Article: Alan Ford/Shelby Star

If you’ve watched the Crest High football team this season, you’re likely aware they run a no-huddle, spread offense to bring the abundance of speed to bear against opposing defenses.

Friday night, they did something else. The Chargers lined up and played straight-ahead, smash-mouth football. Fifty-two points and 481 rushing yards later, Crest owned a 52-21 victory at Sid Bryson Stadium against the Erwin Warriors to earn a spot in the state 3AA Western finals next week at Charlotte Catholic.

It was a game that offensive linemen love. Players like Crest junior center Jake Willis opened holes for Quortez Wright (273 yards) and Rhaheim Ledbetter to constantly gash the Erwin defensive front as the Chargers outscored the visitors 31-0 in the second half after a 21-all deadlock at the break.

“Our running backs are great,” said Willis. “You give them an inch and they’re going to take it a mile. We knew coming in we wanted to run the ball, and we went out and did it. We just executed.”

Coach Mark Barnes echoed that thought.

“If you saw us tonight, you’d think we were a power football team, not someone in the spread,” he said. “We thought we needed to run it even if we go away from what we normally do. Quortez and Rhaheim ran really hard.

“Give credit to our offensive line and tight ends for the job they did. We knew we had to play them physical.”

The Chargers spent most of the first half desperately seeking an answer for Erwin quarterback Garrett Brown. He threw for 225 yards and two touchdowns to Shaquan Curenton in the first half, and ran for another score. Brown would finish the game with 385 yards of total offense, but the Warriors wouldn’t score against Jonathan Bullard, Martavis Burris and Co. the rest of the way.  Crest’s defenders stopped Erwin twice inside the five during the contest, and the Charger offense took control from there.

“He (Brown) was as good as we’d heard,” Barnes said. “We beat a really good football team. Coach (Mike) Sexton’s team plays with a lot of heart.”

Wright had scoring dashes of 65 and 46 yards to go with a 17-yard touchdown reception. Ledbetter broke scoring runs of 27 and 73 yards, with Harvey McSwain catching a 69-yard scoring toss from Patrick Bowman as well. Trever Austin kicked a 24-yard field goal, and Gene Surratt came in late to add another 13-yard scoring run.

“This means the world to all of us,” said Willis. “We lost in the second round last year, and now we’ve come back and gone to the fourth round. We have to go (against Catholic) and play with the same attitude we did this week.”

View Article at The Star

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