The fireworks were out at Carter-Finley Stadium for Saturday's 2A state championship game between Shelby and Wallace-Rose Hill. The two teams traded explosive plays throughout the first half that exhausted fans and players alike. The nine touchdowns scored in the first half set the one for the afternoon, but it was Shelby who went home with the championship hardware as the Golden Lions pounced on the Bulldogs of Wallace-Rose Hill for a 55-34 victory.
Kanye Roberts got the party going for Wallace-Rose Hill with a lightning-quick, fifty-six-yard touchdown run two minutes into the game. Ninety seconds later, Izay Bridges hauled in a twenty-three-yard pass from Daylin Lee to knot the score at 7-7. After forcing a Wallace-Rose Hill punt, the Golden Lions took their first lead of the game late in the quarter when Daylin Lee hit Demetrius Thompson in the end zone for the Shelby score.
The second quarter saw each team daring the other team to try and stop them with Kanye Robers and Daylin Lee answering the call each time on offense. Kanye Roberts scored three times in the second stanza, each run progressively longer and more impressive than the previous. At the half, the senior App State commit had 186 yards and four touchdowns. Daylin Lee threw for two more scores in the last two minutes of the half, the first an impressive grab by Ja’Keith Hamilton and the second a long catch and rub by Izay Bridges, to help Shelby take a 34-27 lead into the half.
Shelby started the third quarter with a bang as Marquis Adams hauled in a long forty-two-yard bomb for his first of two scores in the third quarter. Just as Wallace-Rose Hill fought its way back down the field, Nathan Hopper picked off a rare Wallace-Rose Hill pass and returned it twenty yards to set the Golden Lions up for Adams's three-yard run to help the Golden Lions take a three-score lead into the final quarter.
Adams was not finished, however, as the senior running back added another long touchdown three minutes into the final period. Kanye Roberts kept his hat in the ring as well, scoring his fifth touchdown of the night on a big-time run, but it was too little too late for the Bulldogs as the Shelby players celebrated with a Gatorade bath for head coach Mike Wilbanks as the clock moved towards triple zero.
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