the second time he fielded a kick.
Problem was, with the Yellow Jackets scoring six touchdowns, it would have taken six returns for kicks to match a Roanoke Rapids (9-1, 5-0) squad that clinched no worse than a share of the Northern Carolina 2-A Conference championship and the league's No. 1 overall playoff seed with a 42-14 victory.
SANFORD - Cary head coach Ben Kolstad told his players that they controlled their own destiny following the Imps win over Lee County on Friday.
That was made possible because Cary’s defense simply controlled the Yellow Jackets.
Cary recorded its sixth straight win with a 7-0 shutout over Lee County, putting itself in a position to potentially capture a share of the Tri-Nine conference title. The Imps (9-1 overall, 6-1 conference) have a bye next week and then host Panther Creek in their regular season finale.
APEX - For the third straight year, the Middle Creek-Lee County football game was decided by three or fewer points.
Also for the third straight year, Middle Creek (6-1, 4-0) came away the victor in this Tri-Nine Conference match-up, winning 21-20.
Georgia Tech rallied from behind twice in the fourth quarter Saturday night to escape with a 24-20 victory over Wake Forest at BB&T Field.
Georgia Tech quarterback Josh Nesbitt threw a nine-yard touchdown pass to Correy Earls with 15 seconds remaining to cap the Yellow Jackets’ comeback victory.
Facing its biggest challenge yet, N.C. State’s defense never flinched this afternoon.
Georgia Tech’s flexbone offense was averaging 32 points per game, but was held scoreless for the first 27 minutes. Terrell Manning and David Akinniyi recovered fumbles, and Russell Wilson threw for a career-high 368 yards as N.C. State won 45-28 at Bobby Dodd Stadium, improving to 4-0 for the first time since 2002.
