Chambers outlasts Cardinal Gibbons in a weather-delayed, opening-night football game

Chambers High School made a lot of history Friday night — and into Saturday morning.

From 1997 until the summer of 2021, the school was known as Zebulon B. Vance. But in October of 2020, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School board voted 8-0 to change the name from that of a former confederate military captain, N.C. Governor and slave owner, to Julius Chambers High.

Chambers was a Charlotte civil rights attorney whose legal work led to the desegregation of CMS in the 1970s.

Friday in Raleigh, nationally ranked Chambers High, the two-time N.C. state champion, won its first game with its new name, beating Wake County power Cardinal Gibbons 35-29.

Chambers led 35-9 deep in the third quarter before Gibbons made a huge rally.

The game — which featured a Gibbons safety and two Chambers defensive scores — began at 7 p.m. but lightning stopped play with just over a minute left in the second quarter.

That was at 8:21.

The teams didn’t come back on the field until more than three hours later.

The game ended at 12:47 a..m., and after shaking hands and heading to the bus, Chambers would be lucky to get back to school by 4 a.m., and players wouldn’t get home for another 30 minutes after that.

It was the second straight night that weather forced a big-time high school football game in North Carolina to finish after midnight.

On Thursday in Charlotte, Hough and Myers Park waited out a two-hour weather delay before Hough won 32-16 at Memorial Stadium in the heart of the city.

Friday in Burlington, Cummings and Williams didn’t get done until after midnight. Those teams, like Chambers and Gibbons, waited out a long weather delay. Cummings beat Williams, 32-25, getting its first win against its rival in 10 years. That game ended just before 12:30 a.m.

Chambers and Gibbons, however, were still going, though the outcome appeared to be well determined before the delay. Chambers seemed to take care of that shortly after the long delay and despite more than 20 penalties for the evening.

Ahead 21-9, Dymere Edwards came in at quarterback, relieving starter Anson Camp. Edwards (5-of-6 passing, 82 yards) led a slick scoring drive with accurate passes. He finished with a 15-yard dart to KC Concepcion that gave the Cougars a 28-9 lead early in the third quarter, and they later expanded that to 35-9 before Gibbons got two scoring passes from Connor Clark (214 yards passing, 3 TDs) and a scoring run from Blake Raphael.

After Clark’s last scoring pass — 37 yards to Carson McDonald — Gibbons got an onside kick recovery with less than two minutes to go, down only by six points. But on a third-and-19 at its own 42, Clark was sacked. On fourth-and-29, Clark was intercepted by Dante Harbison.

Chambers’ defense finished with six sacks, three interceptions and scored two touchdowns.

Gibbons got off to a pretty good start, with Clark completing a 57-yard pass to get inside the red zone. The drive ended at the 1, but Chambers had two penalties that negated good gains and eventually Gibbons got a safety, tackling a ball carrier in the end zone.

But after getting the ball back, Gibbons lost its momentum, snapping the ball over Clark’s head and Chambers’ Jordan Thompson recovered in the end zone for a 7-2 lead.

Gibbons answered quickly. After getting a kick return to midfield, Clark hit Ian Evans for a 52-yard scoring pass, and got his team a 9-7 lead.

In response, Chambers got two touchdowns from junior running back Daylan Smothers, the reigning N.C. player of the year, to take a lead into halftime — at 11:39 p.m.

Chambers-Gibbons box score

Chambers 7 14 14 0 — 35

Gibbons 9 0 7 13 — 29

G: Safety

C: Jordan Thompson recovers fumble in end zone (Melvin Benitez kick))

G: Ian Evans 52 yard pass from Connor Clark (Ethan Hastings kick)

V: Daylan Smothers 4 run (Benitez kick)

V: Smothers 2 run (Benitez kick)

V: KC Concepcion 19 pass from Dymere Edwards (Benitez kick)

V: Jalen Swindell 29 yard interception return (Benitez kick)

C: Maverick Shotwell 28 pass from Clark (Hastings kick)

C: Blake Raphael 4 run (run failed)

C: Carson McDonald 37 pass from Clark (Hastings kick)

This story was originally published August 21, 2021 at 12:48 AM.