A look back: 10 years of Sampson Co. football

Editor’s note: This is the first of a multi-part series covering all varsity sports in the county.

What started out as simple curiosity has led to a passion project that has now spanned a couple months, and will continue on for at least another. One day, back in September, I had the bright idea of wanting to gather the win-loss records of every team at every high school in the county, and write a story on that. A couple leads chased here-and-there led me to realizing that was a very daunting task that even the best-equipped sports editor with a degree in history couldn’t do.

I pride myself on my research skills. If you want to tell me your team’s quarterback is greater than mine, that’s fine, but I’m going to do my research and throw every single statistic at you to prove my point. If you’re telling me that I should trade my stud running back in fantasy football for a couple of wide receivers, you better believe that I’m going to find every piece of information on those guys that I can — I’ll find out their parents’ names, high school GPA, and their favorite afternoon snack — all before I even contemplate the trade. If I want to make a fairly large purchase, especially one for myself, I will do hours of ‘homework’ on the product, competitors, and features before I pull the trigger.

Those research skills, no matter good they are, come at a price. And that price is time; a finite resource that everyone wishes they had more of. I would love to devote a year of my time to just researching things like how the 1973 Hobbton vs. Clinton soccer game ended, or how well the 1984 Lakewood Leopards did on the gridiron, but unfortunately, duty calls, and I cannot.

But, what I can do, is relatively quick research, coupled with my love for a well-organized and color-coded spreadsheet, and give you the last ten years’ worth of this data, right here. I did the leg work so you don’t have to scroll back on MaxPreps to see how your team fared against your rivals.

There are two other factors that also play into this passion project. One of which is the fantastic job that the historical society in my hometown does with their sports. When you’re the home of legendary basketball coach Bobby Knight, 1964 AL Cy Young Award winner Dean Chance, and Jim Brown’s favorite left tackle, Dick Schafrath, you have to keep a record of your sports.

I don’t say that to discredit the Sampson County History Museum and their sports section — they do a fantastic job as well, and are very much appreciated. I just wanted to give a back story as to why I’m passionate about sports history; because where I’m from, that’s ingrained into your daily life.

The second factor, which is arguably the biggest, is actually a question. “Who’s the best team, historically, in Sampson County?” I asked myself one day. Maybe one team has the edge in football, while men’s golf isn’t their strong suit. I wanted to know who had the best overall records, and who had the best records versus the rest of the county.

Data tells a story. Many, in fact. You might think your high school has the edge in a rivalry, but come to find out, it’s the other way around. Or you may say “I don’t want us to play that team again, they always crush us!” when that’s not actually the case. There are trends, peaks, valleys, and stories behind this information, and I’m going to do my best to tell them all.

For the first part of this series, I compiled the records of the area football teams. The next parts will have volleyball, both soccer teams, both basketball teams, women’s tennis, baseball and softball, and both golf teams.

Please note, though, that some of this data is incomplete. I can only go off of what is before me. I will do my best to get that information through various sources, but not everyone has it readily available. I promise I’m not trying to omit any team or any sport.

Now, let’s talk football.

The years covered are 2014-23, because I didn’t want to include some sports (like the fall season sports) for this year, without being able to include others (like winter and spring) — everyone got the same ten years’ so this comparison could be as fair as possible.

Clinton

The tale of the tape for the Dark Horses is a lot of winning. Their overall record the decade was 97-27 and they were 13-0 against Sampson County foes. Obviously, now that record is 13-1, but that’s not what this is about.

Earlier in the decade, and I’m sure for many years prior as well, the Dark Horses took on more Sampson County opponents, but since 2017, it has only been Midway that they have faced. This could all be shaken up with the new realignment that goes into effect next year, but I do not know what the future holds as of now.

The only other inter-county team they played was Union, who didn’t put a point on them in the three years within this time frame that they played. 2014 saw Clinton win 57-0, 2015 saw 42-0, and 2016 saw 37-0. The Midway games in those years saw scores of 42-0, 38-0, and 50-0, so it wasn’t just Union on the receiving end of the haymakers by Clinton. No county team put a point on them until the 2018 Midway-Clinton game, which saw a final score of 50-8 in Clinton’s favor. From there, Clinton won 49-3, 30-14, 44-35, 40-14, and 54-0 from 2019-23, respectively.

Overall, Clinton outscored Union 136-0 in the three years they played. For ten years of playing Midway, they outscored the Raiders 446-74. So, objectively, Clinton is the best football team in the county. But subjectively, through the lens of needing a bigger sample size, they aren’t, in my opinion. They’ve played, at a minimum, less than half of the games against other county schools as the rest of the county, so I would argue that this is inconclusive.

That is to no fault of the kids, though, and I surely don’t want to take anything away from them. They can only play who’s on their schedule, and since they are the biggest school in the county, and three of the remaining four public schools are all in a conference together, they get more opportunities to faceoff against each other.

Outside of the county, Clinton dominated, too. A state championship appearance book-ended the ten years for the Horses, first a 31-7 loss to Shelby in 2014, and lastly a 28-18 loss to Reidsville in 2023. But, neither of those are the most heartbreaking ends to their season, from my perspective. I would say that would be the 30-29 OT loss to Bunn in the regional round in 2015.

I obviously don’t know the full story, as I was a thousand miles away serving in the Army in Texas at the time, but the box score and previous SI articles tell the story. Going into halftime, the Horses were trailing 14-6 before they started mounting their comeback. The third quarter ended with Bunn leading 20-13, and Clinton outscored them 10-3 in the final period. The three points from Bunn came on a drama-filled last-second field goal that pushed the game into extra time. They were outgunned in the extra time, 7-6, and lost by a single point because of a missed extra point, which would have put them in the state championship for the second year in a row.

Harrells

The Crusaders down in Harrells don’t often play the other schools in the county, due them being a private school and in an entirely different athletic association. They have played in other sports, just not football.

But this isn’t just about how the teams have done against the county. It’s about how they’ve done overall, too. Harrells has seen success on the gridiron, boasting a 55.2 winning percentage after going 63-51 over the course of the decade. Consistency seems to be the name of the game for them, as only three seasons saw them go below .500. They, like Clinton, have been to a couple state championships in this time frame. And they, too, also suffered a heartbreaking loss to end their season in 2015.

In an absolute slugfest, the Crusaders lost to the Christ School Greenies in the second round of the playoffs, 44-43, after a successful two-point conversion gave them the last-second lead, after leading by 15 going into the fourth. An SI article recapping the game showed that Christ School’s quarterback lit it up passing, having 444 yards to his name when the game went final. Harrells’ running back in the game, Marcus Scarborough, had 272 rushing yards and four touchdowns, and the team had a combined 424 yards on the ground and five scores — it wasn’t a lack of offensive effort that led to this outcome.

Harrells lost again to Christ School in the state championship in 2020, 55-21, which was their lone loss that season. There were only two rounds of playoffs that year, due to COVID, compared to the normal three rounds that make up the NCISAA playoffs. They made it to the state championship the next year, and this time fell to the hands of Cannon, 34-31.

Hobbton

The Wildcats are truly a “tale of two stories” over the last decade. Their overall record is 41-75, but that data is a bit skewed. In the first four years, they went 6-41, but in the remaining portion, they went 35-34. A huge turnaround came for Hobbton starting in the 2018 season, which marks the year that coach Joe Salas took over the team.

In that data set is their 9-20 record against the county in that time. This may be 10-20 or 9-21, as the score for their 2021 game against Union was never put into MaxPreps. Regardless, this isn’t the best showing against the other schools. In fact, in that 6-41 record across four years, 12 of those losses and none of those wins came against county foes. They were a combined 0-12 in that span, as they suffered many blowout losses at the hands of Midway, Union, and Lakewood. Their best season came in 2022. They were 10-3 and 3-0 against the three in-county opponents they faced. They lost to Rosewood, 28-14, in the third round of the playoffs that year, but that is one of their most successful seasons ever.

One of their most memorable games — not necessarily their biggest heartbreaker — came in last year’s game against Pender, which was a record-breaker. The final score of 106-83 in Pender’s favor set a North Carolina state record for the highest-scoring football game of all time. A combined 1,230 yards and 20 touchdowns rushing between the two teams is what most teams dream of in one season. The Patriots and Wildcats did that in just one game. Oh, and Hobbton’s quarterback, Cole Weeks, had another 400 yards passing and six touchdowns.

I’d argue that their most heartbreaking loss over the last decade was their 2015 loss to North Duplin on Oct. 30. A low-scoring affair, the Rebels won 14-7 in overtime over the Wildcats. Hobbton went just 3-10 that season, but this game is memorable. North Duplin had 2,932 rushing yards that season, for an average of 244.3 per game. Their quarterback rushed for over 1,000 alone that season. In this game, though, Hobbton held them to just 157 yards on the ground and two touchdowns. One of those scores was ultimately the game-winner, but the Wildcats played stout defensively.

Lakewood

The ole Leopards of the Roseboro-Salemburg region boast the second-best overall record in this span. But, when it comes to their games against Sampson County, there is a bit of a discrepancy. They have a better winning percentage than second-place Midway, as they won 58 percent of their games against county foes. Midway has more overall wins in that category, though. I will call it a tie, and award them both second-place-and-a-half.

They were 71-50 overall and 18-13 against the county in the ten years that I researched. They made the playoffs in nine of the ten seasons, too. Barrett Sloan was at the helm of Lakewood football for a bit, but they were successful before him, too. Sloan took over in 2018 after legendary coach James Lewis retired from the black and yellow.

Lakewood’s deepest playoff run in this time frame was their regional-round loss to Plymouth in 2014, 28-0. Plymouth would end up losing by a field goal to Robbinsville. Slated as the No. 6 seed that year, the Leopards upset No. 3 seed Pamlico County, whom they just beat again this year in the playoffs. Tied 6-6 at the end of regulation, the two teams duked it out in overtime, each scoring twice in the extra time. Judging by the box score, though, it looks like a two-point conversion failed for the Hurricanes in the overtime period, which would have tied the game for them. Thankfully, through rose-colored glasses, I’m able to recap that game, but not as the Leopards’ most heartbreaking loss.

The game that takes the cake for heartbreaking loss for Lakewood comes at the hands of an in-county rival, though.

I’ll set the stage, and you might pick up where this is going shortly. The 2021 Leopards saw a tumultuous season, but 1A East Conference 10 play was generally in their favor. They went 3-1 overall, losing only to Rosewood, but beating Union, North Duplin, and… Hobbton along the way. It would be those very same Wildcats from out in Newton Grove that would end the Leopards’ season in the first round of the playoffs.

Lakewood finished higher in the conference, and with a better record overall. The Leopards were 5-6 overall, compared to the Wildcats’ 4-6. But, because of the RPI system, Hobbton hosted their first-round matchup between the No. 15 Wildcats and the No. 18 Leopards. In a weird twist of fate, Lakewood’s success also caused them to be on the road for the playoffs — albeit, not far, but everyone enjoys a hometown crowd for postseason action. In their regular season match, Lakewood won, 42-28. In the playoffs, though, it was a different story. Hobbton rolled through them, 56-21. The Wildcats would lose, 69-20, in the second round of the playoffs to Northside-Pinetown that season.

Midway

Oh, the Raiders up there in Spivey’s Corner. Sharers of second-and-a-half place of best record versus Sampson County. Owners of the fourth-best overall record in the county from 2014-23. A team that has seen middle-of-the-road records nearly yearly. They went 57-52 overall and 20-16 versus Sampson County.

That isn’t a slight at Midway, either. That’s just a telling of the facts. They averaged 5.7 wins a season across the decade compared to 5.2 losses. They sat at five games above .500 throughout this time period, but that doesn’t mean they were ‘bad’ by any stretch of the imagination. But, the playoffs surely haven’t been nice to the Raiders in any way, shape, or form.

Their only playoff win across those seasons came in 2022, which was a 44-35 win over East Carteret in the first round, before losing to Cummings, 42-7, in the second. They saw six first-round exits in that time period, too.

Midway’s best years along the lines of Sampson County football came in 2014 and 2019. Those were the seasons where they went 3-1, and their only losses being against Clinton. In 2014, they beat their non-Clinton opponents with a scoring differential of 58 points, and in 2019, 74. They laid the points on thick against county foes when they had the chance.

The Raiders’ most heartbreaking loss is a toss-up for me. My point-of-view is obviously different than everyone else’s, especially with as relatively little time as I’ve spent here in Sampson County. Some losses, especially against rivals, might sting a little bit more. But the ones I can’t decide between are solely score-based.

2015 saw two of the three losses I can’t decide between. And they happened in back-to-back weeks for the Raiders. First up was the last game of the regular season against Union, when they lost 16-13 on Nov. 6. Sitting at 6-4 still, they made the playoffs, where they took on Hertford County. That resulted in a 32-27 loss for Midway, which sent the team home after just one playoff game that season.

In their 2018 matchup against Lakewood, they led 19-14 at halftime. A scoreless third quarter had the scoreboard looking the exact same as the game went into the final period of action. That’s when they were outscored by the Leopards 21-13, for a final score of 35-32 in Lakewood’s favor. It looks like three missed extra point attempts (whether they went for one point or two after the touchdowns, I don’t know) determined the final outcome. The Raiders went on to have a 4-7 record that year, which could have been 5-6 and landed them in the playoffs.

Union

Last but not least are the Sparties of Union. The fact of the matter is, they haven’t seen much success as of late. This is in no way, shape, or form meant to kick them while they’re down — I have nothing but love for every program in the county, and I truly do want everyone to have the best teams possible in every sport. An absolute dream season of mine is every team somehow winning the state championship, even though that is mathematically impossible.

The point of this entire analysis is to tell these stories. I cannot tell the story of Sampson County football without talking about all of the teams — the good, the bad, the ugly. Union’s true overall record is unknown to me, as the 2021 season wasn’t entered in MaxPreps. The best case scenario would have them at 36-66 overall for the decade, and the worst would be 28-74, so the record probably falls within those two boundaries somewhere. Against the county in that time, with the data I have, they were 8-19, but again, that number is probably not 100-percent accurate.

Union actually had the same number of playoff wins as Midway during this stretch. 2015 and 2016 saw a solid team, going 14-11 combined across the two years. In 2016, they decimated Heide Trask, 41-14, in the first round of the playoffs, before losing to eventual state champions Wallace-Rose Hill in the second round. Trask had their number in their regular season matchup on Sept. 30, besting the Spartans 28-21. That year, they had 2,808 rushing yards and 32 touchdowns, signifying a strong running game, with their 216 yards-per-game average.

The Spartans are another team that I struggled to pick just one heartbreaker for. They have a few close ones over the previous decade, but I think the most heart-breaking loss for them came in the 2022 season. In week 4 of that season, they remained winless, looking to take down Spring Creek. After Union led 30-16 through the first three quarters, the Gators scored 14 unanswered points in the fourth to tie the game up, and a three-overtime thriller ensued, which resulted in a 52-50 loss for the Spartans. They finished the season without a win, and wouldn’t get their next one until their week 5 revenge win over the Gators the next year.

Biggest rivalries

I presented you all of that information — each team’s overall record, their record against the county, and their most heart-breaking losses — so I could tell the final part of this story: what are the biggest rivalries in Sampson County, objectively speaking, solely looking at records and scores. I know which rivalries are the ‘biggest’ around here, but I wanted to find out who won what series, what the scores were, and what team just has the other’s number.

The Dark Horses dominated throughout the decade, so they are in a league of their own for this. The closest anyone got to beating them (until the Raiders did this season) was in 2021, when they beat Midway 44-35.

Outside of that, I’m up in the air about what the biggest rivalry was. There were hot and cold seasons around the area, with teams getting swept by the county, but doing the sweeping in later years. For example, Hobbton went 0-3 versus the county in 2014, but in 2022, they went 3-0. So, with my relatively small sample size, the data doesn’t give credence to the full story.

The three teams I believe that are a part of the biggest rivalries are Hobbton, Lakewood, and Midway. I don’t think all three have a vested rivalry against each other; rather I think Lakewood has a rivalry against the other two teams.

From 2014-23, the Wildcats and Leopards faced off 11 times — the playoffs in 2021 gave them the extra matchup. In those contests, Lakewood came out on top seven times, compared to Hobbton’s four wins. The biggest win in that rivalry, by far, was the aforementioned playoff showdown, when Hobbton exacted revenge on Lakewood in dominating fashion.

Over those same years, Lakewood and Midway squared off 10 times. Midway had their number, winning seven and only losing three. All three of the Leopards’ wins came from 2016-18, meaning they had a bit of a streak going against their neighbors to the Northeast.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention rivalries for the Crusaders. While they don’t face county foes in football, they have developed rivalries in their own right. The caveat here is the same as before — I’m sure there are rivalries with conference foes and opponents that Harrells sees every year, but my focus is solely on the postseason. Christ School, Cannon, and Village Christian all seem to have the Crusaders’ number in the playoffs, each having beaten them twice. Christ School, in fact, has beaten them twice in the state championship.

Wrap-up

I hope this article has served its purpose. Whether you were a member of these teams and you want to re-live the glory days of your county dominance; your child played in a historic Sampson County game and that has recently slipped your memory; or you’re new to town and want to get an understanding of the intricacies that make-up the high school sports scene in our neck of the woods down here.

The hours I’ve spent researching, compiling statistics, and writing this first piece have been fun, but laborious. This genuinely scratched an itch in my brain that I didn’t know I had. This is the first in a series that will span all sports, so be sure to keep an eye out for those in the coming weeks.