Saturday, October 10, 2026
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Cherryville, NC (WNN) - The Cherryville Ironmen picked up their 5th win of the season on October 9, 2026, with a 52 - 18 win over the East Gaston Warriors in Mt. Holly, NC. The first half was a sloppy, penalty-filled affair for both teams, with Cherryville picking up the most penalties. Even worse was the loss of J.J. McElhaney to injury. Despite this and several missed opportunities on offense, the Ironmen held a 20-6 halftime lead and had racked up 266 yards of offense. By game's end, Cherryville adjusted during the break and came roaring back to life in the second half. Unofficially, the offense amassed 733 yards of total offense. Much of that was from Jayden Adams, who had an incredible second half. He finished the game going 16-26 for 467 yards, 5 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions. He came into the game with 1014 yards passing; he is on pace to break the 2000-yard passing mark in two weeks against Stuart W. Cramer or the following week against Bessemer City. At one point in the third quarter, he threw for over 200 yards and 3 touchdowns in slightly over a 5-minute span. Enijahe Whitworth and Elijah Proctor were his favorite targets. This is not the same ole Cherryville football team, this is a team full of playmakers that have been explosive all season. An offense that is averaging just under 40 points per game, despite a low output of 13 against Shelby, with several key playmakers missing the game due to illness and injury.
Defensively, Cherryville is doing well, too. Players such as Jayden Adams, Landry Ewing, Landry Pruitt, Maddox Carrigan, Austin Shoemake, and John Hedgepath consistently make hard hits and great defensive stops. Tonight, they won the battle of the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. The only areas of concern tonight were excessive penalties: 17 for 155 yards, and after J.J. McLhaney left the game, there were some failed extra point attempts. JJ is the usual holder on kick attempts, so the timing was a little off without him in the game. Otherwise, it was a total team effort, and everyone played a role in the victory.
Cherryville received the opening kickoff to begin at its own 45. Two penalties backed them up. A 21-yard pass to Elijah Proctor picked up most of the yardage that had been lost. The next play appeared to be a first down but was wiped out by another penalty, stalling the drive. The punt was off the side of Jayden Adams' foot, and East Gaston was able to begin their first drive at their own 42. They could only reach the Cherryville 49 before turning the ball over on downs. Enijahe Whitworth caught a 20-yard pass, followed by a Jackson Heavner 6-yard run down to the 20. Jayden Adams hit Elijah Proctor on a 20-yard pass to cap off a 5-play touchdown drive. After the Cole Kelly kick, Cherryville led 7-0. The Warriors failed to get anything going in the opening quarter; two turnovers on downs, a punt, and an interception were all they had to show for their efforts.
Just before the end of the quarter, Cherryville began a drive on its own 49. The second quarter began with the Ironmen continuing that drive. They began with 3 straight runs by J.J. McElhaney from the wildcat. Jackson Heavner then ran for 20 yards to the 20, and on the next carry, he dragged 4 defenders with him to just outside the goal line. J.J. McElhaney punched it in for a touchdown from the wildcat, and after Cole Kelly's kick, Cherryville led 14-0. East Gaston punted on their next possession, and it was returned to near the 9-yard line, but a penalty backed the ball up to the 45. That was no problem for the Ironmen offense. Jackson Heavner took the handoff and ran 45 yards for a touchdown; the kick was blocked, leaving the score 20-0. Near the end of the half, East Gaston finally found paydirt on a 25-yard pass to Brady Miller. The two-point conversion attempt failed. The drive covered 95 yards and consumed just over 6 minutes. Cherryville had good field position on the next drive, but a rare fumble on a hard hit to Jackson Heavner turned the ball over. The Warriors failed to move the ball and turned it over on downs to close out the half. At halftime, the Ironmen led 20-6.
The third quarter began with two punts by East Gaston and one by Cherryville. Then the Ironmen's offense exploded. Enijahe Whitworth returned an East Gaston punt to the Cherryville 39. Jayden Adams launched a 61-yard bomb to Narian Hopper for a touchdown. The kick was blocked, leaving the score 26-6. Jayden Adams intercepted a pass at the Ironmen 34. Two plays later, he threw a touchdown pass to Enijahe Whitworth for 67 yards. Jackson Heavner added the two-point conversion for a 34-6 Cherryville lead. After the Warriors punted, a 59-yard pass to Korey Makupson moved Cherryville to the 16. A penalty was overcome by a 25-yard reception from Enijahe Whitworth for a touchdown. The kick was blocked, and Cherryville now led 40-6. The fourth quarter produced another touchdown for East Gaston, a run from the 3 by Chris Leavy. The conversion attempt failed, to make the score 40-12 in favor of Cherryville. The Ironmen answered with an 83-yard burst of speed from Jackson Heavner, increasing the score to 46-12 after a failed two-point conversion attempt. The Warriors added a 58-yard touchdown reception by Brady Miller, the attempt after was no good, and the score remained 46-18. Enijahe Whitworth scored the final touchdown of the night on a 10-yard pass by Jayden Adams. The conversion failed, resulting in a final score of 52-18.
After the game, WNN's Mason Beam interviewed Coach Patrick Bowman. His first question was on how he thought the night went, "I thought we came out sharp, kind of got a little sloppy there for a minute, but proud of them how they came out in the second half and executed." He offered praise for Jayden Adam's big night and the other offensive playmakers, "Like we say every week, we've got a lot of playmakers on the offensive side. Jayden does a great job distributing the ball, and when he gets going, man, he can be hard to stop at times. Proud of him, thought he did a great job distributing tonight, making the right read, and like I said, when he does that, he's very hard to stop." As far as the penalties, this was his take, "yeah, like we talked about after the game, we've gotta clean up stuff that we can control. Way too many penalties on us tonight. We'll address that next week; got to clean it up cause we're going to have to clean it up down the road. We can't keep shooting ourselves in the foot. We'll address it next week and hope to be a cleaner football team next week." Coach Bowman spoke on the explosiveness of the offense. "Like I said, a lot of playmakers. I'm proud of them. They work hard each and every week but got to give a lot of credit up front too. Those guys have played very well all year. Starts with them. They do a great job whether it's run blocking or pass blocking, so like I said, pretty explosive on offense. I'd like to see us keep it up and keep going." His final thoughts were on the upcoming game against the Burns Bulldogs at home on October 16.
"Well, that's no secret, they're a good football team, they got a lot of good players, they're well coached. We'll have to have a good week of practice, and like I say every week, we just want to try and go 1-0 every week. So, we've got to have a great week, though; they're a good football team. We've got to put our best foot forward and get going for next week."
- Coach Bowman
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