PILOT MOUNTAIN — For East Surry, Friday must have seemed like a recurring nightmare, while for Mount Airy, like a sweet dream.

Just like a year ago, the Cardinals couldn’t find their footing offensively and fell victim to the Granite Bears’ big play ability as Mount Airy ran away with the Northwest 1A/2A Conference title, 30-6.

It marks the third straight conference crown for coach Kelly Holder and the Bears, who pulled out some trickery to take control of the game just before the half.

Up 10-0 with just more than a minute left to play before the gun, senior running back Luke Wheeler lined up behind center in a shotgun formation, with Bears quarterback Ben Hinson out wide left.

Wheeler took the snap, faked the run and lobbed a beautiful, if shaky, pass over the East Surry defense into the open arms of senior Justin Collier, who jetted directly to the end zone.

The play was a back breaker for East Surry, which had a chance to put pressure on the Bears after forcing a fumble inside Mount Airy territory just before Collier’s big catch.

After regaining possession, the Cards fell victim to a miscue of their own, as the second flip on a double reverse missed its target and gave the ball right back to a salivating Mount Airy offense that went in for the kill.

“That play was really for 2nd-and-short,” Holder said of the halfback pass. “That’s a play you don’t work on every week. It’s not something you’re going to do every game, but you want to do it on a down that you might can waste. But it got to the point that they were looking for a screen every time, which is really a staple of our offense. And when they started doing that, that’s when I knew it was time for it.”

Wheeler said he just hoped he could get the ball to his receiver.

“He (Holder) just told me Collier should be wide open, just give him a pass to catch,” Wheeler said. “I said, ‘Alright, hopefully I can.’ It came off a little wobbly, but I hit him in stride. It’s great to have a threat like that because when they put eight in the box and they are all coming at you to stop the run, you need some big plays like that, somebody that has sure hands, somebody you can go to. Collier did a great job tonight.”

“If it gets there, it gets there,” Collier said. “I’ll take it.”

From the East Surry perspective, coach David Diamont said the missed opportunity on the Mount Airy turnover proved costly.

“We got a turnover and didn’t cash in on it,” Diamont said. “That could have been a real boost if we would have put some points on the board. I probably should have gotten conservative from the get-go and turned around and given the ball to the tailback more often but I tried to get fancy and it blew up.”

While Wheeler picked up the big pass play early, it was the Ben Hinson to Collier connection which hurt East Surry in the end.

The Cardinals all but eliminated the Bears’ rushing attack, holding Mount Airy to just 103 yards on 30 carries, including limiting shifty senior tailback Andy Temoney to just 9 yards on 12 carries.

Collier on the other hand had a breakout game, catching six passes for 179-yards and three touchdowns, while Hinson was impeccable, finishing 10-of-13 passing for 235 yards and two touchdowns.

“Collier made a bunch of big plays and, golly, Ben Hinson has been so good for us this year,” Holder said. “But I’m going to tell you what, they (East Surry) are good. They are really good on defense. They stuffed our run quite a bit and they made us do some things. They went man coverage and practically put eight in the box and they just dared us. We beat a good team tonight. I was pretty proud of our effort.”

East Surry coach David Diamont said he thought his team did well to keep Mount Airy’s ground attack at bay, but that the Cardinals lacked the punch they needed to take the win.

“I thought we did an excellent job of stopping their running game,” East Surry coach David Diamont said. “All night long I thought our kids played very hard to stop the run game. The special teams didn’t break any long runs on us. They just played real well when they threw the ball down field. We had some big breakdowns and it cost us. To play Mount Airy, to play any team that’s good, you’ve got to put points on the board early to give your kids confidence to let your kids know you can play with them. We didn’t do that and we let it slip away from us.”

East Surry had trouble sustaining drives throughout the game, but found more success in the second half after moving Hunter Diamont to running back from the quarterback spot.

Diamont led East offensively, finishing with 127-yards rushing on 27 carries.

East’s lone score of the night came in the fourth quarter on a 41-yard hook up from Logan Hoosier to Andrew Hunter. It was a bright spot for Hunter, who had the luck of dealing with Collier all night.

Hunter Diamont said he thought his team’s defense played well, but that Mount Airy showed why it is the No. 1 ranked 1A team in North Carolina.

“We shut down the run pretty good, which is something they are known for, but they made big plays when they had to and that’s how you win ball games,” he said. “They are one of the best teams in the state.”

“It’s just hard work basically,” Collier said. “Put in the work during practice and come out Friday pumped up. They were giving us a bit of a challenge in the first quarter, but we came out second quarter alive and started coming down field, moving the ball, stopping the ball. Defense played great I think, line blocked good on pass blocking and the quarterback threw the ball good.”

Despite the tough loss, Diamont said his Cardinals (10-1, 6-1) have nothing to be ashamed of.

“We are still a pretty good football team,” he said. “We made some mistakes tonight, but I am proud of my kids. My kids played real well and played hard.”

With the win, Mount Airy (11-0, 7-0) all but clinched a top seed in the state playoffs and homefield advantage. After the big win, Holder seemed very pleased with his team’s performance.

“It’s great,” he said. “You know what, I never would have thought we would be standing here. Our kids have been so resilient. We lost 17 starters out of 22 from last year, but the five we got back are pretty good. There have been some kids who have stepped up, Brooks Mayberry, Scwhartz and Rucker, can’t say enough about them. Can’t name them all, but they have stepped up and become big time players for us and that’s really what has put us here.”

Contact Thomas Smith at tsmith@mtairynews.com or 719-1920.