By Richard Walker Sam Darnold’s return to action was a triumphant one for the Carolina Panthers as they defeated the Denver Broncos 23-10 on Sunday at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium. Out since the 2022 preseason finale, Darnold became the third starting quarterback for the Panthers this season and directed a run-heavy offensive attack to […]
By Richard Walker Gardner-Webb made history again on Saturday as the Runnin’ Bulldogs made their Football Championship Series (FCS) debut a successful one in a 52-41 win at Eastern Kentucky. G-W senior running back Narii Gaither rushed for a NCAA Division I school-record 245 yards with two touchdowns and senior quarterback Bailey Fisher rushed for […]
By Richard Walker One team from Cleveland, Gaston and Lincoln counties will have a shot at the state finals next week after Friday night’s Western semifinal action. And since East Lincoln will host South Point, one area team is guaranteed a spot in the state finals. Burns and South Point outlasted their opponents while East […]
By Richard Walker Arguably the biggest high school football game in area history will be held on Friday at Kings Mountain’s John Gamble Stadium when 13-0 unbeatens East Lincoln and host Kings Mountain meet in the Western N.C. 3A semifinals. It is the first time in history that teams from Cleveland, Gaston and Lincoln counties […]
By Richard Walker Gardner-Webb will set school history on Saturday in its 5 p.m. Football Championship Series (FCS) playoff game at Eastern Kentucky. It marks the Bulldogs’ first FCS playoff game and sixth national playoff game in its history. Previously, Gardner-Webb participated in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) playoffs twice – both times […]
By Richard Walker Conference champion Forestview received the most selections on the Big South 3A all-conference soccer team with six. Top individual honors went to North Gaston’s Braydon Johnson (offensive player of the year), Joan Bonilla (goalie of the year) and Jonathan Reed (coach of the year) and South Point’s Graham Williams (defensive player of […]
By Richard Walker New Charlotte 49ers head football coach Francis “Biff” Poggi was officially introduced to fans and the media on Monday. And Poggi talked about the 49ers and College Football Playoff. “The American Athletic Conference is an unbelieveable league,” Poggi said. “It’s the best ‘Group of 5’ conference in the country. As the College […]
By Richard Walker One of the area’s most prominent softball players recently received arguably the highest honor he has ever received with induction into the 41st annual National Softball Hall of Fame. Kings Mountain’s Rusty Bumgardner was among 11 inductees on Nov. 12 in a ceremony held in Shreveport, La. A 1987 Kings Mountain High […]
By Richard Walker Gardner-Webb rallied from an early deficit to beat North Carolina A&T on Saturday to wrap up the school’s first Big South Conference title since 2003 and the Bulldogs’ first FCS playoff berth in school history. Gardner-Webb (6-5) enters the FCS playoffs on a four-game winning streak. Down 14-10 early in the second […]
By Richard Walker It was a nailbiting finish in three of the area’s four high school football playoff games on Friday night as Burns, Kings Mountain and South Point took dramatic victories. Burns scored the game-winning touchdown with 1:30 to play in a 24-20 win over visiting Salisbury, Kings Mountain scored with 6.7 seconds left […]
By Richard Walker Boys basketball teams from Crest and Bessemer City and girls basketball teams from Ashbrook and Bessemer City are the choices of their rival coaches to win the Big South 3A and Southern Piedmont 1A/2A conference titles this year. Crest’s boys enter the season after back-to-back unbeaten first-place seasons in the Big South […]
By Richard Walker Entering this year’s state high school football playoffs, there was a sense that Cleveland County teams could have a special year. After all, it was the fifth straight season all four teams had made the playoffs. Entering Friday’s third round, it’s yet another banner year for the county – and has a […]
By Richard Walker After finishing with the best regular season record in the 2022 Atlantic League of Professional Baseball schedule, the Gastonia Honey Hunters have announced their 2023 schedule. The Honey Hunters won both halves of the Southern Division races with records of 45-21 in the first half and 43-23 in the second half beofe […]
By Richard Walker Former Huss standout Cress Worthy is a preseason All-CIAA selection at Fayetteville State. A senior guard, Worthy was named first team All-CIAA in the 2021-22 season when he averaged 14.8 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.1 assists in 30 games (28 starts) for the Broncos. The 2017 Huss graduate is one of several […]
By Richard Walker Perhaps the strangest Charlotte 49ers’ football season in the school’s 10-year history comes to an end on Saturday in what promises to be an emotional 3:30 p.m. matchup against Louisiana Tech. Five graduate players, 13 redshirt seniors and two true seniors will be honored before the game in their home finale which […]
By Richard Walker The Charlotte 49ers have a new head football coach. The school announced Tuesday afternoon that University of Michigan associate head coach Francis “Biff” Poggi has agreed to become the school’s fourth football and third fulltime hire. Poggi, pronounced POE-jee, is currently in his third season with the unbeaten Wolverines and is considered […]
By Richard Walker Gardner-Webb has a chance at history this Saturday in its regular season finale that has become a championship game for the Big South Conference. The Bulldogs, who started the season 1-4 against a challenging schedule, have bounced back win four wins in the last five games of the season for a shot […]
By Richard Walker North Carolina clinched its spot in the upcoming ACC championship game on Saturday night one week after Clemson wrapped up its spot. In the final year of divisional play, each team enters the final two weeks of the regular season with unbeaten league records; North Carolina is 6-0 in the ACC’s Coastal […]
By Richard Walker Gardner-Webb is one win away from the school’s first ever Football Championship Series (FCS) playoff berth after a 42-35 win at Campbell on Saturday. The Bulldogs (5-5, 4-0) will host North Carolina A&T (7-3, 4-0) for the Big South Conference championship next Saturday at noon and an automatic FCS playoff berth. In […]
By Richard Walker Kings Mountain continued their school-best start to a season with an impressive 42-0 win over Smoky Mountain on Friday in the second round of the N.C. Class 3A state playoffs. The Mountaineers, now 12-0, got three touchdown passes from Lamont Littlejohn – two to Caleb Holland and one to JaQualyn Sanders – […]
By Richard Walker Burns defied history Thursday with an impressive 42-0 win over visiting rival Shelby in the second round of the N.C. Class 2A playoffs on Thursday night. The Bulldogs moved on to third round of the playoffs as they beat Shelby for the second time in three weeks. It marks only the third […]
By Richard Walker When Shelby visits Burns in a second round playoff game on Thursday in the N.C. 2A bracket, it’ll continue a Golden Lions’ tradition that proved quite successful. It’s because Shelby is facing a team in the postseason that it has played in the regular season for the 28th time. Since in-season improvement […]
By Richard Walker Seventeen players from Cleveland and Gaston counties are on the roster of the West team for the 2022 Queen City Senior Bowl. The game will be played on Dec. 17 at noon at Charlotte’s Olympic High School and pits Charlotte-area players divided by East and West against one another. The local players […]
By Richard Walker A pair of Lincoln County high school soccer teams have advanced to the Western N.C. semifinals after Monday night victories. East Lincoln defeated St. Stephens 3-1 in Class 3A, giving the Mustangs (18-4-3) a fourth round appearance for the fourth time in fifth seasons; East Lincoln will play at top-seeded Asheboro on […]
By Richard Walker After a home win and heartbreaking defeat in the previous two weeks, there were lots of reasons for Carolina Panthers’ fans to harbor hopes of another good effort from their team on Sunday. Instead, the Panthers had one of their worst efforts in franchise history in a 42-21 loss at the defending […]
By Richard Walker Before last week’s heartbreaking 37-34 overtime loss at the Atlanta Falcons, the Carolina Panthers’ fans had visions of 2014 dancing in their heads. Those ideas will remain this week when the Panthers visit the Cincinnati Bengals for the first time since… you guessed it… 2014! Back then, Carolina bounced back from a […]
By Richard Walker Shelby High set a state record on Friday in its 30-13 opening round Class 2A state playoff victory at Forest Hills. The Golden Lions have now won 28 straight first round state playoff games to snap a tie they had shared with Thomasville (1982-2012) and Crest (1993-2019). Shelby has won opening round […]
By Richard Walker As the N.C. High School Athletic Association playoffs begin on Friday, it marks the 13th time in history – and fourth year in a row – that all four Cleveland County teams are in the state football playoffs. The previous 12 years came in 1997, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2016, […]
By Richard Walker Former Shelby High star Dax Hollifield was named Defender of the Nation on Monday by the Charlotte Touchdown Club. Hollifield, a sixth-year senior at Virginia Tech, won an award that goes to players from the nation’s service academies and senior military colleges that include Air Force, Army West Point, The Citadel, Coast […]
By Richard Walker A week ago, it appeared the Charlotte 49ers’ football program was in disarray. Not only had the 49ers’ head coach Will Healy been fired, but the team’s statistical rankings were all at the bottom of the conference and nation. And they had a 1-7 overall record and 0-4 Conference USA record after […]
By Richard Walker Two days after an overtime victory over the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors, the Charlotte Hornets appeared in great position to win a second straight contest that would give them a winning record for the first month of the season. Instead, a 15-point halftime lead wasn’t enough for Charlotte to hold […]
By Richard Walker In their 28-year history, the Carolina Panthers have had their share of heartbreaking losses. Sunday’s 37-34 overtime loss at Atlanta has to rank right up there as one of the most heartbreaking. The Panthers fell to 8-20 all-time in Atlanta in a game in which it held a fourth-quarter lead and were […]
By Richard Walker Perhaps the Carolina Panthers’ struggles on the road against division rival Atlanta can be summed up in the franchise’s first game. With a team that would finish with a 7-9 overall record that remains the best of any expansion team in NFL history, the historic opener saw a thrilling comeback that ended […]
By Richard Walker Kings Mountain and Burns won county rival regular season finales to clinch unbeaten conference title runs on Friday night. Kings Mountain won 35-20 at Crest and Burns knocked off visiting Shelby 27-14. It gives Kings Mountain an unbeaten regular season (10-0) and a likely No. 1 seed in the Western 3A bracket […]
By Richard Walker Two of the biggest rivalries in Gaston County history will highlight a schedule that ends the 2022 regular season. And part of why they’re such huge rivalries is that they are huge even when a league title isn’t on the line. Bessemer City against Cherryville is the oldest of the two rivalries […]
By Richard Walker Shelby avenged its only loss of the season on Wednesday in a 28-0 win over visiting R-S Central in the Tri-County Conference middle school football championship game at Shelby High School. The Blue Devils, who had lost 26-20 at R-S Central on Sept. 14 in the regular season, won their last six […]
By Richard Walker Former high school teammates will be on opposite sides of a nationally-televised ACC game on Thursday night at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN when N.C. State hosts Virginia Tech. For N.C. State (5-2, 1-2), Jaylon Scott (Shelby 2019 graduate) has 15 tackles in seven games. And for Virginia Tech (2-5, 1-3), Dax Hollifield […]
By Richard Walker Former Piedmont Community Charter and Kings Mountain High standout Adrian Delph was selected last weekend as the No. 22 overall pick in the G League Draft. Delph, who played collegiately at Appalachian State, was selected by the College Park Skyhawks; College Park is the G League affiliate of the Atlanta Hawks’ organization. […]
By Richard Walker One of the oldest axioms in the National Football League is that NFL says that any team can win on “Any Given Sunday.” After a second straight turbulent week on and off the field, the Carolina Panthers proved that Sunday with an unexpected 21-3 blowout loss of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and […]
By Richard Walker Tom Brady makes his sixth and possibly final appearance at Charlotte’s Bank of America Stadium on Sunday as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers make their annual trip to the city. Brady is 3-2 all time at Carolina entering the 1 p.m. game against the struggling Panthers and is 6-3 all time in nine […]
By Richard Walker Cleveland County rivalries will determine the champions of two leagues in next Friday’s regular season finales after all four of the county’s teams took big wins on Friday night. Unbeaten Kings Mountain will travel to Crest in the Big South 3A Conference while defending state champion Shelby travels to in the Southern […]
By Richard Walker East Lincoln and Kings Mountain have historically enjoyed high school football success. They’ve also finished with unbeaten regular seasons. Both are 8-0 overall entering Friday’s games, which makes them two wins shy of accomplishing a feat that has led to great success in each program’s history. East Lincoln has had three unbeaten […]
By Richard Walker After a turbulent offseason, an 0-5 preseason and the injury to All-Star guard LaMelo Ball, expectations were mighty low for the Charlotte Hornets entering Wednesday’s 2022-23 regular season opener at San Antonio. The Hornets responded with a fast start that they maintained for a 129-102 victory over the Spurs. It improved Charlotte […]
By Richard Walker Alec Burleson’s magical year continued recently when he was named Memphis Redbirds’ 2022 player of the year. Burleson, who in September became the first major leaguer in East Lincoln history, was selected by the Cardinal Nation website that is dedicated to supporting the St. Louis Cardinals’ baseball team. A 2017 East Lincoln […]
By Richard Walker Belmont Middle School set a school record for the best overall mark in school history at 8-0 after a dramatic 27-26 win over Holbrook on Monday at South Point High’s Lineberger Stadium, a new champion will be crowned. It was Belmont’s sixth county title and first since 2016. Holbrook, in its first […]
By Richard Walker The Carolina Panthers had a fast start in the Steve Wilks era. Unfortunately, a halftime lead wasn’t enough for the visitors as the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams rallied for a 24-10 victory over the Panthers on Sunday. And a sideline issue between wide receiver Robbie Anderson and wide receivers […]
By Richard Walker As a player, Steve Wilks quarterbacked West Charlotte to the 1986 N.C. 4A state title game, helped Appalachian State into 1989 and 1991 NCAA Division I-AA playoffs as a defensive back and played for one of the city’s first professional teams – the Charlotte Rage of the Arena Football League. As a […]
By Richard Walker Kings Mountain and East Lincoln improved to 8-0 on the season with large wins on Friday night. Kings Mountain won 63-24 at Cramer as Teddy Jeffries tied a school record with five touchdowns. Jeffries tied the five touchdowns scored by Kenny Bell (1977 against Burns), Joe Chambers (2008 against East Gaston), Da’Shon […]
By Richard Walker Cherryville American Legion Post 100 has had a tough last couple of weeks. Just this past week, a former star baseball player and a former player and longtime baseball official have died. It comes a month after longtime Fraley Field scoreboard operator Darise Hartman died at 89 on Sept. 15 Former star […]
By Richard Walker The Charlotte Hornets begin the 2022-23 season with more questions than answers. A season of great uncertainty comes after head coach James Borrego was fired after guiding the team to a 43-39 record last season. It’s the first time in franchise history, a coach was fired after having a winning record but […]
By Richard Walker When South Point visits Ashbrook on Friday, it’ll renew the third-oldest rivalry in Gaston County. Originally started in 1924 as the Belmont-Gastonia rivalry, Friday’s renewal also gives us a chance to recall the first Ashbrook-South Point contest – and the buildup it received. Entering that 1975 meeting on Oct. 3, Ashbrook was […]
By Richard Walker When Belmont and Holbrook meet for the Gaston County Conference football championship at 6 p.m. at South Point High’s Lineberger Stadium, a new champion will be crowned. Belmont is seeking its sixth title and first since 2016, while Holbrook is seeking its fifth title and first since 1995. Coached by Carey Galbreath, […]
By Richard Walker Shelby High’s Aubrey Hollifield will set local high school football history when he’s an assistant coach for the North Carolina team in the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas on Dec. 17 at Spartanburg, S.C., High’s Vikings Stadium. Hollifield, who played in the 1986 Shrine Bowl game as a Kings Mountain senior, will […]
By Richard Walker Did the Carolina Panthers make the right move in firing Matt Rhule on Monday? The most passionate of the team’s fans – many of whom stayed away or have sold their tickets to rival fans – would offer an empatic ‘Yes!’ to owner David Tepper’s decision on Monday morning. It marks the […]
By Richard Walker Two Cleveland County and Lincoln County players and one from Gaston County were named to the roster of the North Carolina team for the 2022 Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas team on Sunday. The event, which has been cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, will return this year on […]
By Richard Walker The power of 30 is a real thing in Carolina Panthers history. The number is a reference to rushing attempts. And the success/failure rates are quite simple: Run the football 30 or more times and usually win or run less than 30 times and lose. In the Panthers’ 28-year history, the team […]
By Richard Walker Kings Mountain improved to 7-0 with a 31-20 win over visiting South Point on Friday. The Mountaineers’ Lamont Littlejohn passed for 227 yards and one touchdown and Calbe Holland, Robert Kendrick and A.J. Littlejohn added TD runs. South Point (6-1) got two TD runs from Cam Medlock and a touchdown pass from […]
By Richard Walker When Kings Mountain hosts South Point on Friday, it’ll renew a rivalry that is one of the oldest in each school’s history. A series that began in 1924 will have some high stakes as the winner will take sole possession of first place in the league with three games to play. Belmont/South […]
By Richard Walker The 2022 Gaston County Conference middle school football championship game has been set after an upset in Division I. Unbeaten Belmont (7-0) will host Holbrook (5-1) next Wednesday at 6 p.m. with gates opening at South Point’s Lineberger Stadium at 5:15 p.m. Belmont recorded its fifth straight shutout to finish 5-0 in […]
By Richard Walker Cramerton won its fifth Gaston County Conference middle school golf championship in six seasons on Tuesday at Green Meadows Golf Course in Mount Holly. Belmont’s Will Monteith was the individual medalist for the second straight year with a 37 that was one shot ahead of five other golfers in the field. Cramerton […]