North Carolina high school football

189?! Two North Carolina football teams combine most points in state history

The Pender and Hobbton high school football teams were electric on Friday, combining for 189 points in a game that ran so long the lights went out.

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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Watch: Providence Day (N.C.) quarterback Jadyn Davis throws a dart to Jordan Shipp for a touchdown, one of five in the game.

Three of the top four quarterbacks in the class of 2024 have already made their college commitments – Dylan Raiola to Ohio State, CJ Carr to Notre Dame and most recently Julian Sayin to Alabama. Providence Day (N.C.) star Jadyn Davis (ranked No. 2 at QB) is the best that’s still undecided.

Davis’ stock got another bump this past weekend. Watch this dart thrown by Davis find wide receiver Jordan Shipp for their third touchdown connection of the game.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CkleHoCuJBo/

Providence Day went on to beat Charlotte Country Day School (N.C.) 56-7, improving to 10-1 on the year.

Davis (6-foot-1, 190 pounds) finished the night with a line of 11/14 (78.6%) for 202 yards, five touchdown passes and a QB rating of 159.2. So far he has 31 reported college offers. Tennessee, Penn State and North Carolina are all in the conversation, but Michigan is the favorite to get him.

Shipp (6-foot-2, 195 pounds) ended the evening with seven catches, 63 yards and three scores. He’s ranked No. 49 among 2024 wide receivers and has 18 reported offers, including Michigan and several Carolina-area schools.

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North Carolina HS football teams help student with Down syndrome score a touchdown

Lake Norman High School and Vance High School teamed up to give Sam Jordan a moment he will never forget on Friday night.

Before Lake Norman High School and Vance High School hit the gridiron to duke it out for first place in their conference Friday night, Lake Norman head coach Jonathan Oliphant came up with the idea to give a student near and dear to his program a moment to remember.

Senior Sam Jordan, who has down syndrome, has been Lake Norman’s team manager since his freshman year. During Thursday night’s junior varsity game between Lake Norman and Vance, Oliphant pitched the idea of letting Jordan run for a touchdown before the teams played to Vance varsity coach Glenwood Ferebee. Ferebee agreed, setting in motion the plan to get Jordan into the end zone.

Before the opening kickoff, Jordan lined up in Lake Norman’s backfield with the ball marked at the 50-yard line. Jordan then received a handoff and busted through Lake Norman’s offensive line and into the second level, with Vance defenders falling at his feet. When Jordan reached the end zone, he was mobbed by both teams to celebrate the moment.

“It was great,” Ferebee said, per the Charlotte Observer. “My background is in special (education), and I identify with those kids and I understand how special they are. I talked to my kids and said, ‘Make sure that kid has the best moment because he’ll remember this for the rest of his life.’ ”

Lake Norman ultimately faltered against Vance, but it was Jordan who went home the biggest winner of the night. Thanks to the willingness of two teams to put a high-stakes match up to the side for just a moment, Jordan can now carry with him the experience of a lifetime.

“You try to teach these kids to be good people and good husbands and good dads,” Oliphant said. “At some point, the Man Upstairs will judge us all, and I try to live by the Golden Rule and I try to get these kids to do the same. The world’s a crazy place right now, but I think we made his night.”