Taking care of business: Playoff-tested Cardinal Gibbons ousts Hillside in NCHSAA 4A game

High school football teams with championship pedigrees are used to the age-old mantra of chewing up the clock with the run game and riding a strong defense in the playoffs.

Cardinal Gibbons certainly fits the bill as a school with a football championship pedigree, and the Crusaders executed that game plan to perfection Friday night, catapulting into the fourth round of the NCHSAA 4A playoffs with a 52-13 win over Hillside of Durham.

Corban McDaniel and Xavier Hasan each returned an interception for a touchdown. Running backs Kendall Scotton and Noah Terry led a rushing attack that churned through the Hillside defense to lead Cardinal Gibbons (11-1) to its second win of the season over the Hornets (7-6). The Crusaders took the teams’ regular-season meeting, 21-0, on Sept. 26.

Friday, Cardinal Gibbons left little doubt about the outcome at halftime. Noah Terry pounded the ball into the end zone from 2 yards out for the for the first score of the game. Evan Windley’s PAT made it 7-0 early.

Hillside’s defense held the Crusaders to a Windley field goal on their next possession, but on the Hornets’ very next series, McDaniel came up with the pick-six and Scotton added the two-point conversion to push the lead to 18-0.

A 19-yard scamper from Scotton and Hasan’s interception return for a touchdown widened Cardinal Gibbons’ advantage just three minutes into the second quarter. Hillside chewed up the clock for the rest of the second quarter, and punctuated the seven-minute drive with a passing touchdown in the final minute of the half, but the Crusaders went into the break comfortably ahead, 31-7.

Gannon Jones found Sam Dodd for a 59-yard strike on the Crusaders’ first possession of the second half to put the game away and dispel any notion of a Hillside comeback.

The teams traded scores to finish the game: An Aaron Anderson 2-yard run for Cardinal Gibbons, a Christian Cook 24-yard run for Hillside, and Terry’s second rushing score of the game for the Crusaders rounded out the scoring.