Thursday, October 1, 2026
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Cherryville, NC (WNN) - Due to the forecast of severe weather for Friday, the home opener for the Ironmen’s football season was moved to Thursday, August 20, 2026. Cherryville opened its season at Rudisill Stadium with a dominant 41-6 victory over the Vikings of North Stokes. In his third season as head coach, Patrick Bowman has his team buying into his process to turn the program into a culture of winning. One player who looked the part of a winner was third-year starting quarterback Jayden Adams. The junior quarterback went 9-13, throwing for 252 yards and 5 touchdowns. Three of his TD passes were for 40-plus yards, and he added one of 37 and another of 27 yards. He only played just a little over three quarters. When you add team rushing totals of 132 yards, the Ironmen amassed 384 total yards on offense.
Adams was very humble about his performance when speaking with WNN’s Rusty Wise. “I’m super proud of my guys, we’ve put in a lot of work this summer and this whole week. I just couldn’t be more proud.” He continued giving credit to his teammates, including his beefed-up offensive line. “Yeah, I could tell a lot by having that time, having way more protection helps a lot making my reads and stuff like that, so I’m really just looking forward to what we can do this season.” Coach Bowman gave his take on Jayden’s performance tonight, “Jayden had a big night for us, he’s had a great summer, a great spring. We’ve been really excited watching him grow the past few years, and he put it on display for us tonight.”
Coach Bowman has stressed carrying over the momentum from last season’s 6-6 record, which was not only the first non-losing season in about a decade but also a playoff season in which they advanced to the second round. Another emphasis during the offseason has been on weight training, running, and overall wellness. “We were blessed last Spring, we had football weight training, and they took it very seriously, we attacked the weight room every day, some of them have put on a couple of pounds, and they look very good, and we’re excited to see them go this year,” said Coach Bowman in a post-game interview with WNN’s Rusty Wise about off-season conditioning. Maddox Carrigan added, “Just getting in the weight room, being consistent with body wellness and weightlifting classes. Coach really pushed us this year in the weight room and got us big,” Carrigan continued to expound on the advantages of the new weight room being on campus. “It helped a lot, especially not having to bus over from the school to the weight room. That really helped, and it being on campus helps a ton with body wellness and consistency of lifting.”
Things began well for the Ironmen as they received the opening kickoff and began their first possession at the 43-yard line. They drove the ball well until two false start penalties deep in Vikings territory stalled the drive, and they turned it over on downs. North Stokes could not move the ball, and Cherryville’s defense forced a turnover on downs. Starting at the Vikings’ 34-yard line, the Ironmen scored quickly on a run by J.J. McElhaney from the 5 after an 18- yard reception by Elijah Proctor. The Cole Kelly extra point made it 7-0. North Stokes seemed poised to answer after a long pass to Zack Tate picked up 26 yards, but a massive hit from Maddox Carrigan on Dalton Whitener denied another sure first down, and again they turned it over on downs. Cherryville then executed one of several one-play drives. This one was a 46-yard TD from Adams to Elijah Proctor, with the Cole Kelly kick, the lead was 14-0. North Stokes again showed some promise as they crossed midfield for the first time of the night. They gained some more yardage, but then several plays produced very little. On 4th down, Enijahe Whitworth intercepted the pass a few yards deep in the end zone and raced down the field for an apparent pick six, but a block in the back at the 10-yard line nullified the return and the touchdown.
Cherryville instead took over at their own 5-yard line. It didn’t matter as the Ironmen marched down the field, aided by a 30-yard reception from Makil Caldwell. Jayden Adams then hit Narian Hopper for a 43-yard strike and a 21-0 lead. The Vikings went three-and-out, and after the punt, Cherryville started just inside the 50. JJ McElhaney picked up 33 yards on a big rush. Unfortunately, a bad snap led to an Adams fumble and turnover. The North Stokes drive went nowhere, thanks in part to a huge sack for a loss of 7 by Austin Shoemake. After the punt, Cherryville had another one-play scoring drive, this one courtesy of a 37-yard pass from Adams to Enijahe Whitworth for a 28-0 Cherryville lead. The Vikings again turned it over on downs, and again Cherryville scored with just one play, this time Adams hit Elijah Proctor for a 42-yard score, Cole Kelly missed his only PAT of the night, and the score was 34-0 at the half as North Stokes chose to let the clock run out.
North Stokes took the second-half kickoff for a 32-yard return. On the second play, Enijahe Whitworth intercepted a pass. This set up a three-play scoring drive for the Ironmen, which was capped off by a touchdown reception from Makil Caldwell to increase the lead to 41-0. This triggered the running clock, due to the score difference and the end of the night for many of the Ironmen starters. North Stokes finally scored on a long 45-yard pass from QB Holden Shelton to Jackson Bodenhamer. After the failed extra point attempt, the score was 41-6 in favor of the Ironmen. There was no more scoring as heavy rain began to fall near the end of the third quarter.
The huge difference in score allowed some of the younger players to get some extended playing time. Maddox Carrigan gave his take on having more players this season, thus allowing for rotation opportunities, “Yeah, it’s going to happen a lot this year cause we’ve got 42, unlike last year where we had 20, so it’s always going to be a lot more rotation and guys getting more breaks this year.” Coach Bowman added, “We’ve been excited. This is a good freshman group for us. We’ve been excited about them all summer. They come to work every day, and, as I said, they deserve to play just like anybody else does. So, when they go in, we expect them to play just like the starters or anyone else would. We’re excited about that group, they’re a bigger group, they’ve had some success young, so we’re very excited about them and see the future with them.” Quarterback Jayden Adams discussed preparing for Owen High School and areas to work on. “Just have a good week in practice, having good energy, move on from this win and practice for the next one.” He added that he wanted to improve as a leader and make better reads on plays. Maddox Carrigan stated a focus on practice would be defending the sweep, something Owen runs often. He is not too excited about playing on artificial turf; however, he knows they have 4 games on turf this season and will need to adjust.
Rusty asked Coach Bowman after the game how the preparation for next week’s game would look. “We’ll have to play very well next week. Owen is a good football team, a lot different from what we saw tonight. This team was more air-raid, and next week, Owen will be running some triple options. So, it’s a completely different game plan in how we want to attack it. We’re excited, it’s a very nice football stadium we’re going to, but it’s a very good football team. We’ve got to prepare for and will get back to work tonight, coaching-wise, and start implementing a game plan and see what we can do.”
The 1-0 Cherryville Ironmen will next play on Friday, August 28, at Owen High School.
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