Robbinsville halted in Western finale

Robbinsville – The Black Knights saw their magical run to the 1A Western Regional finals come to a heartbreaking end Friday against the defending state champions.

Trailing 17-16 as the contest entered the fourth quarter, Robbinsville (No. 1, 13-2) was held in-check by Mount Airy (No. 2, 15-0) for the remaining 12 minutes, while the Granite Bears used a fumble recovery to score an early strike and Walker Stroup punctuated the final outcome with his second field goal of the evening (a 22-yarder) with 42 seconds remaining, to send Mount Airy back to the dance, 27-16.

Playing their 11th home game of the season, the Knights seemingly held all the momentum in their hands after a Mount Airy misfortune in the third. An errant snap sailed past Bears gunslinger Ian Gallimore and in the scrum that followed, Kage Williams delivered a devastating blow that stunned Gallimore long enough for Chase Calhoun to scoop up the delivery and sprint 24 yards. Cuttler Adams then powered across the goal line to edge Robbinsville ahead, 16-14.

The flurry proved to be the Black Knights’ final score of the season.

In the nightcap – which came after a day mostly filled with rain across Graham County, leaving fog in the Friday night air and sloppy conditions along the sidelines – both sides struggled with ball control.

Robbinsville’s undoing came thanks to a pair of fumble recoveries, as the previously-mentioned bobble in the fourth was the second of the game.

Both times, Mount Airy recovered the errant ball and cashed in.

In fact, the Bears broke the defense monotony from both programs – neither team had a first down until the second quarter, as a prime example – when Caleb Reid accepted the free gift at the Mount Airy 30. Tyler Mason later drove in a 9-yard touchdown with 5:26 to go in the first half for the Granite Bears.

Robbinsville had the last laugh of the segment, however: Adams barely had to reach for a picturesque Donovan Carpenter loft and turned on the jets to score on a 71-yard reception with 2:26 left in the second. Carpenter dove into the end zone to give the Black Knights an 8-7 lead; Bryce Adams soon recovered a fumble when Darion Ledbetter stripped the ball loose from Mason just before the pause.

Mount Airy needed just two plays to find paydirt in the third, which was aided immensely by Mason taking a Gallimore pitch 45 yards on the first play from scrimmage. The Gallimore keeper that followed was enough to push the Granite Bears back ahead.

Stroup was a perfect 3-for-3 on PATs in the game; his fourth-quarter field goal was also his second, as a 33-yard attempt split the uprights with 16 seconds left in the third to give the Bears a lead they would not relinquish.

Mason ran his single-season rushing tally to 2,037 in the game, hammering out 145 yards; Taeshon Martin posted 104 rushing yards for Mount Airy.

Cuttler Adams finished with 57 yards on 19 touches for Robbinsville and did not score a rushing touchdown for the first time since the Knights’ only regular-season loss of the campaign, a 36-0 shutout against Rabun Gap, Ga., on Sept. 22. Adams’ historic, high-school rushing career ends with 6,844 yards in the books, which places him 14th all-time in North Carolina.

Mount Airy will once again face the No. 1 East seed, the Tarboro Vikings (13-0) in the 1A title game, which will be held at noon Saturday, Dec. 9 at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Kenan Memorial Stadium.

Look for more coverage in the Dec. 7 edition of The Graham Star.