A couple of weeks into the 2025 high school football season, Clayton and Cleveland have lived up to their preseason billing. A few other interesting storylines are developing, too.
Let’s break down Week 2, shall we?
Clayton 49, Southern Nash 14
Southern Nash managed to hang around for the first half, trailing only 14-7 at intermission, before the Comets streaked out of sight with 35 second-half points.
As always, the Clayton Football Twitter feed lets us go a bit deeper:
It was also career victory No. 200 for head coach Scott Chadwick.
Cool stuff there.
Clayton 52, Corinth Holders 13
Cleveland raced to a 31-7 halftime lead and never looked back on its way to 2-0. Offensive stats haven’t been posted on this Labor Day morning, but Jaylen King posted 11 tackles and three sacks to lead a stingy Rams defense.
Our friends at HighSchool OT have a few highlights here.
American Leadership Academy 54, Bartlett Yancey 46, 3OT
The game of the night in Week 2 happened in Yanceyville, where the Patriots rallied from a 27-16 halftime deficit and survived a triple-overtime thriller to move to 2-0.
Anthony Jimenez had a monster night, rushing for 218 yards and five scores on just 14 carries.
I was refreshing the MaxPreps feed like a madman for this one, and it was quite a finish. Side note: It might be time to start paying a little more attention to ALA.
North Johnston 35, Holmes 34
Speaking of close games far away from JoCo that had me glued to my laptop…
I’m going to try not to take it personally that my pal, Joel, got tagged in this Tweet when I didn’t, but in all seriousness, what a cool win for the Panthers.
Charlie Barnes apparently took the snaps at quarterback for North, which makes this win all the more impressive. He ran for 159 yards and two touchdowns while Eli Williard added two scores of his own before Farris-Teachey’s game winner.
We’ll have to figure out the story behind Kaleb Pone’s absence, but this is a potential season-shaping result.
West Johnston 26, Smithfield-Selma 0
The Wildcats bounced back from a disappointing Week 1 loss to South Garner with a shutout win over a county rival.
Again, there are no offensive stats in MaxPreps for this one, but Chase Grice and Gavin Bullock each picked off two passes while Kaden Trotter posted 11 tackles and a sack. Grice ran one of his back for a score, and the game feed tells me that Ashton Tennesse scored a rushing touchdown.
As for the Spartans, the search for the first offensive points of the season will have to wait until Week 3.
It’s too early on a holiday morning for a rant on there not being information in MaxPreps, but I want to do it anyway…
East Duplin 42, Princeton 20
East Duplin and Princeton were deadlocked 6-6 after two quarters, but the homestanding Panthers sprinted away for the victory on the back of 346 rushing yards. Five of the six touchdowns came on the ground as well for East Duplin, which is now 2-0.
Teo McPhatter rushed for 145 yards and two scores while Gerell Bogle added 139 yards and another score for the Bulldogs (1-1).
Fike 20, South Johnston 17
I realize that the NFHS camera at South is automated, but can we point it at the scoreboard every now and again? I watched the last quarter of this one, when South (1-1) was unable to hold a late lead against the Demons (2-0).
The stat sheet in this one is interesting:
It was a game that the Trojans will feel they could have won, and based on what I saw, they’re probably correct.