news-record.com

GREENSBORO — Mycah Gaylord toted the ball 28 times for 185 yards, but his most important touch Friday night wasn’t even an official carry.

The Dudley senior running back plowed into the end zone for a two-point conversion with less than 3 minutes remaining to hand the top-ranked Panthers their first lead of the game and a 15-14 victory against host No. 6 Northern Guilford.

“Well, hey, you’ve got to live on the edge,” Dudley coach Steven Davis said about his decision to go for two. “If we would have kicked it and missed it, they would have got on me either way. So we took a chance.”

Dudley (3-0) quarterback Demetrius Dick zipped a 13-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Reynolds despite being leveled on the play, capping a 30-yard drive and setting the Panthers up for the game-winning conversion.

It didn’t look like Dudley’s night, at first.

Northern (2-1) took a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. T.J. Logan zig-zagged down the sideline for a 44-yard touchdown midway through the opening period, and a facemask call against Dudley set the Nighthawks up with a short field on the ensuing kickoff.

Northern took advantage of the field position by converting an onside kick and found the end zone again only a minute later when Daniel Downing rolled out and hit Maurice Harris with a 10-yard scoring pass.

“We left everything on the field,” Northern coach Johnny Roscoe said. “That’s all I can say.”

Dudley had a first-and-goal on the Northern 3-yard line late in the first quarter, but the Nighthawks defense held firm, turning the Panthers back on four consecutive plays.

Dudley also nearly scored on a long pass late in the first half, but Harris broke up the play at the last second, saving a likely touchdown.

“At halftime Coach pulled the seniors aside,” Gaylord said. “He told us all to look him in his eyes, and told us that we were going to win the game."

Dudley opened the second half by swallowing 80 yards on five plays. Gaylord scored on a 5-yard rush to cut the Panthers’ deficit to 14-7.

The Panthers ended the third quarter and chewed up a bulk of the fourth with a churning, 18-play, 83-yard drive than ended when Dick fumbled on the Northern 1-yard line.

“You have to learn to deal with adversity,” Gaylord said. “Yeah, we fumbled on the 1-yard line, but we knew we had time, we were going to get the ball back, and we bounced back from it.”

The Nighthawks, who were limited to just 50 yards of offense in the second half, went three-and-out after taking over on their goal line, setting Dudley up for its short game-winning drive.

“We had to get out of there,” Roscoe said. “We just couldn’t execute. ... Physically, they kind of wore us down a little bit.”

Dudley pounded the ball, rushing 49 times for 329 yards while converting 4 of 6 fourth-down attempts.

Northern also went through three quarterbacks. Starter Rocco Scarfone was unable to grip the ball after injuring his hand early in the game. Downing entered and played admirably, but left late in the fourth quarter with cramps. Harris began piloting the offense for the final drive, but gave way to Downing, who was still limping and took an 11-yard loss on second down.

Northern had 2½ minutes to get into field goal range after surrendering the lead, but only made it to midfield.

Contact Jason Wolf at 373-7034 or jason.wolf@news-record.com

NG—T.J. Logan 14 run, (Kris Gafford kick)

NG—Maurice Harris 10 pass from Daniel Downing, (Gafford kick)

D—Mycah Gaylord 5 run (Denzel Jones kick)

D—Jeremy Reynolds 13 pass from Demetrius Dick (Gaylord run)