Blue Comets go to 9-1, eye deep run in playoffs

ASHEBORO — When a high school football team is scheduled to play an opponent that has had a subpar season, a very subpar season, it’s imperative for that favored team to get off to a good start, not allowing any hope for the underdog from the onset.

The Asheboro Blue Comets did just that last Friday night, scoring 30 points in the first quarter in blasting Southern Guilford 50-6 to close out the Triad Area Athletic Conference season at 4-1 and the regular season at 9-1.

Although a conference member’s forfeits became known earlier in the day, a situation that may have threatened AHS’ RPI to slip down a few spots, the Blue Comets received a No. 3 seeding in the West and will get a first-round bye for the playoffs.

When the day started, Southern Guilford was 0-9 having scored just three points the entire season. But as Friday went on, it was learned that Northeast Guilford had to forfeit all of its games up until the previous Thursday night, a win over Eastern Guilford, meaning NEG was 1-9 and not 7-3. One of those forfeits was to Southern Guilford.

That played havoc with some team’s RPI. That was something the Blue Comets couldn’t control. What they could control was Friday night’s action and

it didn’t take long for AHS to assert its dominance.

“We knew we were the better team,” said junior running back Connor Brinton, who ran for 150 yards on six carries with touchdown runs of 4, 34 and 53 yards. “We had to come out and dominate. All week, we kept everything the same and then we went out and played. There’s more to come. We had a great regular season and now we go make a deep playoff run.”

The Blue Comets spent the bulk of the season as the top team in the 6-A classification, but the win over NEG wasn’t as good for the RPI number as it once was and beating a one-win SG team didn’t help either in terms of RPI.

“We kinda knew we expected the game to be like this and we wanted to come out and play well,” said AHS coach Calvin Brown, who has helped rejuvenate the program in the four years he’s been at the helm. “We did for a little bit and then we got sloppy. That stuff happens in this type of game.

“I’m really proud of the whole season,” Brown continued. “We’re going to the playoffs, we’re going to be a high seed and get a home game or two. We will see what we can do with that.”

Striking quickly was the plan and the Blue Comets executed that to perfection in the first quarter. On the very first play from scrimmage, Dallas Brinton threw a sideline screen pass to Quante McRae, who dashed 70 yards down the sidelines for a lead 32 seconds into the contest. Jefferson Aguilar, who made 6 of 7 PATs, made it 7-0.

A 39-yard run from Connor Brinton set up a nine-yard scoring pass from Dallas Brinton to Garrison Cheek, and after a safety, Cheek caught his second TD pass of the game when he leaped high over the middle in the end zone to haul in a 10-yard scoring strike.

“It’s just something we do,” Cheek said of the quick start. “We come out and play like it’s a regular team despite their record. We just have to play.”

AHS wasn’t done in the first quarter as Connor Brinton scored his first of three touchdowns with 23 seconds left for a 30-0 lead.

“Get our guys the ball and get in a groove in the passing game,” said Dallas Brinton, who was 9 of 10 for 137 yards, one interception and three passing scores. “It was knowing the bigger picture. The bigger picture is winning a lot of playoff games. Not looking past a team, but knowing we had to run through them.”

A 34-yard TD scamper by Connor Brinton capped the first-half scoring, which meant a running clock the entire second half.

Southern Guilford managed 19 yards of offense in the first half, despite running a very respectable 32 plays from scrimmage.

The Asheboro defense, which allowed an average of 14.7 points per game, had one slip and that was on special teams. SG’s Wade Chase returned the second-half kickoff 99 yards to the AHS 1 and, two plays later, Chase scored the very first touchdown of the season for the Storm to make it 37-6. SG, which recorded a total of 69 total offensive yards against the Blue Comets, finishes the season scoring just nine points in 10 games.

“Games like this, you have to prepare like it’s any team,” AHS’ Shane Immel said. “We just wanted to come out here and shut them out. We did a pretty good job apart from the kickoff. There’s not much we could have done better.”

It was another solid effort by the AHS defense, which held opponents to 10 points or less six times.

“There isn’t a single person on our defense who is afraid to hit,” Immel said. “We’re looking for that contact and then the next play. The main thing is communication. Everyone knows what is going on at all times. We love each other as a family, and when you’re playing for your brothers and not just teammates, it’s different.”

AHS added two more scores, a 53-yard TD run by Connor Brinton and a 1-yard run from DJ Scott.

“Just trying to keep guys focused,” Brown said of the biggest challenge during practice this past week and in the game itself. “The game got out of hand, we were doing what we wanted and it’s hard. I don’t think we did a great job of that and that’s on me, but it was a W and we’re 9-1 and going to the playoffs.”

The Blue Comets are scheduled to play the winner of the Eastern Guilford-Glenn game a week from Friday night.