Pender (Burgaw) beat
Hobbton (Newton Grove) 106-83 last Friday in the highest-scoring game in North Carolina high school football history. The score is crazy but stats submitted to MaxPreps shed additional light on just how wild this one was even before the lights went out with a minute remaining.
Pender ran the ball 76 times for 912 yards and 14 touchdowns, only attempting two passes. Why bother when you are tearing off 12 yards per play keeping it on the ground?
The Patriots were led by junior running back
Jeremiah Johnson, who ran 44 times for 377 yards and six touchdowns. Fellow junior
Jassiah Hill added 291 yards on the ground with six trips to the end zone.
According to the
MaxPreps National High School Football Record Book, Pender's 915 offensive yards are the 12th highest total in history. The national record for rushing yards in a game is held by
Meadville (Pa.), who went for 1,004 in a 2015 contest.
Pender junior Jeremiah Johnson ran 44 times for 377 yards and six touchdowns Friday night, part of a 912-yard rushing performance for the Patriots. (File photo: John Ball)
"I'm pretty tired," Pender coach Tom Eanes told the
Wilmington Star-News after the game. "It was a heck of a ball game, I don't know if we could tackle anybody."
It's a safe bet the Hobbton defense was too. But the Wildcat offense had it's fair share of success as well.
Senior quarterback
Cole Weeks was 14 of 27 for 400 yards and six touchdowns while junior running back
Daniel Aguilar rushed for 270 yards and four scores on 24 carries. Weeks and
Garret Britt each found the end zone on the ground as well.
Ashawd Wynn was Weeks' favorite target on the evening with 250 yards receiving and five TDs on nine catches. Britt added a score on four catches for 127 yards.
All told, Pender and Hobbton combined for 1,633 offensive yards according to statistics submitted to MaxPreps.
This wasn't the first time Pender (4-3) put up video-game numbers this season as the Patriots handed Lejeune (Camp Lejeune) an 88-34 loss in the opener. They were on the wrong side of a wild one last week in a 65-36 loss to East Bladen (Elizabethtown).
Hobbton (3-4) also has shown the ability to score in bunches with a 64-14 win in September over Spring Creek (Seven Springs).
Set in 2016, the previous NCHSAA state record was
D.H. Conley (Greenville) beating
C.B. Aycock (Pikeville) 83-68.
