Mitchell's Week 1 opponent finished 12-1 a season ago
LEDGER — The Mitchell High varsity football team will welcome a tough opponent to Ledger for the 2021 regular season opener on Friday, Feb. 26.
Statesville High, a 3A program that competes in the North Piedmont 3A conference, comes calling in Week 1.
The Greyhounds finished 12-1 a season ago and were ranked by Maxpreps as the No. 52 team in the state.
Statesville rolled through the regular season with a perfect 11-0 overall record, including a 5-0 mark in league play. All but one of the team’s wins came by double digits.
The Greyhounds kept the momentum going into the first round of the state playoffs where they routed North Buncombe 49-7 but the team lost 38-7 to Kings Mountain in the second round.
Kings Mountain went on to advance to the 3A regionals where it lost by seven to eventual state champion Charlotte Catholic.
Statesville head coach Randall Gusler and his staff will have work to do to get this year’s team back to the same level of play. The team graduated 21 seniors from last year’s team, including all purpose yardage leader Caylon Imes, who racked up 1,882 yards of rushing and receiving production.
Statesville also graduated Ky’wuan Dukes (830 receiving yards and seven touchdowns), Jason Shuford (team-high 95 tackles) and Quintin Blackmon (team-high five interceptions).
The Greyhounds will look to several returning players to step up as leaders during the coming shortened season.
Statesville’s returning players include receivers Dantel Carter and Sinsere Caldwell, linebacker and running back Quantay Brown, defensive backs Traven Lassiter, Tre Steele and Kaiba Stevenson and kicker Sam Buckner.
The Greyhounds also return several key offensive line contributors in Daniel Miller, Kelyn Watts, Steven Hamby, Dalton McCullough and Bartelo Aguilar.
Statesville used a strong offense and a stingy defense to compile its successful run in 2019. The team averaged 40.7 points per game and allowed just 16.8 per game.
The Greyhounds breezed through the 2019-20 season with a 6-0 record on the road.
Kickoff between the Mountaineers and Greyhounds is set for 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 26 in Ledger. Listen to live coverage of the game on WTOE radio and follow the News-Journal for updates and photos.