A close first half contest turned lopsided after intermission as second-half turnovers helped Newton-Conover roll to a 36-7 victory over Maiden on Friday.

    “Our kids woke up in the second half. It is the same thing we have been dealing with all year — the first-half blahs. I don’t know why we would have that against Maiden,” Newton-Conover head coach Nick Bazzle said. “Maiden had a lot to do with that. They always play us at a higher level than they do anybody else, and we just ran into a good football team in the first half.”

    “Coach pushed us and told us to get motivated to win this game, because it means so much to our fans and our community,” Newton-Conover defensive back Aubrey Farley said. “He told us we have got to pick up our game.”

    The Red Devils picked up their game from the second half’s outset. They marched 66 yards in six plays and took a 14-point lead when A.J. Bazzle rushed one yard to score. The touchdown was set up by a peculiar fumble play where Newton-Conover’s Josh Thompson dropped the ball on a rush up the middle. A scrum ensued before the Red Devils’ Shea Corpening made a recovery and a 22-yard run toward the goal line. Bazzle scored a play later.

    The turnover was one of eight in the contest, but while the ball bounced right for the Red Devils, Maiden’s team wasn’t so lucky.

    “It just got away from us,”  Maiden head coach Brian Brown said. “The turnovers hurt us, they got some big plays, and it just got away from us.”

    Newton-Conover’s Paul Forney extended the lead to 21-0 with a 20-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter, and from there the turnover-driven floodgates opened.

    On Maiden’s next possession, the Red Devils’ Jordan Gibbs blocked a punt which Farley recovered and carried 10 yards into the end zone. Then in the fourth quarter, Forney intercepted a Justin Sizemore pass and returned it 53 yards and deep into Maiden territory.

    “Paul Forney made some noise,” Bazzle said. “He had a big hit on a kickoff, returned an interception almost all the way for a touchdown. He ran the ball and scored a touchdown, and he had 10-11 tackles, I imagine. He is just a heck of a good football  player.”

    One play after Forney’s interception, Newton-Conover’s Jones rushed for his second score of the night. For the game, he rushed for 139 yards on 13 carries, and his second score put Newton-Conover ahead 36-0.
“We did great on offense and defense,” Forney said. “We’ve just got to keep working hard.”

    Maiden scored late when Jordan Shade made a 5-yard rush across the goal line. The score was set up by two fourth-down conversions by the Blue Devils. Shade finished the game with 119 yards on 19 carries. Maiden’s quarterback Sizemore completed nine passes for 142 yards on 17 attempts.

    The loss drops Maiden to 1-3, and it marks the second straight Catawba Valley Athletic Conference game where the Blue Devils were defeated.

    “We just put it on the ground too much tonight. We’ve got to regroup,” Brown said. “We’ve got Hickory and Hibriten coming up. We’ve got to toughen up, pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and get ready to go because it only gets tougher.”

    While Jones led the Red Devils’ rushers, Bazzle added 42 yards on 11 rushes, and Josh Thompson carried the ball six times for 48 yards.

    Now, undefeated Newton-Conover eyes a match-up next week against the undefeated Fred T. Foard Tigers.
“They are big and they are fast this year. They have a speed element they haven’t had in a while, so it will be a tough one,” Bazzle said. “Right  now I am going to enjoy this one because it feels good.”

    “Feeling good” ends Monday, however.

    “It all starts Monday,” Farley said. “We are going to practice hard every day, and if we can get started on Monday, I think we can take care of them.”