NC High School Football: Mallard Creek Mavericks’ defense once again looking strong
Mallard Creek head coach Kennedy Tinsley is fed up.
After a 28-14 season-opening win against Independence, he quickly let it be known that his squad deserved a little more credit than they had been getting.
“Personally, and I think our team feels like we deserve some respect at this point,” Tinsley said. “We play in the toughest conference (the Queen City 3A/4A) with Hough and Chambers, and we beat Hough last year. Now we are playing (Independence). Nobody believes in us, and I think we are doing a good job.”
To Tinsley’s point, the Mavericks are coming off an 8-4 season where, in seven of their eight wins, their defense held their opponents to single digits. While the Mavericks’ offense may still be a work in progress, the defense has held its own, and did so against an Independence team that a season ago averaged 41 points per game.
Also, Mallard Creek, Hough and Chambers are ranked in The Observer’s Sweet 16 poll of regional teams and in The Carolinas Top 25 poll of the top 25 teams, combined, in North and South Carolina.
“To become the Mallard Creek of old, we’ve got a ways to go,” Tinsley said. “We’ve got a ways to go in tonight’s football game. But, at the end of the day, we said that if people don’t respect the job that we are doing, we’ve got to make them respect it.”
The Mavericks got two of their scores Friday on interceptions returned for touchdowns from defensive back Nassor Ashenafi, who moved to Charlotte from Washington, D.C.
Despite being new to Mallard Creek, Ashenafi still carried a chip on his shoulder coming into the game.
“(The win) is big because nobody picked us,” Ashenafi said. “To be able to prove everybody who didn’t pick us wrong, that is very big and it is going to continue to be like that throughout the rest of the season.”
Mallard Creek (1-0) has a monster game at home Friday against Buford (GA). Buford is ranked No. 4 nationally by High School Football America and Buford quarterback Dylan Raiola is the No. 1-ranked high school football player in the nation in the senior class. He’s committed to Georgia.
To hang with Buford — which beat the Mavericks 56-7 last year, without Raiola — Tinsley’s going to need a special night from his defense.
He thinks the Mavericks are ready.
“We’ve got great coaches and great players who take a lot of pride in getting to the football, fitting the correct way, and winning on effort,” Tinsley said. “We’ve still got a long way to go, but I think there are some good signs there.”
