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Football Roundup: Watauga Scores Big Win Over Ashe County; Avery County Falls to 0-2

By Nathan Ham

It was all Pioneers on Friday night in Boone. Watauga scored 43 unanswered points and held Ashe County to under 200 yards of total offense on the way to a 43-7 victory.

The Pioneers improved to 2-0 overall while Ashe fell to 1-1.

Senior Jackson Greene, filling in for an injured Anderson Castle, did a little bit of everything to help his Pioneers to a victory. Greene threw a pair of touchdown passes, ran for another score and intercepted a pass from Ashe County quarterback Luke Hudler and returned it for a touchdown.

Overall, Greene finished the game with 230 yards passing, 137 yards on the ground and four touchdowns.

Hudler led Ashe’s offense by completing 19 of 23 passes for 178 yards and a touchdown. Austin Poe and Branson Shepherd led the receiving corps for Ashe. Poe had seven grabs for 67 yards and a touchdown while Shepherd had five passes for a team-high 91 yards. Corbin Coldiron added four catches for 16 yards, Kai Christoferson had one catch for two yards and Lucas Worley had one catch for two yards.

Ashe was able to get just 180 yards of total offense.

Looking ahead to this Friday, Ashe will be on the road again to face defending 2A state champion Hibriten. Watauga will stay in rivalry mode as the Avery County Vikings make the short trip from Newland for this week three matchup.

Avery County dropped its game to McDowell on Friday night by a 52-27 score.

The Vikings dropped to 0-2 on the season while the Titans stayed unbeaten at 2-0.

McDowell was led by senior quarterback Adam Randolph. He completed 14 of 17 passes for 222 yards and three touchdowns. The senior also added 48 rushing yards and a touchdown on 12 carries.

Senior JC Olivo added 117 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries and senior Cedric Biddle had two carries for 57 yards and a touchdown.

Through the air, Andruw Randolph led the Titans with five catches for 97 yards and a touchdown. Dakota Effler added five catches for 87 yards and two touchdowns. Olivo had two grabs for 16 yards and Richard Handy had two catches for 22 yards.

McDowell had 458 yards of total offense.

The Vikings’ offense performed better than they did in week one when Ashe County held them to just seven points. Avery County had 296 total yards with 187 of those coming through the air and 109 yards on the ground.

Quarterback Sam McCollum completed 21 of 40 passes for 182 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.

On the ground, Lucas Andrews led the Vikings with 13 carries for 83 yards and a touchdown.

Eli Hayes finished as Avery’s leading receiver with six catches for 60 yards and two touchdowns. Tyree Jackson had five catches for 24 yards, Jonas Bowman had four catches for 41 yards and Andrews finished with three catches for 29 yards.

Week 2 area scores

St. Stephens 44, Bunker Hill 6

Freedom 57, Draughn 0

Kings Mountain 42, South Caldwell 6

Hibriten 58, West Caldwell 0

Alexander Central 50, Wilkes Central 7

Grayson County (VA) 28, Alleghany 7

Elkin 21, North Surry 17

East Wilkes 36, Surry Central 6

East Surry 35, Starmount 12

North Wilkes 40, South Stokes 39

Mitchell 27, Cannon School 6

Erwin 50, Mountain Heritage 40

North Buncombe 46, Madison 0

AC Reynolds 17, Shelby 14

Mount Airy 34, West Stokes 28

National Christian Academy 40, Polk County 8