Watauga grabs share of title with win over Rockets
By Steve Behr

sports@wataugademocrat.com

It’s been a long time since Watauga was at the top of the Northwestern 4-A Conference. In fact, it’s never happened.

Until Friday.

Watauga grabbed a share of the NWC championship with a businesslike 25-13 victory over A.C. Reynolds on a chilly night at Jack Groce Stadium. The victory gave the Pioneers (8-3, 5-1 NWC) a third of the league’s championship.

A.C. Rey-nolds (7-3, 5-1) and East Burke (10-1, 5-1) each also on a third. The Cavaliers beat Watauga, but lost to A.C. Reynolds during the season. East Burke will be the league’s No. 1 seed in the 4-AA playoffs.

Not only will Watauga be the NWC’s No. 1 seed for the 4-A bracket, the Pioneers are the No. 1 seed in the 4-A state playoffs. They’ll host NWC rival Alexander Central (4-7) in the first round this Friday.

Reynolds, seeded fifth in 4-A, hosts North Davidson. South Caldwell is the 4-A’s 13th seed and plays at No. 4 Purnell Swett.

East Burke, the No. 3 seed in the state 4-AA bracket, hosts North Mecklenburg.

It’s Watauga’s first conference championship as a 4-A team and the Pioneers’ first in any classification since 1981, when they were the league’s 3-A champions.

“When we upset Alexander two years ago, I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off, running around and going crazy,” Pioneers coach Adrian Snow said. “Now, we expect to win every night. Now to win a game like that, we say ‘good job, we should have won.’ Let’s be honest, how many times that’s happened here? Our kids expect to win, our coaches expect to win, our community expects to win and that’s what you need.”

The Pioneers can take comfort in the fact that they are the only NWC team to beat the Rockets two times in a row. Watauga slipped past Reynolds 24-23 in the third round of the 2006 4-A state playoffs.

In fact, no NWC team has beaten the Rockets during the regular season, expect in 2004 when they finished 2-4 in league.

A.C. Reynolds has won a share or the outright NWC championship in every year, except for 2004, since it joined the league in 2001. The Rockets even switched to a spread offense under first year coach Shane Laws in an effort to take advantage of their team speed.

But it was Watauga who dominated much of the game. Watauga outgained Reynolds 399-272 in total offense and converted 5-of-11 third downs.

Breitenstein finished with 200 yards on 30 carries and scored touchdown runs of 59 and 20 yards in the first quarter to stake the Pioneers to a 14-0 lead. The Pioneers went to the air for their next touchdown when Blake Beason found Baine Martin for a 33 yard touchdown pass.

“I didn’t even know I gained 200 yards,” Breitenstein said. “This was a complete team effort. Cam Steury, Adam Chiarolanzio, everybody played great. Blake came in and threw the ball great. I don’t even care about the 200 yards. That number up there — 25-13 — that’s what it’s all about, conference champs.”

The extra point was missed, but the Pioneers held a 20-0 halftime lead that the Rockets, a good second-half team, could never recover.

“Once we got rolling, we knew what they were going to do,” Chiarolanzio, who ran for 44 yards and passed for an additional 73, said. “We had good coaching, a good (offensive) line, good everything.”

Reynolds turned to its standout running back, Darius Spencer, to try to chip away at Watauga’s lead. The Rockets went 73 yards in 10 plays on a drive capped by a 27-yard run by Spencer to pull to within 20-7.

Spencer finished with 103 yards on 18 carries, but did not dominate the game like he is capable. However, he did have a 1-yard touchdown run called back on the Rockets’ first drive of the game because of a holding penalty. The Rockets failed to score again on the drive and Watauga took over at the Reynolds’ 25-yard line.

Reynolds finished with just 141 yards on the ground compared to 238 for Watauga. The Rockets also converted just 3-of-12 third downs.

“We know that he’s one of the best backs in the state,” Watauga cornerback Jordan Steward said of Spencer. “All week in practice we keyed on him. During the first drive we realized the speed he had, but throughout the game we contained him and did what we were supposed to do.”

In the fourth quarter, the Pioneers were backed up to their own goal line on a drive and was forced to punt. Reynolds took over at the Watauga 43-yard line, but Breitenstein intercepted an Alexander Wall pass at the Pioneers’ 2-yard line to stop the drive.

Watauga moved the ball to the Reynolds 44-yard line before the Pioneers’ drive stalled. However, on fourth down, Chiarolanzio’s quick kick pinned the Rockets at their own 8-yard line.

The Rockets were forced to punt, but the ball was snapped over Wall’s head for a safety, giving the Pioneers a 22-7 lead. After Martin returned the free kick 69 yards to the Rockets’ 10-yard line, Savva Kostis nailed a 24-yard field goal to put the Pioneers in front 25-7 with 9:45 left in the game.

“We saw that Rudy Cabral and his brother (Tony Cabral) and 91 (Athan Little) make 90 percent of the tackles on kickoffs,” Martin said. “If you can get them blocked, it will open up the field.”