Bears christen Pisgah Memorial with opening night win

Aug. 21—Friday night marked the return of Pisgah football to their home stadium in 875 days. And the Bears christened the newly-renovated Pisgah Memorial Stadium with an opening-night victory.

After three seasons without a normal home game — interrupted by the Covid pandemic in 2020 and flooding in 2021 and 2022 — the Bears secured a 24-10 win over the Brevard Blue Devils on Friday night.

"I'm so excited for our kids and for our kids, parents and for the community to be able to have a game like this," Pisgah head coach Brett Chappell said. "We felt like it was going to be a really big game. The Brevard-Pisgah game always is. I hate that it's the first game of the year."

Junior Jake Lowery said there was nothing better he could ask for than a win in their first home game in over 800 days.

"First game here in three years and we show that. That's incredible, especially coming off of last year, which just wasn't our best year. We were just young. To show that we can bounce back and start the year off like this, it was incredible," Lowery said.

Fans lined the bridge going over the Pigeon River as the team walked from the locker room at the high school to the stadium.

"It was crazy," Lowery said. "Coming in on the bridge walk, all these people here to support us. Three years since we've been here at full capacity, that's just insane. To see that support back here in Canton was amazing. It got us going from the start. We let it fuel us."

Senior Breydon Reynolds last played on this field during the spring 2020 season. He was just a freshman at the time, taking junior varsity snaps. Reynolds described the walk across the bridge and the first interaction with the home crowd as emotional.

"It was unreal," he said. "I started tearing up going across the bridge tonight. I know a bunch of my other teammates did, too. Just being here is totally unreal."

The stands continued to fill to the point of an overflow, TV cameras lined the sidelines and N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper, who called the game a "rebirth" after the flood and closure of the mill and predicted a Pisgah victory, delivered the opening coin toss. The pregame also included a moment of silence honoring those who lost their lives during the 2021 flood.

Just before kickoff, the mill whistle — removed from the shuttered Canton paper mill and attached to the Bears scoreboard — sounded for the time over Pisgah Memorial Stadium.

"It was honestly beyond the expectation," Reynolds said. "Coach Chappell said this is the most packed he's seen the stadium other than a Pisgah-Tuscola game."

The first (mill) whistle sounds

Pisgah started its first drive on a roll, picking up multiple first downs before senior receiver Cadden Davis hauled in a pass to set the Bears up for a big first and goal.

The Bears could not capitalize on the momentum and settle for a field goal to go up 3-0.

"It was electric," senior kicker Walker Fox said. "It was the greatest feeling in the world to get back under these lights, the crowd, the people. All in all, it was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had on a football field. I felt comfortable. I felt happy. I felt loose. It was all around a great ballgame."

Pisgah forced the Blue Devils to punt followed by a Punt back from Pisgah that closed out the opening quarter.

Brevard's first drive of the second half came down to a fourth down and a punt attempt. Things went sideways for the Blue Devils, however, as the punter could not handle the snap. He picked the ball up and tried to scramble to pick up a few more yards, but was tackled at the Brevard 29-yard line, setting up a scoring opportunity for the Bears.

"Offensively for us, we took advantage of opportunities," Chappell said. "We said if we get inside that red line — that 20 yard-line — we want points; get inside that 10, we want touchdowns."

Pisgah did not find the end zone on that possession either, but Fox did not see a wasted opportunity. He drilled a long 47-yard field goal to give Pisgah a 6-0 lead.

"The way I see it, when you're up in a position like that as a kicker, everything goes silent," Fox said. "As soon as you get your holder looking at you and you nod to say you're ready to go, all noise goes away and you're just locked in. Every kick feels the same to me."

Brevard's next drive stalled out with a forced fumble that the Bears recovered. It was the first of three takeaways, not including turnovers on downs.

"Anytime we can take the ball away, it's an extra possession for our offense," Pisgah defensive coordinator Bentley Rogers said. "We're going to keep doing that because it gives our offense more opportunities to score."

The offense stalled out again but another field goal extended the lead to 9-0.

"Walker Fox — huge," Chappell said. "Three-for-three on pretty long field goals. It wasn't like they were chip shots. To be able to have that nine points was huge."

Pisgah junior Sawyer Belue recorded his first interception of the season on a tipped pass on the Blue Devils' next possession. Belue was tied for second in the state with seven interceptions last season.

"We made it a goal as a defense that we didn't want anybody to score on us," Belue said. "Obviously, they did score on us, but I feel like we did a pretty good job of shutting them down in the run and the pass game."

Brevard got the ball back after a strip-sack, setting up the Blue Devils with a chance to get points. Pisgah's defense, however, forced the Blue Devils into a crucial third-down situation.

"They did a phenomenal job," Chappell said. "Our coaches do a great job of preparing them and getting them ready. We just felt like we were getting back to our defensive ways. We felt like we were taking that step back to there. We felt good about our front and our backers. We had experience in that secondary."

On third down, junior Carter Browning recorded a tackle for a loss to push Brevard out of field goal range. On the ensuing fourth down play, Belue broke up a pass with a hit on Brevard's tight end.

"Very proud of how the defense responded in times of adversity, especially when we had that turnover at the 35 and we were able to keep them off the scoreboard," Rogers said. "That was big for our defense. We made plays when we had to. We didn't let one play kill us. We stepped up like we talked about all week."

The play was a microcosm of how the defense played all night. Last season's meeting between these squads was a physical slugfest, with both teams trading blows. This year, Pisgah seemed intent on making sure they landed more hits.

"That was one thing I harped on all week to them, especially defensively," Chappell said. "We struggled with the run game against them last year. They dominated us in the trenches last year. That was really a point of emphasis from Monday on. They needed to be the difference for us. They did a good job helping our linebackers stay clean and give them a chance to make plays."

The Bears took a 9-0 lead to halftime.

Bears extend lead in Second half

The Blue Devils found the scoreboard on their first possession of the second half and trimmed the Pisgah lead to 9-3.

After both teams' punters saw game action, Pisgah sophomore Jaxon Bautista picked up his first sack of the season to set up a third and long. Lowery intercepted the pass from Brevard senior Colt Swicegood and took it 68 yards back to the end zone for the first touchdown in Pisgah Memorial Stadium since 2020.

"I just caught it and looked ahead and thought, 'Oh gosh. I can return this. I gotta kick it,'" Lowery said. "I started running and saw them behind me and thought, 'Oh yeah, I got this all the way. This is mine. I had a dream last night that we were going to win and I was gonna have a pick and Sawyer [Belue] was going to have a pick. It happened."

Pisgah went for two after the return to take a 17-3 lead.

"We about got caught slipping down here going for one," Chappell said. "I'm down here screaming on the sideline, 'Points, points, points.' We got the timeout, got the two points to keep it at two scores. We got so excited about the pick six that we kind of lost track of it and I was trying to count up points. It was really big to get those two points to keep it a two-score game."

The Blue Devils answered back on their ensuing drive as Swicegood found sophomore receiver Arion Young for a touchdown to cut the lead to 17-10. Pisgah junior Kenyon Moore nearly intercepted the pass, getting his fingertips on the ball before the Blue Devils receiver hauled it in.

Reynolds provided a solid ground game on the Bears' next possession and senior Jake Henson hauled in a deep pass to get the Bears to the Brevard 14-yard line.

"I thought that our conditioning was good," Chappell said. "We didn't get tired and were able to rotate some kids in and out. We had some young kids make some really big plays. Jake Henson's catch to get us down there late in the game was big."

Pisgah relied on its running game to get to the three-yard line, followed by a quarterback sneak for the touchdown to extend the lead to 24-10.

"You really want your team, especially up front, to take that challenge of, 'Let's hammer down,'" Chappell said.

Despite a glimmer of offensive hope for Brevard, the Pisgah defense stepped up and secured win No. 1.

"It was so exciting last year," Chappell said. "It came down to the end again this year, just like it did last year. I'm thankful for our kids that we were able to put it away and win the game. "

The gates opened up and students swarmed onto the field to celebrate with their players.

"It was amazing," Belue said. "The Tuscola-Pisgah game last year was pretty crazy, but I think there were more fans here tonight. And the atmosphere, the music, everybody was all into it."

The Bears return to action next week when they hit the road to face the 1-0 Enka Jets, who beat Owen 37-14 in the season opener.