Ethan Farmer, Pharoah McKever, New Hanover-Topsail soccer & more

CHAPEL HILL (WWAY) — Ethan Farmer hopes to be able walk away with a win this weekend against East Carolina. Last year the former South Carolina Stallion and the Tar Heels lost to East Carolina. “this game is big for us,” earlier this week. “This game is a state game for us. Going into the game we know what happened last year. Coach Fedora knows and he doesn’t need to say anything to us. I mean it was a disappointing loss for us. We’re gonna learn from that. We’re gonna be ok.”

—————-

CHAPEL HILL, NC (GOHEELS.COM) — Larry Fedora gave his Tar Heels Friday and Saturday off from football practice as the team enjoyed a bye week after a 2-0 start. That gave the Tar Heels the chance to check out their next opponent, East Carolina on the road at Virginia Tech on Saturday.

A group of players gathered at the apartment of Justin Thomason to watch the Pirates, who jumped out to a 21-0 lead before winning 28-21 at Blacksburg. East Carolina has a veteran quarterback in Shane Carden and a group of savvy receivers that spread the field and find holes in the defense. But the Tar Heels didn’t just find that out on Saturday: Carden tossed for 376 yards and three scores in a 55-31 win over Carolina in Kenan Stadium last season.

“I remember what last year was like, and the majority of those guys are back. This is a veteran team,” Fedora said at his Monday press conference. “We knew what they were going to have, and we knew that they were going to be a really good football team, and they’re showing it.”

So the team knows they’ll have their work cut out for them on the road at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on Saturday. “East Carolina’s a really good football team,” Fedora said. “I read all the headlines about how they upset Virginia Tech, and I’ll tell you what, from the very beginning it was a heck of a game offensively. They pretty much could do no wrong in that first quarter. Whatever they did worked, and so they were playing really well with a lot of confidence.”

Meanwhile the Tar Heels used last week to both tune up some things and begin to game plan for the Pirates. One of the themes of the defensive side of the ball last week was ’34 missed tackles,’ the number the coaches counted when looking back at film from the San Diego State game. Though the Heels escaped with a win over the Aztecs, they know that the Pirates will make them pay for missed assignments.

Safety Tim Scott said in addition to the missed tackles, there were a lot of improper angles taken and players arriving late to the ball. “When you do that, you’re going to miss the tackle,” he said. “It’s a lot of effort. We weren’t putting effort into those plays, and it showed in the end.”

Ethan Farmer knows that he and the Tar Heel defensive line will have to pressure Carden and allow the secondary to make plays. “Just attacking, just keep attacking them as a d-line,” Farmer said. “We know what this game means, and we know as a d-line what we have to do, and don’t make any mistakes.”

Offensively, Carolina is still searching for consistency on the ground. Through two games, quarterback Marquise Williams is the team’s leading rusher (as he was in 2013). Despite a talented cupboard of backs, no Tar Heel tailback is averaging more than 40 yards rushing per game. A true running threat will help balance the offense and open things up downfield.

East Carolina nose tackle Terry Williams will make that difficult on Saturday. “I think they said he weighs 352 pounds, and he can move,” Fedora said. “What they do with their front, the way they read and just kind of sit, it makes it very difficult for you to run the football. If you look at through last year and what they’ve done up to this year, nobody has run the football successfully on them.”

• Good news and bad news on the injury front: The Tar Heels will likely be without right guard Landon Turner, who was removed from the San Diego State game last weekend with an apparent injury. Bandit Norkeithus Otis, who missed that game, should return to action this weekend.

** Note – Ethan Farmer is a graduate of South Columbus High School.

——————

Wednesday High School Scoreboard

VOLLEYBALL
WHITE OAK 3 – LEJEUNE 2

BOYS SOCCER
EAST BLADEN 3 – TRASK
COLBY HESTER, LOGAN BAXLEY & ALEX FELDER SCORED
PENDER 4 – WEST BLADEN 0
WILLIAM VELASQUEZ, OSVALDO RIVERA & JOSH MERRITT SCORED PLUS AN OWN GOAL
WHITEVILLE 8 – WEST COLUMBUS 0
SOUTH COLUMBUS 5 – EAST COLUMBUS 3
NEW HANOVER 4 – TOPSAIL 0 **Click icon above to see video

—————–

WILMINGTON, NC (CFCC RELEASE) — The Cape Fear Community College soccer teams squared off against Louisburg College Wednesday afternoon and the Sea Devils dropped a 3-0 match on the road, while the women played to a 0-0 draw at the CFCC North Campus Field. “Soccer can be tough when the better team does not come out on top,” said CFCC Women’s Coach Melissa Anderson. “We created several chances and just could not finish. You have to keep a lot of credit to the Louisburg keeper.”

Armani Boswell, Megan Fouty and Sarah Clinard all contributed in the Lady Sea Devils efforts to break open a scoreless match, but Abigail Ross was up to task in goal for the Hurricanes.
The Cape Fear men dropped to 5-2 overall and 1-2 in Region X play, while the women sit at 3-0-1 overall and 1-0-1 in conference. Both teams travel to Allendale, S.C., on Saturday, Sept. 20 for a league match against USC-Salkehatchie.

——————

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Follow our sports on Twitter at @WWAYSports

——————