Murphy – Hunter Stalcup carried the ball 46 yards to the end zone on the first drive of the game Friday night, only to have his would-be touchdown negated by a penalty.
The flag only delayed the inevitable. Penalties were about the only thing that slowed down Murphy, and even those were not enough to prevent the Bulldogs from scoring the first 49 points of the game.
Stalcup paced the offense with 217 yards and three touchdowns on 15 carries, and No. 7 seed Murphy cruised to a 49-20 win over No. 26 seed Albemarle in the opening round of the N.C. High School Athletic Association 1A state playoffs at David Gentry Field. Murphy (8-3) advances to the second round this Friday, when the Bulldogs will host No. 10 seed East Wilkes (9-2).
The victory was especially meaningful for head coach Joseph Watson, whose mother, Joy Watson, passed away unexpectedly just two days earlier.
“It was definitely a tough week,” Watson said. “I’m just proud of them, proud of my coaches and proud of the way we played and coached.
“You could tell they were a little bit different, that they had a different kind of look in their eyes, a different focus in their eyes and a little more of a purpose. That means the world to me and my family. We’re just happy that they were able to give us a little bit of joy this week.”
Murphy totaled 340 yards on the ground and five touchdowns, including the three by Stalcup as well as scores by John Ledford and Trenton Russell.
“Our line was blocking great, and there were definitely holes, and we were just running the ball really well,” Stalcup said.
Quarterback Cole Laney completed 4 of 6 passes for 124 yards and two more touchdowns, caught by Russell and Dozer Mashburn.
Laney set up the game’s first score with a 38-yard pass to Cameron Grooms down to the Albemarle 3 yard line, shortly after Stalcup’s would-be touchdown run was negated by the flag. Stalcup found his way into the end zone from there, and Murphy added a two-point conversion to jump on top 8-0 with 8:29 left in the opening quarter.
The Bulldogs quickly regained possession after Ryan Payne intercepted a pass on Albemarle’s third offensive play and returned it nine yards to their 18-yard line. Stalcup found the end zone again, this time on a 13-yard touchdown run with 5:10 on the clock.
“This has definitely been a tough week,” Stalcup said. “We had great practices, and we knew what we had to do.”
Less than 90 seconds later, Russell found a seam up the middle on a reverse and raced 69 yards to boost Murphy’s lead to 21-0 with 3:44 remaining in the opening quarter.
Following another three-and-out by Albemarle (3-8), Stalcup broke off a 42-yard run that set up a 6-yard touchdown run by Ledford to make the score 27-0 before the first quarter had even ended. The point-after attempt was eventually no good, after two penalties by Albemarle and another by Murphy forced the two teams to line up for it four different times.
Albemarle had six penalties for 60 yards, while Murphy committed 11 for 105 yards. Penalties have plagued Murphy this season, and Watson knows those kinds of self-inflicted wounds can come back to haunt his team later in the postseason.
“That’s the thing that’s going to hinder you from being successful down the road when you’re playing deeper into the playoffs,” Watson said. “You’ve got to clean things up, and that’s been issues for us, penalties and turnovers. We’ve been a team that will make some penalties and we’re able to recover from that, and I’m happy that we limited the turnovers.”
Laney boosted Murphy’s lead to 42-0 in the second quarter following a 69-yard touchdown pass to Mashburn and a 15-yard strike to Russell. Stalcup added his final rushing touchdown on a 12-yard run with 37.1 seconds before halftime to push the advantage to 49-0.
Murphy pulled starters after halftime, allowing Albemarle to begin stringing together drives on offense. Albemarle finally found the end zone on a 2-yard touchdown pass with 5:27 remaining in the third quarter, then scored twice more in the fourth quarter.