South Stanly slides past Albemarle in 26-20 road win

Two other Stanly teams lost their recent conference matchups

Photo by PJ Ward-Brown

The South Stanly varsity football team got its first Yadkin Valley Conference victory of the season with a 26-20 win in Albemarle over the weekend.

Trailing 20-19 in the third quarter, the Rebel Bulls (4-2, 1-1 YVC) engineered a go-ahead drive that was capped off by a touchdown pass from quarterback Kaleb Richardson to wide receiver Kylan Dockery.

The Bulldogs (2-5, 0-2 YVC) were unable to score again as they were saddled with their third loss in their past four matchups.

South initially led the contest 13-0 before Albemarle responded with a pair of second-quarter touchdowns to make it a 14-13 Bulldog lead at halftime.

Richardson finished with 188 passing yards and three touchdowns from his 10-for-14 passing performance, while running back I’key Holt rushed the ball 18 times for 122 yards; wide receiver Jasiah Holt garnered a team-high 93 receiving yards.

For Albemarle, running back Kaine McLendon (76 yards, two touchdowns) and wide receiver Shoddy Pergee (85 yards, one touchdown) were the two Bulldogs who did the most damage to South’s defense.

This weekend, the Bulls will now gear up to travel to North Stanly (4-3, 1-1 YVC) and the Bulldogs will head to Mount Pleasant (6-1, 2-0 YVC).

Forest Hills 35, West Stanly 9

On Friday, the West Stanly Colts (1-6, 1-1 RRC) followed up their Rocky River Conference-opening win over Piedmont (2-5, 0-2 RRC) — still their only victory in 2024 — with a 26-point home loss to Forest Hills.

The Yellow Jackets (4-3, 1-1 RRC) climbed to an early 21-3 lead and never had much to worry about as they added two more touchdowns to their scoreboard advantage.

The Colts have now been outscored 222-117 in their first seven games of the season, adding up to one of West’s worst seven-game stretches in years.

They are now set to host the Parkwood Wolf Pack (1-6, 0-2 RRC), who have lost four consecutive games and sit with West as the only two one-win teams in their conference.

Lake Norman Charter 22, North Stanly 10

Looking to start their YVC campaign with a 2-0 record, the North Stanly Comets (4-3, 1-1 YVC) fell short of that goal on Friday as they suffered a 22-10 road loss to the undefeated Lake Norman Charter Knights (6-0, 2-0 YVC).

After winning their first two games of the year, the Comets have now lost three of their past five contests.

They trailed 9-3 at halftime in their loss to the Knights, but were unable to stop LNC from adding on touchdowns in both the third and fourth quarters.

North will look to bounce back into the win column as it welcomes the Bulls to New London this weekend. Last season, the Comets came away from Norwood with a 42-12 victory over South.