The joyous crowd had all gone home and the Montgomery Central visitor’s bus had just faded away into the darkness when DeVante Pettiford walked up the empty bleachers.
In his heart, the young Orange football head coach is still defensive oriented. Shutouts don’t come as often inside Auman Stadium as they used to, so he wanted to savor this one as long as he could.
With a rare moment of solitude, he pulled out his phone and took a shot of the scoreboard that read “Orange 22, Visitors 0” before athletic director Jason Knapp shut down the lights.
During a week where his team could barely hold practices outside because of the oppressive heat, Pettiford was concerned that Montgomery’s split back offensive system would give his team fits.
Instead, Pettiford’s Panthers put together its most complete performance in its final non-conference game, holding the Timberwolves to a season-low 95 yards total offense in a 22-0 win at Auman Stadium.
In the midst of the stifling defense, promising Orange freshman Kayden Bradsher had his coming out party, scoring three touchdowns. His opening rushing touchdown from 12 yards out with 4:17 remaining in the first quarter put Orange ahead for good.
“He is a pure athlete no matter what he does,” Pettiford said of Bradsher. “Football, basketball and baseball, he’s just a pure talent. In our first jamboree (in Siler City), he had a great catch for a touchdown. I saw it then. Let’s look past all the talent. Kayden is a leader. I have seniors that won’t speak up. Kayden speaks up.”
Bradsher was Orange’s leading receiver with a career-high six catches for 58 yards and two touchdowns.
The Panther defense forced five turnovers, the first of which came on a fumble recovery by senior linebacker Jayden Medley, who pounced on the ball coughed up by quarterback Aidan Goodman. Orange had several opportunities to add on to its 6-0 lead throughout the first quarter, starting drives in Timberwolf real estate twice to no avail.
Orange won a battle of field position thanks to punter Tyler Narold, who enjoyed a big all-around night. Late in the second quarter, Narold blasted a 47-yard punt to pin the Timberwolves back to its 6-yard line. After a sack by DeAndre Brown for a six-yard loss, Orange quarterback Hank Nunnery found running back Nate Sorrells for a 40-yard gain off a swing pass, tackled at the doorstep of the goal line. On 3rd-and-goal from the Timberwolf 3-yard line, Nunnery extended the play long enough to find Bradsher in the left corner of the end zone. Harold’s extra point gave Orange a 13-0 halftime lead.
Montgomery Central (3-1), who scored a combined 151 points in wins over J.F. Webb, Carrboro and East Chapel Hill, was held to ten yard total offense at halftime.
“I actually was a bit worried because we weren’t able to practice outside all week,” Pettiford said. “We practiced in the gym every day this week and I was worried because this is a different style of offense. They have some option, they have some veer-type tendencies. You never know how it’s going to be until its full speed. I think taking that time back grew the hunger within us and got us more locked in.”
Montgomery Central got into its only offensive rhythm at the outset of the second half when they morphed into a wishbone offense, leading to consecutive first down runs by running back Brandon Powell. They advanced to the Orange 31-yard line before Narold nearly picked off a pass in the end zone. After Powell was tackled by Daylin Ford and Brown for three yards on 3rd-and-15, Goodman lost the ball as he attempted to throw on the run. Jaylin Starks recovered the fumble.
With Orange leading 13-0, it appeared the Panthers had squandered another chance to extend its lead after Brown was wrestled down for no gain on 3rd-and-10. In a bizarre sequence, Narold punted the ball out of bounds at the Montgomery 3-yard line, but the Timberwolves were called for a personal foul while the ball was rolling dead, extending the Orange drive. On 4th-and-4, Nunnery found Bradsher along the near sideline at the 20-yard line. Bradsher split between two linebackers up the field and raced into the end zone for his third touchdown.
Orange forced three turnovers in the fourth quarter. Garrett Sawyer picked off an Andrews pass with 11:42 remaining in the fourth quarter. After the Timberwolves Jayshawn Stewart recorded a fumble, a Montgomery snap slipped through punter James Andrews hands for a safety, extending the Orange lead to 22-0.
Narold picked off a pass on the Timberwolves final offensive play.
“This was assignment football tonight,” Pettiford said. “Last week (against Vance County), we made dumb mistakes. Our defensive line wasn’t attacking. We had the wrong shoulder pulls. We didn’t flow. We made day one mistakes. This week, we honed in on those things that we fixed and we locked in. When everybody does their job, tonight is the outcome.”
ORANGE 22, MONTGOMERY CENTRAL 0
MC–0 0 0 0-0
OR–6 7 7 2-22
ORA–Kayden Bradsher 12 run (kick failed)
ORA–Bradsher 3 pass from Hank Nunnery (Tyler Narold kick)
ORA–Bradsher 29 pass from Nunnery (Narold kick)
ORA-safety, ball snapped out of end zone.
RUSHING: MONTGOMERY CENTRAL 32-35 (Brandon Powell 10-62, Nytavis Powell 12-23, Jayshawn Stewart 1-2, Aidan Goodman 5-(-26). team 4-(-22).
ORANGE: 22-46 TD (Nate Sorrells 12-25, Jaylan Starks 5-6, Bradsher 1-12 TD, DeAndre Brown 4-3)
PASSING: MONTGOMERY CENTRAL (ANDERSON 4-12 56 Yards INT, Noah Rodriguez 0-1)
ORANGE (Nunnery 14-25 166 2 TD, INT)
RECEIVING: MONTGOMERY CENTRAL (Brandon Weiss 2-5, RaRa Jemison 1-50, N. Powell 1-1)
ORANGE: (Bradsher 6-58 2 TD, Sorrells 3-57, Daylin Ford 3-24, Brandon Cummings 2-27)