Twenty-six touchdowns. 189 points. And there was still a minute left in the game when the lights went out, ending prematurely what is now the highest-scoring game in the history of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA).
As the lights fell on Friday Night Football, Pender (Burgaw, N.C.) walked away with a 106-83 victory over Hobbton (Newton Grove, N.C.). The heroes were Pender’s junior running backs Jassiah Hill and Jeremiah Johnson, who combined for 11 touchdowns between the two of them, according to Star News Online (MaxPreps has conflicting figures: the box score shows 12 between the two players, while the recap lists 11).
If you looked at the score at the end of the first quarter, you may have simply thought the game was finished. Pender led 40-29 at that time, which is a rather high score in itself.
The team came back early in the second quarter, as Hobbton outscored Pender 20-14 to cut the deficit to five points, but the Pender Patriots outscored the Wildcats 16-14 in the third quarter to extend the lead to a full touchdown.
At this point, with decreasing point totals in each quarter, you may think the offenses were slowing down and tiring. Wrong. The fourth quarter saw eight touchdowns accounting for 56 total points, including Johnson rushing for two touchdowns and a two-point conversion while Hill had a 65-yard touchdown and a 40-yard touchdown.
According to MaxPreps, Johnson rushed for 377 yards on 44 carries and Hill accounted for 291 on just 17 carries. As a team, Pender ran for 912 yards on 17 carries. Junior quarterback Mark Rawls only attempted two passes.
Pender improved to 4-3 on the year. It is their second time scoring an otherworldly point total this season, with 88 in the season opener.
On the Hobbton side, senior quarterback Cole Weeks threw for six touchdowns with passing yard lengths of 45, 70, 20, 50, 47 and 41, and he also rushed for a touchdown. The 50-, 47-, 45- and 20-yard touchdowns were all caught by junior receiver Ashawd Wynn, who also had a pair of two-point conversions.
While Star New Online reported that this is the highest-scoring game in NCHSAA history, it is not the largest in the nation’s history. According to a MaxPreps article published in 2019, it would be the 10th-highest if no scores have eclipsed 189 in the last four years.
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