Ramseur – Bulldogs head coach Joseph Watson said the same thing to his players throughout the week: Be physical and take it to the top seed, the unbeaten Eastern Randolph Wildcats, and they won’t fight back.
”That was our main point of each practice,” senior quarterback Kellen Rumfelt said. “Of each play, of every minute, of every practice. That’s what we knew we had to do.”
Watson was right. Murphy showed no rust from the five-hour bus ride Friday, punching Eastern Randolph in the mouth all night in a 64-31 thrashing. The No. 9 seed Bulldogs (9-4 overall) will travel to No. 4 seed Robbinsville (9-3) this Friday for the fourth round of the N.C. High School Athletic Association 1A West playoffs.
The result was not what anyone expected – except maybe those on the Murphy sideline. The Wildcats entered the game with an average margin of victory of 31.9 points per game in their first year in 1A and played in one close game all season.
They played 2A schools and above until last week’s second-round playoff game against Draughn. Watson said they had the biggest line a Murphy team has ever seen and talent at all offensive skill positions.
All that size and skill was no match for mountain football, however. The Bulldogs ran for 398 yards, as Eastern Randolph had no answer for the Wing-T offense. Junior Ty Laney led the way with 200 yards and two touchdowns, sophomore Hunter Stalcup ran for 119 and two scores, and senior Juan Allen added two rushing touchdowns.
“We knew what we had to show them was mountain football,” Laney said. “That’s our thing. We run hard, block hard and that’s all we do.”
Both teams scored on their opening drives, and a 29-yard field goal by Yane Jaimes gave the Wildcats a 10-8 lead with 10:05 left in the second quarter. After that, it was all Murphy. The Bulldogs scored on nine of their 11 possessions and only punted once.
Following the field goal, Laney picked up a first down on fourth-and-2 and then some, breaking through tackles down the right sideline on his way to a 39-yard touchdown. He followed that up by picking off Eastern Randolph quarterback Stratton Barwick in Wildcats territory.
Murphy cashed in, with Stalcup’s 3-yard touchdown run and Rumfelt’s pass to Payton McCracken on the two-point conversion pushing the lead to 22-10 with 3:52 to go in the second quarter.
Allen picked off Barwick on the next drive, and once again Murphy capitalized. Rumfelt found a leaping Will Johnson in the end zone for a 5-yard touchdown with 7.8 seconds left in the second quarter to extend the lead to 29-10.
“(Eastern Randolph), they got kids,” Watson said. “And they can run and they got playmakers. … It was big getting the turnovers early, capitalizing on turnovers and getting stops when we could.”
The Bulldogs’ only punt came on their opening drive of the second half, but they got it right back when Barwick threw the ball right to Hunter Laney, who returned it to the Eastern Randolph 18-yard line. Ty Laney would score on the next play. Naheim Lilly answered back for the Wildcats after a long kick return, and the Bulldogs would respond with three straight touchdowns to force a running clock.
For the fourth straight season, Murphy and Robbinsville will meet in the playoffs. The Bulldogs won in 2018 and last spring, with the Black Knights winning in 2019.
All three of those teams went on to win a state championship. Last spring, Murphy lost at Robbinsville in the regular season before snapping Robbinsville’s 24-game win streak in the 1A West Regional final.
This fall, Cody Cline’s field goal as time expired stunned the Bulldogs during Senior Night on Oct. 15. Today, both teams are playing their best football.
That upset win started a seven-game winning streak for the Black Knights, who are healthier than they were for the first matchup. Star sophomore running back Cuttler Adams, who missed the first matchup, ran for 377 yards and four touchdowns in Robbinsville’s 50-47 third-round win over North Rowan and has run for 1,985 yards and 25 touchdowns this season.
Murphy has found a new edge the last two weeks, playing with a physicality and nastiness they hadn’t shown enough this season.
“We’re excited,” Rumfelt said about playing Robbinsville again. “This is what we wanted.” Kickoff at Bob Colvin Memorial Stadium is set for 7:30 p.m.