Vance crushed Myers Park to reach state final riding a sophomore RB. Remember his name.
Vance High’s Daylan Smothers, just a sophomore, got six Power 5 Division I scholarship offers this week:
Boston College, Michigan State, N.C. State, Penn State, South Carolina and Wake Forest.
Friday night, Smothers — again — showed why all those colleges are courting him so hard, and why he’s one of the best high school football players in North Carolina, regardless of what grade you’re talking about.
Last week, in a 24-10 win over Hough in the state quarterfinals, Smothers had two take-your-breath-away scoring runs that proved the difference in a close game. In Friday’s 42-7 state semifinal win over Myers Park, Smothers was just as good. He has this habit of making fast cuts and changes of directions opponents can’t really deal with — and then they can’t catch him.
He showed that again Friday in south Charlotte.
Smothers has an electronically timed 4.42-second 40-yard dash on his resume, which is even fast for a college senior.
He used that speed and that vision en route to 13 carries for 170 yards and two touchdowns against Myers Park. He also caught two passes for 27 yards, including a pretty one-handed snag that turned a sure punt into a first down. Smothers’ “Hollywood” nickname (and Twitter handle) seems to fit.
“I’m just trying to get the win, you know,” Smothers said. “It starts in practice with my teammates and all of us working hard. We’ve been doing that and hitting the weight room hard like we always do with (assistant) coach (Montis) Lash.”
Cougars head coach Glenwood Ferebee sees Smothers every day but still marvels at what the young teenager can do Friday nights.
“He’s special,” Ferebee said. “The scary thing is he’s got two years left. Two years left! He’s a special kid and a special human being. He’s not an arrogant kid. He’s a teammate first and that’s why he’s not selfish. Now he gets frustrated sometimes, but he understands he has other teammates that can run the ball as well, and when we put all three in (Smothers, Joseph Morris, Asauni Allen), they can pose some real problems for the defense.”
The Vance High sackmaster
Vance High junior James Pearce, 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds, was a headache for Myers Park all night. He got a couple of offside penalties early, trying to time his rushes off the end.
He eventually got his timing right, and picked up three sacks.
“I did what my coach told me to do,” Pearce said. “I feel like we’ve got a job to do: Go 1-0 every week. Now we’ve got one more week. Coach said we work hard every day in practice and show up and work hard in the game. He said he would show us the way. So we knew if we showed up and worked hard, we could do some things. But we’re not going to celebrate this one too much. We’ll start working hard Monday and getting ready.”
Rolesville QB has a heroic night
Rolesville High QB Byrum Brown suffered a leg injury early in his team’s 24-21 double-overtime win over Wake Forest. Brown played three quarters hurt and drew a lot of praise on social media afterward.
▪ Brown, Smothers and Kings Mountain’s Javari Rice-Wilson are all finalists for the Charlotte Observer/News & Observer’s “High School Heisman” Award, which will be handed out on the Talking Preps streaming show Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. You can watch on either news outlet’s YouTube or Facebook page.
Quick Links
Vance overpowers Myers Park, reaches third straight final
Butler did enough to beat Grimsley, except on four plays
Catholic stops Monroe, going for 4
Rolesville, which plays Vance, overcomes Wake Forest in OT
NC statewide scores, state championship schedule
NC, CMS athletes can take off masks outdoors; CMS fans cannot
Photo galleries
Friday’s #BIG5 Top Performers
Connor Dougherty, Charlotte Catholic: The defensive end forced a pair of turnovers that resulted in 14 points in a 24-14 win over Monroe. He also had three quarterback pressures and a sack.
Bryce Dixon, Butler: In a 28-21 loss to Grimsley, Dixon had two sacks, batted down a pair of passes, pressured the quarterback at least three times, and had a tackle for lost yardage.
Vance Honeycutt, Salisbury: Ran for 111 yards and a touchdown and threw for two scores in a 24-21 win over North Davidson in the N.C. 2AA state semifinals. The Hornets won their sixth straight game.
Paul Neel, Charlotte Catholic: He had 28 carries, 168 yards and a touchdown against Monroe.
James Pearce, Vance: Three sacks of Myers Park QB Lucas Lenhoff and a big reason why the Cougars limited Myers Park to just 51 yards rushing.
State Finals on TV
WCCB-TV will air all three state finals involving Charlotte-area teams:
▪ 2AA state final Thursday: Salisbury vs. St. Paul’s (over-the-air channel MeTV, 18.3 or Spectrum Channel 1260)
▪ 3A state final Friday: Charlotte Catholic vs. Havelock (OTA on MeTV, 18.3 or Spectrum Channel 1260)
▪ 4AA state final Saturday: Vance vs. Rolesville (CW Channel 18.1/Spectrum Channel 11 and 1212)
State Finals Schedule
Class 4AA at N.C. State
Vance (9-1) vs. Rolesville (9-0), Saturday, May 8, 5 p.m.
Class 4A at UNC-Chapel Hill
Grimsley (8-0) vs. Cardinal Gibbons (9-0), Friday, May 7, 7 p.m.
Class 3AA at UNC-Chapel Hill
Mount Tabor (10-0) vs. Cleveland (10-0), Thursday, May 6, 7 p.m.
Class 3A at N.C. State
Charlotte Catholic (8-1) vs. Havelock (10-0), Friday, May 7, 7 p.m.
Class 2AA at N.C. State
Salisbury (8-2) vs. St. Pauls (8-0) Thursday, May 6, 7 p.m.
Class 2A at UNC-Chapel Hill
Mountain Heritage (7-1) vs. Reidsville (9-0) Saturday, May 8, 5 p.m.
Class 1AA at UNC-Chapel Hill
Tarboro (8-0) vs. East Surry (9-1), Saturday, May 8, noon
Class 1A at N.C. State
Pinetown Northside (8-2) vs. Murphy (9-1), Saturday, May 8, noon
This story was originally published May 1, 2021 at 6:30 AM.
