Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The North Stanly football season ended Friday night in a road loss in the opening round of the 2024 state playoffs.

North was the No. 19 seeds in the 2A Western Region, and went on the road to face the No. 14 Burns Bulldogs.

The hosts went up 14-0 in the first quarter and never trailed, eliminating the Comets from the postseason 24-14.

Trailing by two touchdowns in the second quarter, Noah Carter kicked a 40-yard field goal for North (6-4). Burns (8-3) also got a field goal in the second, making the score at halftime 17-3.

Aden Allsbrook scored the only touchdown of the third quarter on a one-yard run, which got the Comets to within one possession.

Burns scored a fourth-quarter touchdown.

North had 127 rushing yards as quarterback Charlie Shaver completed seven passes.

The Comets defense limited Burns to 71 passing yards on 7-of-11 passing, but Burns averaged 6.5 yards per rushing attempt, finishing with 208 yards on 34 carries.

Allsbrook led North’s defense with 21 tackles and a sack, while Juice Lilly added 10 tackles and Grayson Smith had nine tackles. Nate Helms had five tackles and picked off a Burns pass for North, and Jarrett Martin added six tackles and a quarterback sack.

“We matched up well,” North Stanly head coach Chad Little said. “We practiced hard all week in preparation. They came out strong and we didn’t match their intensity at the beginning.

Little said North got some momentum in the second half, but added, “anytime a team has to travel two-plus hours on an activity bus, and then we expect them to play a high intensity game, it’s hard to ask of them.”

The North coach called the 2024 season successful, adding the team was playing “in a hard 2A bracket.” He said winning the Stanly Cup this season “means a lot to us Stanly County folks. We beat all the Stanly teams and finished second in our conference, only losing to conference champion Mount Pleasant. North Stanly is a strong program in Stanly County headed in the right direction.”