honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser

Updated at 6:05 p.m., Sunday, September 2, 2007

Preps: 109-game football win streak comes to end

Associated Press

CINCINNATI — The streak is over at Charlotte Independence — 109 wins and seven years after it began.

Cincinnati Elder ended the nation's longest football winning streak with a 41-34 overtime victory over the North Carolina high school Saturday night in the Kirk Herbstreit Challenge.

Johnny Groene threw a 14-yard touchdown pass to Josh Jones in OT for the winning score. Keith Hamberg sealed the victory with an interception for the Panthers (2-0), who forced overtime with a 1-yard TD run by Nick Gramke with 35 seconds left in the fourth quarter.

Independence's Robbie Ward missed a 48-yard field goal in the final seconds of regulation that would have won it.

"We never could stop them," coach Tom Knotts told The Charlotte Observer. "We had our best on their best, and they made big plays ... I told our team it was coming, and I hated to say I told you so.

"We have been living dangerously, this season and last. We opened the door for everybody. Now it's over. We didn't make plays or force turnovers."

Independence (1-1) had not lost since falling 34-31 to Shelby Crest exactly seven years ago, on Sept. 1, 2000, when this year's team was in elementary school.

During the run, the Patriots — who have been ranked No. 1 in The Associated Press state 4-A poll since the beginning of the 2001 season — became the first team to win seven straight state championships in North Carolina.

Most of the wins weren't close. Independence had beaten opponents during its win streak by an average of nearly 35 points per game entering the 2007 season.

"It is going to be rough for a few days," Knotts said. "Now we'll go back to work on winning a state championship."

The Patriots shattered the state record for consecutive wins, breaking the previous mark of 46 to open the 2003 season and earning their 100th straight win by beating East Mecklenburg in October.

Independence took over the nation's longest winning streak after Concord (Calif.) De La Salle's loss in 2004 ended a 151-game winning streak.