Devils defeat Panthers, Move to 6-0

*Article revised 10-3

The Mooresville Blue Devils notched their 6^th straight win Friday night beating the Providence Panthers 42-0. They remain in a tie for first place with conference rival Lake Norman High School at the top of the GM4 conference standings.

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Right out of the gate, Mooresville struck fast on the game’s first play. A double move by Randy Fulmore found him wide open at midfield and quarterback Brody Norman hit him in stride for a 78-yard touchdown. At that point it was ON. And it never went off. Three more touchdowns came and went and before you know it Mooresville was up 28-0 at the half.

Mooresville’s second touchdown came from Eric Heal. On a play where it looked like he was tackled, not once, not twice, but thrice, he kept the legs moving and exploded out of a pack of players consisting of all linemen. Amir Reid-Beatty started it off with opening the first hole blowing up the Providence defense end and stalling the outside linebacker who got a hand on Heal. After breaking free on the second stop, Drew Davis and Jalen Wright each got blocks, and Heal ran another 20 yards into the endzone letting out a loud yell of excitement in the process. Heal returned after being out last week and it was a great night for him. This is a guy who I would see all summer working alone in the field. Usually, he runs sprints on a Sunday night or does running back drills until he can no longer move. Last week when out, he must have run about 100 sprints on the sidelines in anticipation of his return this week against Providence. It showed as he racked up a lot of yards behind Mooresville’s fierce offensive line. He is a versatile back who also lined up in the slot position and has hands for that dual threat.

Defense. Farmer, Edstrom, Graham, and more… AJ Graham has been stellar his entire career at Mooresville. Last week he had two interceptions with one for a pick-six. Well, Friday night was business as usual when Graham watched the eyes of the Providence quarterback and broke on the ball quickly. He snatched it out of the air and scampered 30+ plus yards into the end zone for another pick-six. This was the backbreaker for Providence early in the game. Before everyone was even seated at Joe Popp stadium Mooresville had a 21-point lead.

During the pre-season, It has become well known that Mooresville would have a good defense. In fact, it is becoming a regular thing every year at Mooresville with talk of a strong defense. The only real number of points given up was last week at Hickory Ridge. But the scoreboard did not indicate what really happened out there. The Mooresville defense dominated the entire first half and much of the second. If it wasn’t for one turnover in the red zone, and two of the best onside kicks I have ever seen in high school, the score would have been much different. Andrew Schmidt (sign him up) the Raging Bulls kicker put more English on these kicks than a Man U Liverpool match on the pitch. Even with our hands team in, the ball bounced all over the place causing a late-game mess for Mooresville. Other than that, lights out this season.

Questions were about the offense and who would fill the holes at Quarterback, Running Back, and Wide Receiver. Half the line was back but another was out due to injury and had some inexperience to open the season. This was all figured out rather quickly and the line has formed itself into a well-oiled machine. Next week when Mooresville takes on South Iredell, they will have the return of senior offensive lineman Kendyn Smith, to further bolster the offensive line.

Late in the second quarter 21 points wasn’t enough for Mooresville. Back came the Norman to Fulmore connection as Fulmore once again beat 2 defenders and Norman caught him with a perfect pass like the play that opened the game. Fulmore broke a tackle as the two Providence defenders collided and stepped into the endzone for his second receiving touchdown of the game. The play was 51 yards long and brought the Devils to a 28-0 halftime lead.

Brody Norman scored a touchdown on the ground in the 3^rd, keeping it for himself on the last 3 running plays resulting in one one-yard touchdown run. Senior Quarterback Cartin Elkin also had a few nice runs and came up short on a play that looked to be a touchdown for the Devils on 4^th down. However, the officials saw it differently and it was a turnover on downs. Providence almost gave up the safety and eventually was forced to punt out of the endzone. Senior Jari Wali also had a few snaps at quarterback and finished the rest of the game for Mooresville.

Mooresville then added another score by sophomore Jadrius McCombs who is becoming a great running back for Mooresville this season.

Some key points of interest about the game.

-Jamari Farmer tackled everybody. We joked after the game about who he didn’t tackle on Providence (audio below) but this man was on fire. At one point I felt he was calling the Providence plays out loud. In addition to Farmer, Caleb Edstrom had another big game. Edstrom was in on many tackles and hurries on the night and side by side with Farmer along the way. Both, along with KJ Gillepsie punished the Providence skill position players until their very last drive of the game.

-Skyz Carr and DJ Turner both had many key moments in the game and assisted on tackles. Carr caused a stir up front and made a great block on Graham’s interception.

-Josiah Hunter picked up an interception on a big play to shut the Panther drive down. Without a slight trip, he may have taken it to the house.

-Ziquel Adams broke through the line and got in the face of Providence quarterback which aided the Josiah Hunter interception.

-Marley Samuel had a big sack on 3^rd down forcing a Providence punt. It almost appeared Samuel had wrestled the ball away from the Providence quarterback before bringing him to the ground. Samuel is a threat every game and one of the last guys you want to get hit by.

-AJ Graham had some great plays on defense along with Jay Wilson. Any time a Providence player made it to the secondary, one of these guys would step up and bring them down. Open-field tackling was far better this week than during the fourth quarter last week.

-Skyz Carr was held all night long but still managed to break through the offensive line and cause a mess. It was every man for the Mooresville defense Friday night.

-Downfield blocking and the ghost of Sean Collins. There is nothing better for a team’s offensive effort than consistent downfield blocking by the wide receivers. Dominic Morin was fabulous all night helping add on to the great gains by our running backs. On one play AJ Graham playing wide receiver, kept blocking a man all the way out of bounds and into a box of Chick-fil-A over near the track. These men did not let up under any circumstance on both sides of the ball.

In addition to all the great plays on offense and defense, we have to give a huge shout-out to the Mooresville Offensive Line. These guys have played great all year and Friday was no exception. They manhandled the Providence defense and protected the quarterback all night. It was the second game in a row where quarterback Brody Norman didn’t even get touched. When you have protection like this, it makes things much easier for the team as a whole.

Even when Mooresville increased their lead, the entire second string of linemen equally did as well as the first string. They moved the ball down the field at will allowing Jadarius McCombs to score.

We did get a chance to talk to Drew Davis and he will touch on this below.

Our offensive line consists of many, and we will name them all. Amir Reid-Beatty, Alec Lawrence, Drew Davis, Tyrron Morrison, Cameron Bradley, Jalen Wright, Zyon McGowan and Rhylan Young. Kendyn Smith will be back Friday versus South Iredell as mentioned (2-year starter) Other linemen who stepped up as well were Cooper Bevins, Aiden Jones, Devin McNeil, Caydon Sloop, Owen Crowley, and Holden Faison.

Morrison had two great blocks on the night and many more earlier in the season. The biggest, and unfortunately the one which forced him to leave the game, was the Heal touchdown. Amir Reid-Beatty basically cleared out the right side of the line, while Morrison the left, and center Drew Davis lead block. The other was during the pass from Brody Norman to Randy Fulmore in which Morrison shut down the outside linebacker from making a play on Norman.

Gavin Bisco did very well on punt coverage for the Blue Devils. He made a fabulous open-field tackle in the game which forced the Panthers to start deep in their own end. We are looking forward to seeing him do the same next Friday night. These downfield kick coverage tackles have been great all season. Darian Reid has come up big in previous games with similar plays. The future is very bright for these two men.

The sky is the limit for the Mooresville Blue Devils. If they keep up the intensity and look at one game at a time, they certainly could make a deep playoff run this season.

The Blue Devils face another rival Friday night in South Iredell at home. This will be the Mooresville Blue Devils homecoming night themed a “whiteout” (wear all white apparel) by the Mooresville students.

JV will play at South Iredell, 6 p.m., on Thursday night. Varsity Friday at 7 p.m.

Special thanks to Dave & Brittany Ramsey.

Special thanks to Cadence Lane, MHS Softball for help with photography.

View the FULL Providence Football Album.

Player interviews below:

*We had technical difficulties with the AJ Graham interview and will make certain to speak with AJ next week.

*Amir Reid-Beatty was mistaken for Bradley, #73, and not listed in the original article due to author error. Sincere apologies to the Reid-Beatty family, text modified as a correction.