Football Western Foothills 4A/5A - Week 10

CHEERDUCK

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Jun 5, 2001
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A high win percentage over 9 or 10 seasons is impressive, no doubt. But 330 wins? That's not just talent-it's sustained greatness. I know not just any coach can ride a hot streak for awhile, but doing it rebuilding, adapting, and winning through it all too me is impressive. I think Will has done a great job at Maiden but let's see what he has done after about 25 or 30 years or if he has 330 wins. Legends are made over decades i.e Tom Landry, Bill Billicheck, and like Nick Saban. I have always said this, Tom delivered year after year and did it with less talent.
There were many wins over Brown's team versus inferior talent. Gamewell. Hildebran, Cherryville, Highland Tech, etc. add those up. and his wiining percentage versus those teams. I take nothing away from his ability to motivate his players and win those games, but it is what it is.
 
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TrojanCountry

Freshman
Oct 12, 2025
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Bandys vs West Iredell : Both team have shown that cant win the games that matter. West lost to Maiden/N-C and Bandys lost to N-C/Maiden as well. Bandys lost the games closes as well and someone told me - BANDYS cant win the close ones. If Swett is still hurt , I would favor WIHS here by 10, If Swett Play - Give me Bandys by 14

Bunker Hill vs North Lincoln

East Lincoln
at Maiden: If your East Lincoln your PISSED OFF with the loss to hickory and want to come out and prove yourself once again. I think Maiden has gotten better week by week but Maiden can be had so Ill take EL here by 10

Foard vs Newton Conover: N-C needs to handle business, they let Bunker Hill hang around to long. Give me N-C by 21 +
Swett will be playing, he played against maiden
 

Reno Hoghtower

Sophomore
Jul 26, 2025
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There were many wins over Brown's team versus inferior talent. Gamewell. Hildebran, Cherryville, Highland Tech, etc. add thos eup. and his wiiningpercentage versus those teams. I take nothing away fro his ability to motivate his players and win those games, but it is what it is.
Yeah they put Maiden in that Southern Piedmont 1A Conference with Hendersonville, Highland Tech, Cherryville, Bessemer City, Polk County and then later on added North Lincoln in 2003. Horrible conference but that's where they had to go at that time.
 
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HeelRaiderMBD

Sophomore
Nov 14, 2022
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That's the truth right there. Tom Brown and Maiden won games they shouldn't of won and at times lost games they should have won. Maiden should have a State Title in 1998, 2001, 2002, and 2004 at least!! Hell they should have won it in 1992. So at least 5 but I am sure someone could list other teams that probably could have won it at that time they were there or whatever. Tom was a great coach not just Xs and Os, but he taught us all alot about life and started the whole Tradition never Graduates and Man Forms his own destiny to always telling players before they got off the bus after a game; "Don't do anything that's going to keep you off the bus when we go to a State Championship"!! Or at least something like that. It fell apart in the last year and the teams weren't as good for awhile but he was something
I agree that Maiden should have won state championships in 1998 and 1992. Both seasons ended in nightmare losses to teams Maiden was clearly better than, 17-14 in OT to Starmount in the1998 western state title game, and 14-6 to West Brunswick in the 1992 state championship game. Maiden led Starmount 14-3 and was driving deep into Starmount territory with about 9:00 remaining in the game. We fumbled, and the game was all downhill from there. On a fourth down play, we failed to pick up what would have been a game-ending first down by literally one inch. In the state championship game vs. West Brunswick, we had 15 total first downs. We held West Brunswick to four first downs for the entire game. This game was lost on two bad snaps in punt formation. Our starting center was injured and was unable to play.

Disagree about winning state championships in 2001, 2002, and 2004. Albemarle was clearly better than Maiden in '01 and '02. Albemarle won 49-28 in '01, even after Maiden had taken a 14-0 lead. That game wasn't even competitive. Albemarle won the '02 game 25-22, but the final score was much closer than the game actually was. Albemarle led 25-14 and had a first and goal at the Maiden eight yard line. Only a holding penalty kept them out of the endzone, and kept them from taking a 32-14 lead late in the fourth quarter. Maiden scored and made a two-point conversion with just a few seconds left in the game to make the final score closer than it should have been. Same with Thomasville in '04. They were clearly the better team, winning 23-6. Maiden didn't even score until they managed a garbage-time TD right at the end of the game. Both the '02 and '04 games were western state championship games, but Maiden was definitely not the better team in either game.
 
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Reno Hoghtower

Sophomore
Jul 26, 2025
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I agree that Maiden should have won state championships in 1998 and 1992. Both seasons ended in nightmare losses to teams Maiden was clearly better than, 17-14 in OT to Starmount in the1998 western state title game, and 14-6 to West Brunswick in the 1992 state championship game. Maiden led Starmount 14-3 and was driving deep into Starmount territory with about 9:00 remaining in the game. We fumbled, and the game was all downhill from there. On a fourth down play, we failed to pick up what would have been a game-ending first down by literally one inch. In the state championship game vs. West Brunswick, we had 15 total first downs. We held West Brunswick to four first downs for the entire game. This game was lost on two bad snaps in punt formation. Our starting center was injured and was unable to play.

Disagree about winning state championships in 2001, 2002, and 2004. Albemarle was clearly better than Maiden in '01 and '02. Albemarle won 49-28 in '01, even after Maiden had taken a 14-0 lead. That game wasn't even competitive. Albemarle won the '02 game 25-22, but the final score was much closer than the game actually was. Albemarle led 25-14 and had a first and goal at the Maiden eight yard line. Only a holding penalty kept them out of the endzone, and kept them from taking a 32-14 lead late in the fourth quarter. Maiden scored and made a two-point conversion with just a few seconds left in the game to make the final score closer than it should have been. Same with Thomasville in '04. They were clearly the better team, winning 23-6. Maiden didn't even score until they managed a garbage-time TD right at the end of the game. Both the '02 and '04 games were western state championship games, but Maiden was definitely not the better team in either game.
I am with you until the part you said about 2001. They were ahead 14 and should have been up 21. If that's the case then Albemarle never comes back Maiden wins and beats East Surry the following week! The Thomasville game was just a good team that didn't play well that night, but that team should have one that 04 1A Title!! The 02 game your also speaking of we were 1 stop away, and if you take back the dropped TD pass then we there is no doubt Maiden wins that game!! Both of those teams could have and should have won the Title. I will also give you one even better.....We were no more than 25-30 students away from playing small 1A that year and if that had been the case Maiden wins all 4 years 2001-2004!!! No one would have beaten Maiden in that smaller 1A class!!
 

amaidendevil

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Aug 12, 2022
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This one I don't understand LOL unless it was supposed to be a mustang caught up in a tornado that makes him a little more sense 😂
 

Lincolnton

Senior
Jul 8, 2025
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Mine wasn’t a dig at East Lincoln, it was at the blue devil taking a stick to the horse. The only problem was the animal in the verse is a donkey. Couldn’t remember one with a horse that fit, and it was another one of your bare-naked Blue Devils. At least, Dplubo put a pair of baggy drawers on him. LOL…You know, if anyone wanted me put in a nursing home, I’m pretty sure they could use my posts against me. If they try, I plan to run like hell. :)
 
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Dplubo1

Freshman
Jul 6, 2025
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Mine wasn’t a dig at East Lincoln, it was at the blue devil taking a stick to the horse. The only problem was the animal in the verse is a donkey. Couldn’t remember one with a horse that fit, and it was another one of your bare-naked Blue Devils. At least, Dplubo put a pair of baggy drawers on him. LOL…You know, if anyone wanted me put in a nursing home, I’m pretty sure they could use my posts against me. If they try, I plan to run like hell. :)
My apologies Lincolnton. I take my purple tornado back
 

80prepster

Redshirt
Sep 26, 2025
17
15
3
The 1998 team was 2 or 3 minutes away that year!! Your beating Starmount 14-3, and then a couple of plays that could have put the Rams away went in their favor!! When they tied the game at 14 and it went to OT I knew Starmount was gonna win and can still see the Field Goal going thru at the old stadium on the concession stand side and them winning 17-14. The 01 team had Albemarle 14-0 and a bad call by the officials gave them the score they should not of had, and then the game turned into a shootout with them winning but if we score to go up 21-0 there's no way we lose to Albemarle. The 04 team should have beat Thomasville but it slipped away in the 2nd Half. After that QB went 77 yards between Travis Osborne and Andrew Goodson for the score I knew it was over. So many close calls and tons of heartbreakers along the way, but those teams should have State Titles no doubt

I remember missing that game long ago, that Starmount was not supposed to win. It put kicker Josh Oates in the record books and sent the Rams to Chapel Hill to beat North Edgecombe for the state in 1998.

Starmount and Maiden had some real battle royales during the 80s and 90s under Holt and Brown. They were friends, and had nothing but respect for one another as coaches. I’ll never forget the first state playoff game they played in the first round of 2A in 1987. It was an SRO crowd at Starmount. It was a back and forth affair of three scores in the final 2 minutes. Neither team was willing to give up! The Rams finally prevailed….and B W Holt was infamously quoted in the Winston-Salem Journal: “ You’ve heard it ain’t over until the fat lady sings…..Well, I haven’t sung yet.” Those games, and respect for the tradition at Maiden with the coaching, the dry ice coming out of the tunnel at the old stadium, all helped build a strong program at Starmount too. If I’m not mistaken, Starmount holds a comfortable edge in wins against the Blue Devils during those years. Deana would know all of that.
 

amaidendevil

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@CHEERDUCK how do you feel school merger proposition effects hickory?? Move some of y'all kids to Foard and maybe st. Stephens gets a few moved to y'all or Newton Conover??
 
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31ocdavis

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Aug 8, 2025
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Don’t know anything about the Catawba County school merger issue. But the Davidson County commissioners paid for a study on merger of the county, Lexington and Thomasville systems several years ago. The expected outcome was that the study would recommend merger with significant cost savings. The end result was that the cumulative loss of federal, state and local funding was projected to be sixteen million dollars. The loss of federal funding would be ongoing annually and most cost savings had already been achieved through joint purchasing, etc..

Before undergoing merger, I would hope that an objective third party would undergo a similar study. Bigger isn’t always better. Case in point, Guilford and Forsyth counties with their bloated administrative costs. Just a couple of years ago, the mayor of High Point advocated for that city to be able to reverse their merger.
 

Lincolnton

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amaidendevil

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It really comes down to Catawba county board of commissioners failing at their jobs. It's all about bandy's and sherrills Foard area. They have let the area grow so fast and uncontrollably, without the foresight of how small bandy's high school is. In 4 years they are projected to have 1600 kids currently close to 1000. They didn't buy land beforehand for a possible new school and the county doesn't wanna spend money on building a new high school for that area
 

Reno Hoghtower

Sophomore
Jul 26, 2025
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It really comes down to Catawba county board of commissioners failing at their jobs. It's all about bandy's and sherrills Foard area. They have let the area grow so fast and uncontrollably, without the foresight of how small bandy's high school is. In 4 years they are projected to have 1600 kids currently close to 1000. They didn't buy land beforehand for a possible new school and the county doesn't wanna spend money on building a new high school
I remember missing that game long ago, that Starmount was not supposed to win. It put kicker Josh Oates in the record books and sent the Rams to Chapel Hill to beat North Edgecombe for the state in 1998.

Starmount and Maiden had some real battle royales during the 80s and 90s under Holt and Brown. They were friends, and had nothing but respect for one another as coaches. I’ll never forget the first state playoff game they played in the first round of 2A in 1987. It was an SRO crowd at Starmount. It was a back and forth affair of three scores in the final 2 minutes. Neither team was willing to give up! The Rams finally prevailed….and B W Holt was infamously quoted in the Winston-Salem Journal: “ You’ve heard it ain’t over until the fat lady sings…..Well, I haven’t sung yet.” Those games, and respect for the tradition at Maiden with the coaching, the dry ice coming out of the tunnel at the old stadium, all helped build a strong program at Starmount too. If I’m not mistaken, Starmount holds a comfortable edge in wins against the Blue Devils during those years. Deana would know all of that.
That 87 game was freezing cold!! Carlos King great player at Starmount played at N.C. State.
 

HeelRaiderMBD

Sophomore
Nov 14, 2022
51
137
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I remember missing that game long ago, that Starmount was not supposed to win. It put kicker Josh Oates in the record books and sent the Rams to Chapel Hill to beat North Edgecombe for the state in 1998.

Starmount and Maiden had some real battle royales during the 80s and 90s under Holt and Brown. They were friends, and had nothing but respect for one another as coaches. I’ll never forget the first state playoff game they played in the first round of 2A in 1987. It was an SRO crowd at Starmount. It was a back and forth affair of three scores in the final 2 minutes. Neither team was willing to give up! The Rams finally prevailed….and B W Holt was infamously quoted in the Winston-Salem Journal: “ You’ve heard it ain’t over until the fat lady sings…..Well, I haven’t sung yet.” Those games, and respect for the tradition at Maiden with the coaching, the dry ice coming out of the tunnel at the old stadium, all helped build a strong program at Starmount too. If I’m not mistaken, Starmount holds a comfortable edge in wins against the Blue Devils during those years. Deana would know all of that.
Starmount leads the all-time series against Maiden 6-2, 5-2 in the playoffs and one regular season win. They've always seemed to have Maiden's number, especially in the close games. Playoff games: Starmount won 26-22 in 1987. A late fourth quarter kickoff return did Maiden in on that one. Starmount won 27-22 in 1990. It was a battle of two undefeated 13-0 teams. Carlos King won the game on a long run after Maiden had taken a 22-21 lead. I've always called that game the "pinball" game. King had the ball and was met at the line of scrimmage by Maiden DT Ryan Scott. Maiden players all swore they heard a whistle blow. They relaxed just for an instant, including Scott. King then bounced off of Scott, hence "pinball", and went the distance (maybe 55-60 yards) for the winning score. Even after that Maiden was driving deep into Starmount territory, but running back Kenny Johnson was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that sealed the deal. Other Starmount playoff wins were 17-7 in 1996, 49-28 in 2008 (I believe Maiden led 21-14 at the half even in that Starmount dominated game), and the already discussed 17-14 OT nightmare in 1998. Starmount won a 1996 regular season games at Starmount. Not 100% sure of the final score on that one, but I believe it may have been 22-13. Maiden's two playoff wins came in 1992 (36-6), and 2004 (20-14). So Starmount leads 6-2, but only by a combined total of 16 points over eight games. Starmount definitely seemed to get all the breaks in the close games. Just like Maiden seemed to get most of the close game breaks against Thomasville down through the years, with the exception of a 27-24 Thomasville win in 2012. Thomasville was another good program and playoff rival of Maiden back in the 1A/2A days. Overall though, Maiden has had much more bad luck than good in the playoffs down through the years. The 36-35 loss to East Surry in 2022, when Chris Culliver broke his hand early in the third quarter, is the most recent example of yet another gut-wrenching loss. IMO, blowout losses to much better teams, like our two recent losses (52-12 and 40-0) to Salisbury in the playoffs, or 28-0 to Shelby last year, are much easier to take than the down to the wire games where one play could have made a difference. But there are also silver linings along the way, like the 2021 team beating Salisbury 32-20, and sending Jalen Walker on his way to Georgia.
 

amaidendevil

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The last time I went to Maiden starmount game at starmount I called it the fog game the fog rolled in so deep and thick that couldn't even see what was going on, on the field they we're still playing but we couldn't tell you what was happening at all 🤣
 

Lincolnton

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Jul 8, 2025
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@CHEERDUCK how do you feel school merger proposition effects hickory?? Move some of y'all kids to Foard and maybe st. Stephens gets a few moved to y'all or Newton Conover??
Think it said the meeting about this possible school system merger is at Cornerstone Church in MAIDEN…Is that the big church in the same block as the police station. What a coincidence.
 

Mr.Blue&Gray

Sophomore
May 1, 2021
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Starmount leads the all-time series against Maiden 6-2, 5-2 in the playoffs and one regular season win. They've always seemed to have Maiden's number, especially in the close games. Playoff games: Starmount won 26-22 in 1987. A late fourth quarter kickoff return did Maiden in on that one. Starmount won 27-22 in 1990. It was a battle of two undefeated 13-0 teams. Carlos King won the game on a long run after Maiden had taken a 22-21 lead. I've always called that game the "pinball" game. King had the ball and was met at the line of scrimmage by Maiden DT Ryan Scott. Maiden players all swore they heard a whistle blow. They relaxed just for an instant, including Scott. King then bounced off of Scott, hence "pinball", and went the distance (maybe 55-60 yards) for the winning score. Even after that Maiden was driving deep into Starmount territory, but running back Kenny Johnson was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that sealed the deal. Other Starmount playoff wins were 17-7 in 1996, 49-28 in 2008 (I believe Maiden led 21-14 at the half even in that Starmount dominated game), and the already discussed 17-14 OT nightmare in 1998. Starmount won a 1996 regular season games at Starmount. Not 100% sure of the final score on that one, but I believe it may have been 22-13. Maiden's two playoff wins came in 1992 (36-6), and 2004 (20-14). So Starmount leads 6-2, but only by a combined total of 16 points over eight games. Starmount definitely seemed to get all the breaks in the close games. Just like Maiden seemed to get most of the close game breaks against Thomasville down through the years, with the exception of a 27-24 Thomasville win in 2012. Thomasville was another good program and playoff rival of Maiden back in the 1A/2A days. Overall though, Maiden has had much more bad luck than good in the playoffs down through the years. The 36-35 loss to East Surry in 2022, when Chris Culliver broke his hand early in the third quarter, is the most recent example of yet another gut-wrenching loss. IMO, blowout losses to much better teams, like our two recent losses (52-12 and 40-0) to Salisbury in the playoffs, or 28-0 to Shelby last year, are much easier to take than the down to the wire games where one play could have made a difference. But there are also silver linings along the way, like the 2021 team beating Salisbury 32-20, and sending Jalen Walker on his way to Georgia.
Starmount only loss in the regular season in 1990 was to 3A North Iredell 12-0.
 

amaidendevil

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Think it said the meeting about this possible school system merger is at Cornerstone Church in MAIDEN…Is that the big church in the same block as the police station. What a coincidence.
I would think the board would be careful between hickory and Newton they can piss off enough people to flip enough votes to lose their seats
 
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