Asheboro rallies late to topple Scotland County, 25-22

ASHEBORO — One of the areas a high school football coach wants to see from his team early on in the season is how they face adversity. With their backs up against a wall, how will that team respond?

Asheboro High School varsity football coach Calvin Brown saw his team face adversity in the final quarter of its season opener last week against Scotland County and was very pleased with how they reacted.

Trailing by four points entering the final quarter, the Blue Comets scored twice to capture a 25-22 victory over the Scots in the first meeting ever between the two programs.

Three rushing touchdowns by senior quarterback Dallas Brinton, including a game-clinching 4-yard score with three minutes left to play, was just enough to overcome a Scotland County team that scored in the waning seconds of the second, third and fourth quarters.

“It just shows the toughness of our kids physically and mentally and the tough character they have to fight through,” said Brown, whose team will host Northwood Friday night at Lee J. Stone Stadium. “Scotland doesn’t have any players going both ways and we have a number of them and in that heat, to find a way in the fourth quarter with our backs against the wall really says something.”

Brinton and his brother, junior Connor Brinton, spearheaded the AHS offense with Connor rushing for 66 yards and Dallas for 56. 

Dallas Brinton’s touchdown runs came from 2 yards out in the first quarter, and runs of 1 and 4 yards in the final quarter.

“He is so good with the ball in his hands because he is so tough,” Brown said. “He takes shots, a physical beating from running the football. What really helps is the guys who play off of him. His brother, Garrison Cheek, all of them benefit.”

The Blue Comets, who got a 33-yard field goal from Jefferson Aguilar, led 10-0 in the second quarter before Scotland County, which finished 8-4 a year ago, scored with just seven seconds left in the first half on a run by sophomore Mike McLean. McLean, who was named the top player in the state for the class of 2029, rushed for 186 yards on 27 carries and three scores.

“In that first half, we felt we were the only ones who stopped us,” Brown said of several penalties in the first two quarters, which ended with AHS holding a 10-7 lead. “We led 10-0 and were driving to make it 17-0 when we had some penalties that pushed us back.”

With AHS up 18-14 midway through the fourth quarter, the defense made a key stop when on fourth-and-2 from their own 38, McLean was thrown for a loss. AHS took over, driving for the score that gave them a 25-14 lead.

“The McLean kid is a special football talent,” Brown said. “We knew we had our hands full. Enough can’t be said about our defensive staff. He was never able to really break one off and he had to work for every yard he got.”

Scotland County also hurt itself with 15 penalties for 145 yards.

“There are things we have to fix, but we’re very pleased with the effort our kids played with,” Brown said. “We asked a lot of them. We weren’t very pleased with our last scrimmage and everyone came out and played well. It was a team effort.”