Cleveland Rams roll past Western Harnett football, big showdown looms

Cleveland easily remained perfect in Two Rivers 3A Conference play as Caiden Norman passed for 196 yards and three touchdowns to help lead the host Rams to a 49-6 victory over Western Harnett on Friday.

Corey Brown rushed for 91 yards and a touchdown for Cleveland (7-3, 4-0), which never trailed in setting up a winner-take-all showdown next Friday at Corinth Holders for the Two Rivers 3A title.

Norman connected on touchdown passes of 49, 18, and 26 yards. His 49-yard TD pass to Jaylyn Pearce put Cleveland ahead 7-0 with 1 minute, 25 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

Brown scored on a 1-yard run just over two minutes into the second quarter, and Norman followed later in the quarter with an 18-yard TD pass to Kenny White with 6:04 to go that made it 21-0.

Western Harnett (2-7, 0-4) was held to 54 yards of offense, the Eagles rushing for minus-15 yards on 38 carries. Western’s points came when quarterback Keith Carver scored on a 1-yard TD run on fourth-and-goal as time expired in the first half.

Turning point

With the game scoreless late in the first quarter, Cleveland faced a third-and-12 from its 3-yard line. Norman completed a 48-yard pass to Patrick Jesequel for the first down, and on the next play hit Pearce for a long TD to send the Rams on their way to the rout.

They said it

“They’re a real mature group, they focus on one week at a time,” said Cleveland coach Scott Riley of his team not looking past Western Harnett. “We haven’t talked about Corinth, no matter the result we were playing for the title, but I think it being Senior Night helped. We had a lot of seniors and they were focused (Friday).”

Three who mattered

Caiden Norman, Cleveland: The junior quarterback was very efficient, completing 9 of 13 passes. He completed passes to four different receivers.

Corey Brown, Cleveland: The senior rushed 14 times for 91 yards. He hit big runs of 28 and 35 yards to set up touchdowns for the Rams.

Jacob Scott, Cleveland: The junior wide receiver caught three balls for 51 yards and a touchdown and also added a 34-yard run.

By the numbers

6: Number of penalties committed by Cleveland in the first half, including four in the first six minutes of play.

7: Total punts by Western.

9: Rushing yards by Western’s Tyler Hoener, tops for the Eagles. Fifteen of Western’s 38 carries went for negative yards.

266: Rushing yards accumulated by Cleveland. Five different runners rushed for at least 30 yards.

This story was originally published October 30, 2015 at 11:57 PM with the headline "Cleveland Rams roll past Western Harnett football, big showdown looms."