Surging to a title: Big second half lifts Monroe past Northeastern for 2A football crown

Monroe’s relentless ground game and swarming defense changed the momentum in the second half Saturday night and carried the Redhawks past Northeastern, 35-25, for the North Carolina 2A state football championship.

The Redhawks (15-0) capped a perfect season by outscoring the Eagles 21-7 in the second half on a frigid evening at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill.

After seeing his team have two passes picked off in the first half, Monroe coach Johnny Sowell had his team run the ball in the final two quarters, and it paid off.

“We made some adjustments,” Sowell said of the second half. “We’re a running team. We came out in the second half, and we ran the ball.”

The Redhawks ran the ball 21 times for 137 yards in the second half and threw only five passes. Meanwhile, the Monroe defense made enough big plays to slow down a Northeastern attack which had totaled 273 yards of total offense in the first half.

The big player on the Monroe defense was senior Jesus Jarquin-Ambrosio, who blocked a punt, had four sacks, and six pass breakups.

Running back Zion Lindsey, voted the game’s Most Valuable Player, provided the offensive leadership with his powerful running. He carried 18 times, mostly in the second half, for 116 yards.

Northeastern (15-1) led 18-14 at halftime, scoring two touchdowns on passes by senior quarterback Trevaris Jones. Monroe senior Jordan Young, a Michigan commit, had a 70-yard touchdown reception in the first quarter.

Monroe changed the shape of the game in the second half by going nearly exclusively with the run. The Redhawks drove 58 yards in three plays to start the second half, scoring on a 23-yard run by Nymir Kendall and taking a 21-18 lead.

Then, with Jones sidelined for a few plays with an injury, Northeastern sophomore backup quarterback Zak Ishman was picked off by the Redhawks’ Joey Shearin, who returned the ball 30 yards to the Eagles’ 19. Four running plays later, Monroe scored on a 3-yard run by Kendall for a 28-18 lead.

When asked when the game’s momentum changed, Sowell pointed to Shearin’s play.

“That might have been it, right there,” the Monroe coach said.

“A D lineman tipped the ball, and it landed in my hands,” said Shearin, whose father also was a linebacker at Monroe. “Then I started running.”

Northeastern put together its only scoring drive of the second half late in the third quarter, moving 84 yards in 10 plays and scoring on a 3-yard pass from Jones, who had re-entered the game, to Zion Demps. That cut Monroe’s lead to 28-25.

But the Redhawks twice stopped Northeastern drives on downs in the fourth quarter and added a clinching score on Lindsey’s 18-yard run with 2:18 remaining.

Monroe twice converted third-down plays with long runs.

“In a game of evenly matched teams, a couple of plays make the difference,” Northeastern head coach Antonio Moore said. “Those two or three third-and-long plays they made put them in a good position.”

It was the second state championship for Monroe, which also won in 2015 under Sowell, who is in his 21st year as head coach. The Redhawks had suffered narrow playoff losses three previous seasons, including one-point setbacks in third-round games in 2021 and 2023.

“The last couple years, it was like luck wasn’t with us,” he said. “The commitment our kids made since last year was the difference.”

Northeastern is 0-4 in state title games, although the school won the East state title in 1969, when North Carolina awarded championships to teams from each half of the state.

Sowell wore only a sweater vest, rather than a coat, in the near-freezing temperatures. He was asked afterward how he kept warm.

“I feel just great,” he said.

Northeastern 12 6 7 0 — 25

Monroe 7 7 14 7 — 35

NE — Tyell Saunders 39 pass from Trevaris Jones (kick failed)

M — Jordan Young 70 pass from Kaegan Chambers (Kevin Lopez-Ramirez kick)

NE — Khamani Bennett 22 pass from Jones (run failed)

M — Chambers 32 run (Lopez-Ramirez kick)

NE — Carren Armstrong 27 run (pass failed)

M — Nymir Kendall 23 run (Lopez-Ramirez kick)

M — Kendall 4 run (Lopez-Ramirez kick)

NE — Zion Demps 3 pass from Jones (Peyton Paris kick)

M — Zion Lindsey 18 run (Lopez-Ramirez kick)

This story was originally published December 21, 2024 at 9:59 PM.