Graham wins 40-18, but Carrboro football comes out ahead one week after forfeits
Even with a 40-18 win against Carrboro, Graham couldn’t ruin the Jaguars’ homecoming night. After all, just playing Friday’s Mid-State 2A Conference game was a victory for Carrboro’s program.
Carrboro (0-9 overall, 0-3 Mid-State) was forced to forfeit a game last week due to a lack of healthy players, but took the field with 19 players suited up Friday.
“It was very important that we played this game,” Carrboro head coach Melvin Griffin said. “I think not only was the school down, the whole community was down. We had to play this game to finish the season strong and to get a good start for next year.”
The outcome was never in doubt as much as the final score. With 39 players dressed out, Graham (3-6, 2-1) scored on its first two possessions and never trailed as it picked up a second-straight Mid-State win.
“This was a big win for us,” Graham quarterback Jamie Newman said. “We’ve got two conference wins now, and we’re moving forward toward the playoffs.”
Newman scored three touchdowns on runs of 64, 60 and 2 yards, and he connected on touchdown passes of 33 yards to DeQuan Rogers and 6 to Jaylen Edwards. Taymond Edwards ran in a touchdown from 4 yards out to give the Red Devils a 28-6 lead at halftime.
The turning point
On the second play from scrimmage in the second half, Newman ran a keeper off tackle to his right and then cut back left through almost the entire Carrboro defense to make his 64-yard touchdown run. Carrboro never got closer than 22 points after that.
Three who mattered
Newman: He had the lion’s share of Friday’s offense, completing 10-of-12 passes for 112 yards and 2 touchdowns, all in the first half, and adding 153 yards and three more touchdowns on just 4 rushes. His 265 yards was more than double the rest of the Red Devils’ total offense.
Greyson Magee: The 5-8, 160-pound Carrboro senior caught touchdown passes of 20 and 17 yards from freshman quarterback Gordon Guest. Magee also ran 11 times for a team-high 87 yards.
Keegan Schmoock: Usually a starter along the offensive line, the 235-pound Schmoock wowed Carrboro’s home crowd with some hard-nosed running, getting 61 yards on 12 carries.
By the numbers
1: interception apiece for Newman and Guest.
2: conference wins for Graham, putting the Red Devils above .500 at 2-1 in league games.
13: consecutive losses for Carrboro, which got its last win, 32-12 on Oct. 13, 2014, at Bartlett Yancey – ironically, the school to which Carrboro forfeited this season.
They said it
“A little bit of me died last week. In all my years of playing football, we never had to forfeit a game because of a lack of healthy players,” Magee said. “We really needed this game. We just needed to say as a team ‘We’re going to step out on that field and play, no matter what.’”
This story was originally published October 23, 2015 at 11:12 PM with the headline "Graham wins 40-18, but Carrboro football comes out ahead one week after forfeits."