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Mount Airy races past East Surry
Cardinals slow Bears' ground game, but are burned by big pass plays
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Published: November 7, 2009
PILOT MOUNTAIN
Mount Airy flexed a different set of muscles last night and wrapped up its second straight unbeaten regular season with a resounding 30-6 win over East Surry that locked up the Bears' third straight conference championship.
On a chilly night, East Surry's defense made the Bears somewhat one-dimensional. But the other dimension to Mount Airy's offense, the passing game, was working just fine.
Justin Collier caught six passes for 176 yards and three touchdowns as the Bears (11-0) won their 26th straight game and locked up the Northwest 2-A/1-A title.
East Surry limited Mount Airy to 112 rushing yards, but the Cardinals (10-1, 7-1) were unable to contain Collier or the Bears' explosive passing game.
"They are good," Coach Kelly Holder of Mount Airy said. "They are really good on defense. They stuffed our run quite a bit and they went man coverage and put eight in the box and they are good on defense. We beat a good team tonight and I was proud of our effort."
Mount Airy, which forced five East Surry punts in the first half, took a 3-0 lead on Tyler Hull's 21-yard field goal early in the second quarter, and pushed the margin to 10-0 later in the quarter when Collier's 29-yard reception from Ben Hinson set up Luke Wheeler's 1-yard touchdown run.
But the killer blow for East came on Mount Airy's last possession of the half. Mount Airy, which did most of its rushing damage running Wheeler out of the Wildcat formation, faced a second and 25 from its 45 when Wheeler took a direct snap, but instead of running, hit Collier on a perfectly thrown pass over the middle that went 55 yards for a touchdown, leading to a 17-0 lead.
It was a play Holder put into the offense this week.
"Really, that play was like for a second and short," Holder said. "You don't work on that every week."
Hunter Diamont of East, the son of Coach Dave Diamont, was moved from quarterback to tailback in the second half -- Logan Hoosier came in at quarterback -- and the Cardinals offense moved the ball more effectively. Diamont finished with 120 of East's 147 rushing yards.
But it was a move that was made too late, Dave Diamont said.
"I probably should have gotten conservative from the get-go and turned around and given the ball to the tailback, but I tried to get fancy and it blew up," Dave Diamont said. "I thought they passed the ball extremely well, they did an excellent job of moving Collier around and we made some mistakes in coverage and they burned us with it. I thought our run defense was very good all night long."
East got on the board in the fourth quarter when Hoosier hit Andrew Hunter on a 41-yard touchdown pass.
Hinson, who completed 9 of 12 passes for 166 yards, connected on touchdown passes of 64 and eight yards to Collier in the second half for the Bears.
mlinker@wsjournal.com. | 727-7324
Mount Airy 0 17 13 0 -- 30
East Surry 0 0 0 6 -- 6
MA – Hull 21 FG
MA – Wheeler 1 run (Hull kick)
MA Collier 55 pas from Wheeler (Hull kick)
MA – Collier 64 pass from Hinson (kick failed)
MA – Collier 8 pass from Hinson (Hull kick)
ES – Hunter 41 pass from Hoosier (kick failed)
Records – Mount Airy 11-0 (8-0), East Surry 10-1 (7-1)
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