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Shelby, NC (WNN) - The Cherryville Ironmen lost a tough conference game to the Shelby Golden Lions on Friday night, September 19th, 2025, in Shelby, NC. The game was a physical battle and began with both teams going three and out. Shelby drew first blood scoring on a 35-yard Lan Farmer pass to Immanuel Collins; Matt Grenier added the point after to put Shelby ahead 7-0. The Ironmen's next drive ended with an interception by Kendrick Raper that was returned for a pick-six touchdown. The point after extended Shelby's lead to 14-0. The Golden Lions would strike again with another Lan Farmer touchdown pass, this one to J.J. Williams. The quarter would expire as Cherryville was driving, with Shelby leading 21-0. Jackson Heavner was unable to play again tonight, so the Ironmen were using Javarius Mcelhaney lined up behind center in a jumbo wildcat formation for most of the drive. The formation seemed to work as Cherryville moved down to the Shelby 10-yard line. Unfortunately, a high snap sailed over the head of Jayden Adams that Shelby recovered. They wasted no time scoring their fourth touchdown on a one play drive, an 80-yard touchdown pass from Lan Farmer. He was not done yet. Farmer would throw two more touchdown passes, one for 31 yards to J.J. Williams and another to Lorenzo Roseboro. After Grenier's kick, Shelby had pulled away 42-0. That is how the scoring would end in the first half. Cherryville was driving just before the half when time expired.
Shelby's explosive first-half performance resulted in the second half beginning with a running clock. The rule is if a team is leading by 35 or more points in the second half, it goes to a running clock. Previously, the rule was initiated after 42 points but was changed this season to 35. This means the clock continues to run and is only stopped by timeouts, injuries, scores, and quarter breaks. Running out of bounds will not stop the clock. This is also known as the mercy rule, which is meant to prevent scores from becoming too lopsided.
The second half kickoff resulted in a recovered fumble by Shelby after a hard hit on Javarius Mcelhaney. Kendrick Raper came in at quarterback for Shelby and threw a touchdown to Calvin Ramseur. The kick was no good, score was now 48-0. The third quarter ended after a Shelby touchdown run. Shelby 55-0. The kickoff was fumbled and then recovered by Shelby. Freshman, Jonas Woods would score the final touchdown of the game on a 17-yard run. After the point after kick, the score would be 62-0, which would be the final score. The Ironmen kept fighting and never gave up, even after the game was out of reach.
After the game, Coach Patrick Bowman spoke with WNN's Rusty Wise about his thoughts on the performance. "Well, obviously, that's a good football team first and foremost. If you don't play 'A' game, then stuff like that's going to happen. We obviously didn't play well, but there were some things we felt okay about. I thought some of them played tough, and we didn't in places. I've got to do a better job making sure we're ready. So, I'll take that one, and next week, the bye week, we'll make sure we're getting better." He elaborated on not being as strong in this game on pass defense. "Yeah, you know, and we knew coming into it that's what Shelby likes to do, and that's what they're good at. Tried to cover them up at how we thought we could best, but I mean hat's off to them those are good players. They'll get loose on people, and they got loose a little bit. Like I said, we've got to do a better job, make our guys better, and be ready for the next one. Coach Bowman acknowledged some injuries and updated us on a possible return. "Yeah, you know, the good thing about this is we're rolling into a bye week, so guys that are banged up can get better. We're looking to get them back. Obviously, some key players for us were sidelined for the whole game. Obviously, the main one being Heavner, excited to hopefully get him back next week, get him back going. We've got to get healthy, and we've got to get better overall."
Jevarius (JJ) Mcelhaney had a much bigger role tonight on offense with key players missing. He was gracious enough to give his thoughts on the game. "We came here feeling great, to be honest, but we made a few mistakes. It hurt us; we're going to shake it off and get ready for our bye and come back better for the next week." Asked about what he could take away from this game, he responded, "Stay together with your brothers, and just love your brothers, and just play together, and if you play as one, you can be a great team. He was a little banged up on a tremendous hit to begin the second half, but said he was doing well. JJ had this to offer on the upcoming bye week and following game, "Yeah, we'll get ready for them, just got to work on this work together as a team and we'll get the job done." Mcelhaney not only has a big role on offense, but he is one of several players who play offense and defense. He was asked which one is more challenging. "Definitely defense, because it's just different coverages and we've got to tackle big people. It's definitely defense."
The Ironmen's bye week comes at a good time, allowing some key players a chance to recover from some injuries and be back to full strength to resume the season in two weeks. The loss drops Cherryville to 3-2 overall and 1-2 in conference play. The win improves Shelby to 3-2 overall and first place in the conference at 3-0.
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