The Asheboro football team gathers for its first playoff game in eight years Friday night at Greensboro Dudley. (Thadd Sanders / For Randolph Record)
The season ends for Southwestern Randolph and Asheboro in road losses
RAMSEUR – Lucas Smith ran for two touchdowns and made a scoring catch as Eastern Randolph opened the Class 1A state playoffs by blowing past visiting Swain County in a 49-0 victory Friday night.
Smith scored on runs of 1 and 45 yards and then caught a TD pass from No. 3.
Kobe Walker ran for touchdowns from 1 and 2 yards out. Jayden Spinks had a 10-yard touchdown run and Zeb Meadows scored on a 45-yard return of a fumble.
The fourth-seeded Wildcats (11-0) led 35-0 at halftime.
Next for Eastern Randolph is Friday night’s second-round game against No. 13 seed Cherokee (7-4), a 25-8 winner against No. 20 seed Winston-Salem Carver (4-7). Cherokee defeated Swain County 27-14 in late October.
No. 29 seed Swain County finished 1-10.
There were three shutouts recorded in the Class 1A West Region and all of those came from games in the top half of the bracket. Defending state champion Mount Airy and Starmount had the other shutouts.
Class 2-A
John Kirkpatrick threw two of his three touchdown passes to Tyshaun Goldston in a 30-13 victory against visiting East Gaston.
Randleman (9-2), which had a two-game losing streak end, pulled away from a 14-7 halftime lead with 16 points in the third quarter.
Next for the Tigers will be a home game against No. 13 seed Forest Hills (8-3), which beat No. 20 seed Lexington (7-4).
Kirkpatrick threw a 38-yard touchdown pass to Goldston for the game’s first points. The Tigers regained the lead with Goldston’s 36-yard pass to Goldston in the second quarter.
Kirkpatrick connected with Chase Farlow for a 14-yard scoring play to open the second-half scoring. Triston Chriscoe’s interception return for a touchdown extended the lead before Christian McLeod’s 32-yard field goal made it 30-7.
East Gaston ended up 4-7.
East Surry 19, Southwestern Randolph 7: At Pilot Mountain, the No. 27 seed Cougars couldn’t muster much offense.
Southwestern Randolph (6-5) cut into a 12-0 hole when Noah Stills scored in the second quarter.
Sixth-seeded East Surry (9-2) had the only points in the second half in the fourth quarter, returning a fumble for a touchdown.
Southwestern Randolph’s Davonte Dukes had 67 receiving yards on two catches.
Class 3-A
At Greensboro, the first playoff game in eight years didn’t go well for Asheboro, which lost 55-0 to fifth-seeded Greensboro Dudley (11-0).
No. 28 seed Asheboro’s season ended with a 4-7 record.
Only six teams that made the playoffs statewide this year had longer droughts of playoff appearances than the Blue Comets.
