CityView Magazine

CityViewNC .com | 31 play for the University of Nebraska. Repeatedly sidelined by knee injuries while with the Cornhuskers, he came off the bench to lead his team on a 99-yard drive as they went on to beat Florida 13-10 in the 1974 Sugar Bowl. Back in the 1970s it was not uncommon for county football teams to play each other twice, which Massey Hill and Seventy-First did. e second game ended in a 6-6 tie, with Seventy-First's Gary Pellom blocking a Luck field goal in the final seconds to preserve the deadlock. To this day, the Falcons aren't sure what spell Luck and his veteran head coach Maurice Chapman wielded on them. "I really can't think of a reason,'' Pellom said. "Terry Luck was a superb athlete. I just think they got into our head somehow." Heath credited outstanding athletes like Luck and Hubert Roscoe, along with Chapman's coaching. "Everybody respected Coach Chapman,'' Heath said. "He had a knack of getting the best out his players and was well-respected by everybody.'' The w in that conv inced the Falcons they had a contender came about half way through the season against Pine Forest. The Rebels, as they were cal led back then, were considered one of the favorites for the Pioneer tit le. The Falcons registered their second-most lopsided w in of the season, 42-8. "ey were pretty well thought of as a legitimate playoff team,'' Heath said. "at was a benchmark for us. Us beating them, that told me we can play with the best of them.'' It was that win, and a season-ending 22-6 verdict over Cape Fear, that earned the Falcons the Pioneer 3-A Conference's only state playoff berth. ey were tied at the top of the league standings with Pine Forest at 3-1, but the earlier win over the Rebels gave the Falcons the berth in the postseason. ey opened the playoffs with a tough Scotland team coached by Henry Vansant, who years later would become head coach of the Falcons. Boyette and the Falcons welcomed a key player back into the

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