BURLINGTON — A big night from junior running backs Devin Witherspoon and Jaidyn Briskey pushed the home team Cummings (7-1, 6-0) past Northwood (5-4, 5-2), 49-28, in a battle for second place in the Mid-Carolina 1A/2A conference Friday.
The Cavaliers rushed for a total of 322 yards with Briskey ending the night at 161 yards and three touchdowns and Witherspoon pouring in 152 yards and four scores.
“Missed tackles killed us all night,” Northwood coach Dalton Brown said. “We’ve got to tackle better as a team.”
As dominant as those two were all night, Northwood kept up with the Cavaliers on the scoreboard to enter the fourth quarter tied at 21.
Cummings, already in scoring position, took a 28-21 lead just four seconds into the final quarter with a 6-yard touchdown run from Briskey.
After being able to meet each of Cummings’ punches with their own scores all night, dropped passes and a general disconnection in the Chargers’ passing game resulted in a turnover on downs on the ensuing possession.
Outside of the 66-yard touchdown strike from junior quarterback Grayson Cox to senior tight end Beau Harvey on its first possession of the game, Northwood struggled to get its passing offense in rhythm. Cox completed just 11 of his 26 attempts for 153 yards.
“A couple of missed throws, a couple of pressures and a couple of dropped balls,” Brown said. “If it wasn’t one thing, it was another. When we did complete the balls, guys had room to run, we had good plays, and we got drives going. When we were on, it was great, but we just had a couple of miscues.”
Witherspoon capitalized on the turnover on downs by capping off a three-minute drive with a 4-yard touchdown, giving Cummings a two-possession lead for the first time of the night with just six minutes left to play.
The Cavaliers’ defense forced another turnover on downs to hurt the Chargers’ chances at a comeback, and Witherspoon dug the hole even deeper with a 46-yard sprint to the endzone that gave Cummings a 42-21 lead with just four minutes remaining.
Northwood wasn’t finished yet, though. The Chargers just needed one minute to get down the field and make it a two-possession game on a 21-yard run to the outside by junior running back Robert Tripp.
Tripp was the Chargers’ most productive offensive weapon all night as he rushed for 176 yards and three touchdowns.
“We’re never out of the game with the players that we got,” Brown said.
Northwood tried to steal a possession with the ensuing onside kick, but all of the excitement from recovering its own kick was quickly quieted with a controversial illegal touching penalty.
“The illegal touching on the onside kick was mighty close,” Brown said. “I thought we got the ball back. I thought we were good.”
Northwood, struggling to stop the bleeding all fourth quarter, needed the biggest stop of the season stay alive. But after Cummings used its rushing attack to drive down the field once again, Briskey put the final nail in the coffin with a 30-yard score, giving the Cavaliers a 49-28 lead with just over a minute left to play.
“We break down huddles on finish,” Brown said. “I told them there’s a difference in saying it and actually doing it. We’ve got to migrate and have an attitude, mentality and the action of finishing and not just say it. It’s just one of those things of actions over words.”
The Chargers, out of timeouts on its final possession, ran out of time and fell to 5-4 on the season and 5-2 in conference play.
Had Northwood pulled out the victory, it would’ve slid into the second-place spot in the conference standings and put itself in position for an automatic playoff bid.
The Chargers are still in good playoff standing, sitting at 24th in the 2A East RPI rankings as of Sunday, but they will likely travel to a tough opponent for the first round.
But after failing to rise to the occasion when it mattered Friday, the focus is to just finish the season on a positive note. Northwood will host Chatham Central Friday at 7 p.m. before its final home game against non-conference opponent Hoke County on Nov. 11.
“Next week at practice, we’ll focus on us and find the mentality of ‘finish’ and have an attitude of ‘finish’ so that we can win this game in the first round, second round, third round, fourth round, or whatever may be when these moments arise again,” Brown said.
