Brunswick Co. football rivalry turns ugly

BRUNSWICK COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — Rivalries stir passion in high schools, but a prank tied to one of tonight’s big games landed six boys on the wrong side of the law.

Every rose has its thorn, and in this case the thorn was rival retaliation. Sheriff’s investigators say North Brunswick High School students vandalized the football stadium at South Brunswick High School in the dead of night.

As North Brunswick hosted South Brunswick in Leland Friday night, there was talk not only about what was happening on the field, but what happened off the field early Friday morning.

“I couldn’t believe what was done,” South Brunswick student Courtney Pierce said. “I mean I always thought it was a prank, but I never thought they would actually do something.”

The prank: the bleachers and scoreboard at South Brunswick’s football field were spray painted. The screens on the windows of the concession stands were ripped out.

It all started when some students from South Brunswick sent flowers with a message saying “Rest in Peace” to the North Brunswick High School office. The condolences referring to the North Brunswick football team. When some scorpion students took it personally, retaliation ensued.

Folks in the area are shocked that something like this is happening and say it’s immature.

“I can’t knock it because I was a kid once, and we used to do things, but I thought they outgrew that,” said Nola Nicholas, who lives near South Brunswick High in Boiling Spring Lakes. “I thought that was a West Coast thing, and I thought they had more smarts here on the East Coast.”

Brunswick County deputies arrested six North Brunswick students for the vandalism: Patrick Smith, Steven Linkus, Christopher Ganey, James White, Bryan Hall and Trevor Benton. Benton, the kicker for the Scorpions football team, was noticeably absent from the game.

As the teams faced off under the Friday night lights, fans hoped the early-morning antics would be little more than a footnote in the rivalry’s history.

“They shouldn’t be going against the whole school, because the school didn’t do anything to them. It was just the football team,” North Brunswick student Dennis Comer said.

There were some thought among students there would be a fight at the game. That did not happen. There were extra security and metal detectors, though, to make sure nothing got out of hand.