Home Care In Clayton, NC

NC State wide receiver signee Aiden Smalls is making the most of his last moments playing quarterback for Clayton (N.C.) High.

Smalls ran four touchdowns and threw for the game-winning score in a 35-32 win over Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons on Thursday, which is the school he attended his first two years. The cherry on top was Smalls got an interception on the last play of the game on a Crusaders’ Hail Mary attempt.

Clayton (12-2) advanced to play defending champion Greensboro (N.C.) Grimsley (14-0) in the NCHSAA 7A state title game next Thursday.

The game

Cardinal Gibbons got an added bonus with the return of Wake Forest signee Gannon Jones at quarterback. Jones had broken his collarbone and hadn’t played since Sept. 19.

Smalls and Clayton took an early 7-3 lead, but the game changed when Cardinal Gibbons tried a fake punt at its own 10-yard line. The snap went to the unpack and he stumbled at own six-yard line. Smalls ran in for the six-yard touchdown run on the first play and the Comets took a 21-18 lead with 4:17 left in the third quarter.

Smalls ran the read-option and took off for a 18-yard touchdown run to give Clayton a 28-18 lead with 9:06 left in the fourth quarter.

Then Jones went to work and methodically took care of business with a mixture of his runs and throwing the ball. Cardinal Gibbons surged to a 32-28 lead with 2:21 left in the game, setting up Smalls’ late-game heroics.

Smalls threw a deep ball to Parker Ferguson, who got grabbed on the play, but he still came down with the 34-yard touchdown catch. Clayton declined the pass interference penalty and took a 35-32 lead with 33 seconds left.

NC State commits

Smalls was credited by HighSchoolOT.com with 30 carries for 183 yards and four touchdowns, and he went 10-of-21 passing for 178 yards and the famous touchdown toss. NC State will play Smalls at wide receiver, which is the position he played at Cardinal Gibbons his sophomore year.

Cardinal Gibbons junior Griffin Cockerham was all over the field defensively as an edge rusher, but will be a tight end at NC State.

NC State targets

NC State has offered Cardinal Gibbons junior cornerback and sophomore middle linebacker , but Hasan has a top six of Florida State, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Ohio State, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Alston was terrific and played a physical game at middle linebacker, and has attend at least three NC State home games this season — wins over East Carolina, Florida State and North Carolina.

Clayton junior cornerback Akedran Crumel also believes he has attended three Wolfpack home games, including the 42-19 win over North Carolina last Saturday. Crumel has been offered by NC State and has had three of his relatives play for the Wolfpack.

Past target

Miami (Fla.) senior defensive tackle signee Keshawn Stancil was a force in the middle of Clayton’s defense. He originally picked Clemson over NC State, Miami, Penn State and Georgia, but then flipped to the Hurricanes on Oct. 29. NC State had offered Stancil on May 16, 2024.

Coming up

The Wolfpacker will have a story on Smalls, Crumel and various scouting videos, which will be found here.

Ground and pound. Run first, then run again. Wear them out, chop them down.

However you characterize the Clayton Comets’ offense, there’s one descriptor against which no one wearing white and blue will argue:

Winning.

Aiden Smalls, a running quarterback with a solid arm — or is that a passing quarterback with stout legs? — used his fleet feet as his weapon of choice Thursday, helping No. 3 Clayton to a 35-32 upset win over No. 1 Cardinal Gibbons in Raleigh.

Smalls knew exactly what he was in for facing Cardinal Gibbons, a team for which he played in his first two seasons of high school football. Caught in a QB logjam with the Crusaders, and with a desire to go “home,” Smalls transferred to Clayton for his junior season. Now, as a senior, he’s not only N.C. State-bound after signing with the Wolfpack this week, but also state championship-bound with the Comets.

Clayton can air the ball out when he needs to — a pair of long pass plays to help sustain an early scoring drive and a winning touchdown pass proved as much — but when their two-headed monster of a run game, featuring Smalls and running back Noah Smith, is working as well as it has the past few weeks, it’s hard to justify going away from it.

Smalls finished with four rushing TDs Thursday night in addition to his touchdown throw to Parker Ferguson.

And as well as Smalls and the offense played, it was the Comets’ defense that clinched the game with an interception of Cardinal Gibbons QB Gannon Jones in the final minute of a back-and-forth second half that saw an explosion of points — starting with the opening kickoff of the half, which Xavier Hasan returned 98 yards to give the Crusaders their first lead of the game at 18-14.

Smalls popped off a pair of TD runs, one late in the third quarter and another to start the fourth quarter, to regain the lead for Clayton. Jones replied in kind for Cardinal Gibbons, and with 2:21 to play in regulation, Aaron Anderson scampered in from 29 yards out to again put the Crusaders ahead.

Smalls found Ferguson for a 32-yard strike with 33 seconds remaining, though, to put the Comets back on top for good, thanks to an interception — fittingly by Smalls.

First-half recap

Clayton set the early tone, and it did so quickly. Smalls capped a quick Comets drive with a 1-yard rushing touchdown just two minutes into the game, and a Nate Lunger kick made it 7-0.

The Crusaders chewed up the clock on their ensuing possession, and drove all the way to the Clayton 5, but had to settle for a field goal with about five minutes to play in the opening quarter, closing the deficit to four at 7-3.

Smalls twice extended another Clayton drive with longer pass plays to Ferguson and DeAngelo Ruffin before taking it into the end zone himself from 13 yards out to push the Comets’ lead to 14-3 after another Lunger PAT. Smith had a critical first-down run in the series, as well.

Cardinal Gibbons fought back for its first touchdown on a Gannon Jones 22-yard pass play, and a two-point conversion closed the gap to three at 14-11.

It looked as though Clayton might sneak a score in before the half, and Smalls drove the Comets all the way to the Crusaders’ 15, but they came up empty as the buzzer sounded.

Southeast Raleigh’s defense gave Clayton fits the last time the teams met, with the Bulldogs holding the Comets’ high-flying offense in check in a three-point win.

That’s still the only loss Clayton has on its record this season against 7A competition after the Comets completed their own mini revenge tour with a 35-21 win over Southeast Raleigh on Friday in the teams’ NCHSAA 7A East region semifinal.

The Comets’ run in this year’s playoffs actually started with a momentous win on the last day of the regular season, when they overcame perennial conference power Cleveland to earn a share of the conference title.

Then, Southeast Raleigh took Cleveland out of the playoffs a week ago to set up this rematch, in which Clayton QB Aiden Smalls was just too much to handle for the Bulldogs. Smalls ran for two touchdowns and passed for two more in leading the Comets (11-2) to the East region final, where they will face perennial state title contender and top seed Cardinal Gibbons.

Southeast Raleigh actually controlled the clock much of the third quarter, and drove deep into Clayton territory before an injury to QB Tydreke Powell stalled the Bulldogs’ momentum at the Clayton 10-yard line, where Southeast Raleigh turned it over on downs.

But on the next sequence of plays, the Bulldogs got the ball back on an interception, and an ensuing 29-yard run pulled Southeast Raleigh even with Clayton at 21-21.

Smalls, who’d passed and thrown for a touchdown in the first half, took over from there, doubling his totals in the third quarter alone to help Clayton pull away.

Parker Ferguson caught both of Smalls’ TD passes, the first from 47 yards out, and the second from 23. Nate Lunger was good on all five of his PATs, and Noah Smith had the other Clayton score.

First-half recap

Clayton’s defense started the game with a strong stand, forcing a punt from deep in the Southeast Raleigh end. Taking over from near midfield, it took only a handful of plays for the Comets to get on the board first when Aiden Smalls escaped for a 44-yard touchdown run. The ensuing extra point made it 7-0 for the home team.

Noah Smith added another rushing TD — this from a yard out — late in the first quarter to push the Comets’ lead to 14-0, and it looked for a while like Clayton was going to cruise.

On the ensuing drive, though, Powell fired a 43-yard touchdown pass to cut the Comets’ lead in half.

After a pair of stalled drives, Clayton DB Charles Smith came up with an interception inside his own 10-yard line. Aiden Smalls ran the Comets out of trouble and lugged the ball to midfield, and a few plays later found Ferguson for a passing touchdown, re-establishing Clayton’s two-touchdown advantage.

But the Bulldogs would not go quietly. With less than a minute to play in the half, another Powell passing TD from 18 yards out and the extra point again cut the deficit to seven, at 21-14.

Elsewhere in the NCHSAA playoffs

What could have been the upset of the playoff season turned into Exhibit A for why high school kickers deserve as much attention as anyone else on offense or defense.

Cardinal Gibbons kicker Evan Windley nailed his second field goal of the game as time expired Friday to lift the Crusaders to a 16-14 win over Garner in the NCHSAA 7A East region semifinal round.

No. 4 Garner (9-4) had top-seeded Cardinal Gibbons (12-1) on the ropes in the fourth quarter, but one final drive deep into the Trojans’ end allowed Windley to line up and make his winning kick from 23 yards out.

The Crusaders scored first, on Windley’s first field goal late in the second quarter, and that’s where the score stood through halftime.

Garner scored a pair of touchdowns on long runs. The second, from Amir Wallace, gave the Trojans a 14-13 lead, which nearly stood up.

Cardinal Gibbons will host No. 3 Clayton on Friday, Dec. 5, in the East region final.

In the 8A East regional final, unbeaten No. 2 Millbrook went on the road and upended unbeaten No. 1 Hoggard, 14-7, to reach the inaugural NCHSAA 8A state final, which will be played in two weeks.

The Wildcats (13-0) will face unbeaten West top seed Hough (13-0), which dominated West Charlotte on Friday, 24-0.

In a 6A East region semifinal, Middle Creek of Apex continued its run with a 31-24 win over Northern Nash. The No. 3 Mustangs (10-2) will face unbeaten top seed Jacksonville in the East region final on Friday, Dec. 5.