Hickory downs Fayetteville Seventy-First to win 3-A state championship
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Hickory quarterback Brady Stober knew what to do with the game in the balance Friday night.
He had done this before.
“I was very excited to get that moment,” Stober said. “State championship on the line. That’s all you could wish for.”
With the score tied in the Class 3-A title game, Stober guided the Red Tornadoes on a nine-play, 62-yard drive that ended with his 8-yard run up the middle on a first-down keeper with 36 seconds left.
The Hickory defense finished the job, resulting in a 33-26 conquering of Fayetteville Seventy-First at Kenan Stadium.
“Unbelievable game,” Red Tornadoes coach Joe Glass said. “It’s still a blur.”
And understandably so. The teams combined for 829 yards of total offense using largely different schemes.
The Falcons (15-1) reached the Hickory 34 with 11 seconds left. Quarterback Deandre Nance’s prolonged time in the pocket meant it would be the last snap, with Hickory’s Will Prince alone in the end zone when he secured the clinching interception. It was the game’s only turnover.
“It was crazy, all the build-up to this game,” Prince said. “The fact that I got to make the last play was amazing.”
He essentially cradled the second state championship for the Red Tornadoes (16-0), who also won in 1996 in their only other appearance in a state final.
Stober threw for 238 yards on 21-for-30 passing, with his winning run marking only his second rushing TD of the season. Running back Isaiah Lackey gained 111 yards on the ground with three touchdowns.
For the Falcons, Nance had two touchdown runs among his 159 rushing yards and two touchdown passes and teammate Donovan Frederick gained 112 yards on the ground.
“We made it to the big stage,” Seventy-First linebacker Zayvion Hill said. “We just didn’t pull through.”
The Red Tornadoes made the defining plays in a game full of clutch performances.
Stober, a junior hoping recruiting interest picks up, had thrown a late winning touchdown a week earlier in a one-point decision against Greensboro Dudley in the West Region final.
“I think it definitely helps a lot,” Stober said. “Just knowing and having that confidence. In the back of your mind, ‘Why not go out and do this again?’ ”
This time, he helped decide the outcome with his legs, though he was 2-for-3 passing in on the last drive. He saw the Falcons dropping into coverage and took note of that.
“I knew I could take off if I needed to,” Stober said.
Twice in the second half, Hickory’s defense stopped the Falcons after they crossed midfield.
“That’s what we’ve done all year,” senior linebacker Henry Pitts said.
For the Falcons, who were back in the final for the first time since 2008, it was just the third game decided by a single-digit margin this year.
“Gives us something to push for next year,” Seventy-First coach Duran McLaurin said.
How it unfolded
Nance flipped a 6-yard pass to Jaydyn Surgeon with 2:42 left and Devin Coleman booted the tying extra-point kick.
That marked the first tie since midway through the second quarter.
Seventy-First went 88 yards in five plays to begin the second half, putting the Falcons ahead for the first time at 19-18 on Nance’s 38-yard scamper.
Hickory converted a fourth-and-1 from its own territory on the first play of the fourth quarter. That drive ended with Lackey dragging a would-be tackler into the end zone. Stober rifled a two-point conversion pass to Damarion Lee for a 26-19 edge.
The offenses were in gear from the beginning.
Hickory opened the game with a 15-play, 74-yard touchdown drive, with Lackey running the last 2 yards.
The Falcons responded, scoring on Nance’s 13-yard pass to Amire Drummond on fourth-and-7. That took 12 plays to go 71 yards.
Hickory moved to the Seventy-First 4, but was stopped on a fourth-down run. The Red Tornadoes forced a punt and then needed just six plays to go 55 yards in 58 seconds with Lackey plowing in from 1 yard out. Tyler Johnson ran in for a two-point conversion off an unbalanced formation.
Nance was in the end zone a on 1-yard run on Seventy-First’s ensuing drive to complete an 85-yard march. A penalty wiped out a two-point conversion, and the retry went awry for the Falcons.
Hickory extended the margin to 18-13 on Braeden McCourt’s 26-yard field goal on the final play of the first half.
Yet the Red Tornadoes had second-quarter drives that advanced inside the Seventy-First and resulted in just three total points.
How it all came together
For Glass, it was a breakthrough in his coaching career. He wrapped up his third season at Hickory after stops at Patton, Concord Robinson, Eastern Guilford and Lincolnton.
Entering the season, he sensed that the Red Tornadoes might be good enough to reach the second or third round of the state playoffs. He didn’t envision what happened Friday night.
“Kept winning, kept winning,” Pitts said.
Some of the concerns for Glass existed because of an undersized line. So perhaps there were intangibles that favored the Red Tornadoes.
“Just an offense as a whole being so versatile,” Stober said. “The biggest thing is the line – the heart and soul of our team. Those guys are dogs.”
Stober finished the season with 47 touchdown passes (none in the title game), four interceptions and 3,933 passing yards.
For Prince, who was swarmed by teammates following the last play, tears soon followed as the team’s celebration unfolded on the field.
“All the emotions for all the hard work that we put into it,” Prince said later. “We were doubted all year long.”
It was his fifth interception of the season that ended this classic.
“That was definitely the easiest,” he said of the pick-off.
Otherwise, it was a night when few things came easy.
Glass said his players looked fatigued at halftime. He noticed “a little bit of panic” from the grueling attack that Seventy-First applied.
“Two contrasting styles and both were very effective,” McLaurin said. “They’re a very crafty bunch.”
Indeed, and now that group is a state championship team.
