Football playoffs: Trinity Christian in state championship; Seventy-First still unbeaten
Trinity Christian will play for a fifth NCISAA state championship after its 41-28 win at High Point Christian in Friday's Class II semifinal.
Junior quarterback Elijah Oehkle threw for three touchdowns and ran for another as the No. 3-seeded Crusaders (10-1) eliminated the No. 2 Cougars (8-3).
Trinity will play at No. 1 Asheville School (7-3), a 55-0 winner over No. 5 Hickory Grove Christian, next Friday for the title.
Xayden Watson was on the receiving end of two Oehkle TD tosses in the semifinal win, and Watson scored on a 45-yard run. Michael Ross Jr. also had a TD catch and Lavarion Peoples scored on a 25-yard run.
Trinity Christian won state titles with coach Chuck Webster from 2007-09 and added another championship in 2019.
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No. 2 Seventy-First 40, No. 15 Burlington Williams 20
Deandre Nance got in some prep for basketball season Friday night as he went up for a jumpball in the end zone during the closing seconds of the Falcons’ second-round win in NCHSAA playoffs. The junior quarterback came down with an interception, and that was effectively the end of a 40-20 victory over Burlington Williams.
It was a rematch of a playoff game from two years ago that took a game-winning 2-point conversion in overtime to get the Falcons to the next round.
This year, not so much.
Nance ran for four touchdowns as Seventy-First pounded out a run-based offense to control the game. Donavan Frederick and Jayson Franklin also ran for Falcons TDs, with Franklin tiptoeing the sideline while running through tackles on a 45-yard chunk play set up by Amire Drummond’s interception of a twice-tipped pass in the fourth quarter.
The No. 2-seeded Falcons improved to 12-0 and will host No. 7 Wilson Fike (9-3), a 37-25 winner over No. 10 Currituck, in next Friday’s third-round game.
No. 15-seeded Williams’ season ended with a 9-3 record. The Bulldogs are the only team to score three times against Seventy-First this season.
De’Andre Nance follows his blocker into the end zone for his 2nd TD of the half. Falcons up 21-6 over the Bulldogs at the half #bigtimegame pic.twitter.com/QyhxLXT945
— Mid-South Sports (@Mid_SouthSports) November 11, 2023
More scores
3A EAST
No. 5 Scotland 21, No. 21 Southern Durham 12
4A EAST
No. 13 Clayton 17, No. 4 Pinecrest 10
2A EAST
No. 1 Clinton 56, No. 16 Wilson Beddingfield 15
No. 6 Whiteville 28, No. 11 East Duplin 7
1A EAST
No. 13 East Bladen 25, No. 4 Northside-Pinetown 18
No. 6 North Moore 58, No. 11 Bertie 20
No. 7 Lakewood 35, No. 10 Perquimans 28
No. 2 West Columbus 54, No. 18 Pender 6
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: NCISAA football championship Trinity Christian NCHAAA Seventy-First
