No. 2 Providence Day proves a point in Week 2. Chargers handle No. 4 Weddington at home
Providence Day is, officially, a problem.
After a 35-point win over Legion Collegiate (SC) to start the season, which was expected, the Chargers ramped up the competition, dramatically, Friday night. The Chargers hosted a Weddington team that is a 4A public school and a public school power. Since the 2016 season began, Weddington has won three state championships.
And those Warriors had some moments pushing the ball against the Providence Day defense in front of a sold-out crowd in south Charlotte, but the Chargers were just too good, winning 52-32 and showing the type of offensive execution that is kind of scary in Week 2 of the high school football season.
Consider this, up 38-25 and facing third-and-17, junior quarterback Jadyn Davis found Jordan Shipp with a perfect pass over the middle and Shipp ran past several Weddington defenders, with 5 minutes, 41 seconds left, for a 52-yard put-away score.
That play also illustrated a point: Providence Day, which scored the most points on Weddington in 12 years, has a whole lot of talent, and it seems the young Chargers are just getting started.
Davis completed 22-of-31 passes for 339 yards and five touchdowns. He ran for a score and has 10 touchdown passes in two weeks.
Junior receiver Shipp had three touchdown catches.
Three Providence Day players had interceptions: junior Brody Barnhardt, sophomore Braxton Winston and junior Channing Goodwin.
“I’m very proud of them,” Providence Day coach Chad Grier said. “There’s no quit in those guys (from Weddington) They compete and play hard and they never give up, and that’s who we think we are, and that’s what we did tonight. But I’ve got nothing to say but great things about Weddington. They’ve got some guys who can play. I was confident going in defensively. And our defense did some really good things tonight, but my (defensive coordinator) told me, ‘This is a really hard team to prepare for.’ And they’re really good.”
To Grier’s point, Weddington had its moments.
Quarterback Tyler Budge, a junior, completed 20-of-33 passes for 325 yards and three touchdowns. He threw two scores to senior tight end Griffin Reimer, who caught 10 passes for 115 yards. Teammate Evan Gilbert caught seven for 127 yards. And backup QB Knox Willingham had two rushing touchdowns.
But for as good as Weddington sometimes was on offense, the Warriors simply couldn’t consistently stop Davis and Providence Day, which noticeably downshifted in the second half.
In two weeks, the Chargers have scored 94 points and spent both fourth quarters mainly trying to get the clock to run out.
“Offensively,” Grier said, “we’re about where I expected. We’ve got too many weapons on offense to not score just about every time we touch it.”
▪ Providence Day senior Holden Manna got to be a color analyst in the second half on the streaming telecast from Bahakel Sports. He was impressive, coming across prepared and polished.
First-Half highlights
▪ Providence Day converted three fourth-down attempts on its first possession, which took five minutes and ended with pretty throw from Davis to Jayden Hollar. The PAT was blocked.
▪ On Weddington’s first possession, the Warriors tried a wide receiver pass. But Willingham threw into double coverage and Winston intercepted it. That led to a quick drive and a pretty 25-yard touchdown pass from Davis to Shipp that was called back. But the Chargers scored anyway a few plays later. Chris Peal scored from the 3 for a 12-0 lead.
▪ Down two scores, Weddington made a strong drive, marching right down the field, ending with a 7-yard toss from Budge to Reimer. But Providence Day answered quickly again and was up 19-7 early in the second quarter.
▪ Next Weddington drove in the red zone and had fourth-and-5. The Warriors opted to go for it on fourth and threw an incomplete pass. Providence Day went and scored to go up 25-7, but Weddington answered again. The Warriors got a big 61-yard pass from Budge to Evan Gilbert, followed by a 12-yard Budge scoring pass to Reimer. That kept Weddington in the game, down 25-13 with 90 seconds left.
▪ Next Weddington forced the game’s first turnover, intercepting Davis at its 45 with 39 seconds left in the half, down 12. But Budge tried to throw a long touchdown and was intercepted by Providence Day’s Godwin with four seconds left.
Weddington 0 13 6 13 — 32
Providence Day 12 13 13 14 — 52
First Quarter
PD: Jayden Hollar 11 pass from Jadyn Davis (kick failed)
PD: Chris Peal 3 run (pass failed)
Second Quarter
W: Griffin Reimer 7 pass from Tyler Budge (Everett Scott kick)
PD: Jordan Shipp 3 pass from Davis (Sydney McCorkle kick)
PD: Hollar 43 pass from Davis (kick failed)
W: Reimer 12 pass from Budge (kick blocked)
Third Quarter
PD: Davis 1 run (kick failed)
W: Budge 3 pass to player not named on roster (kick failed)
PD: Shipp 25 pass from Davis (Jake Porter kick)
Fourth Quarter
W: Knox Willingham 2 run (pass failed)
PD: Shipp 52 pass from Davis (Porter kick)
PD: Aidan Gallos 19 run (Porter kick)
W: Willingham 4 run (Scott kick)
