Championship Saturday: Shelby (N.C.) High, Shelby Crest capture NCHSAA titles

DURHAM — The NCHSAA had “Championship Saturday” with four games played throughout the state of North Carolina.

The Wolfpacker took in the action at Durham Country Stadium, where Shelby (N.C.) High set records in a. 84-41 victory over Kinston (N.C.) High to win the NCHSAA 3A state title.

Shelby Crest won in a much lower scoring game, 31-14, against Wilson (N.C.) Hunt in NCSAA 5A action.

The Games

Shelby High had quite the shootout in the first half, leading 56-41 at halftime, and kept the scoring going, creating a running clock scenario in the fourth quarter.

Senior quarterback Lan Farmer threw for 459 yards and eight touchdowns, with senior wide receiver Lorenzo Rosebor having a big game, catching four passes for 147 yards and four touchdowns. Shelby won its 13th NCHSAA championship.

Shelby Crest won its seventh NCHSAA state title and played a quality defensive game to top Hunt. Virginia senior quarterback signee Ely Hamrick threw and ran for 320 yards and two scores — 233 yards passing and 87 yards rushing with two scores.

NC State signees

Each game featured a NC State signee, with senior wide receiver Tyreek Copper of Kinston and free safety D’Various Surratt of Crest High.

Copper made history with seven catches for 229 yards and three touchdowns to finish with single-season state records with 105 receptions for 2,242 yards and 33 touchdowns. He broke former Lincolnton (N.C.) High wide receiver Sage Surratt’s senior year record for receiving yards (2,104) and former Charlotte (N.C.) Independence High wide receiver Mohamed Massaquoi’s touchdown mark (32).

Copper’s three scores were in a variety of ways — taking a flanker screen 52 yards, catching a deep ball for 69 yards and out-jumping a Shelby defender for a 25-yard score. He also added three tackles in playing safety.

Surratt had a big crunching hit and nearly got an interception. He helped set up a last-second first half field goal after catching a deep ball before halftime, and finished with two catches. Surratt was credited with two tackles, half a sack and one pass broken up.

Potential targets

Shelby sophomore tackle Tee Hollifield is getting evaluated by NC State, and also plays on the defensive line. Sophomore defensive end Tyson Williams had one sack and he’ll likely be a hot target at 6-5 and 220 pounds, and growing.

Shelby freshman running back Jonas Woods had 20 carries for 129 yards and two touchdowns, and finished with at least 100 rushing yards in four of the last six games.

Crest junior wide receiver Namajay Thompson had a big game, and if not for some flags, would have had a bigger game. He took a pop pass and hurdled a would-be tackler for a touchdown, which is illegal by NCHSAA rules. A few plays later, Hamrick went deep to Thompson and he caught a touchdown, and that was wiped out due to a flag.

Thompson was then ejected due to celebrating his score by doing a back-flip in the end zone, and finished with six catches for 61 yards, plus one punt return for eight yards and one kick return for 20 yards. Thompson has P4 offers from Duke, Wake Forest and West Virginia.

Sophomore edge rusher Nicholas Bynum, who is listed at 6-2 and 215 pounds, had nine tackles for Wilson Hunt.

Past targets

Crest senior safety Lyrik Pettis picked Duke over NC State and North Carolina, and was solid in his pairing with long-time friend Surratt. He finished with one tackle.

Coming up

The Wolfpacker will have stories on the key players and various scouting videos, which will be found here.

  
 
 
 
 
 
 
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