The 80th Shine Bowl of the Carolinas bore little resemblance to the 79th.
Last year’s battle between North and South Carolina was the highest-scoring in event history, with North Carolina winning 54-39.
On Saturday, it was a defensive struggle at Gibbs Stadium in Spartansburg, SC. South Carolina opened the scoring with a touchdown and never saw the end zone again. They had two first downs in the second half.
North Carolina defeated South Carolina 17-10 on a 18-yard touchdown pass from Myers Park quarterback Jack Davidson to Northwest Guilford’s Thomas Henningan with :20 remaining.
North Carolina had four Orange representatives on the squad. Defensive end Stone Edwards and linebacker Devondrez Moore. Serving as assistant coaches were Panthers head coach Pat Moser and defensive coordinator Van Smith.
Edwards, who finished his senior season with 67 tackles, 21 tackles for loss and 13 sacks, had 2 tackles and a sack. Moore, a linebacker for transferred to Hillsborough from Northern Durham, was 2nd on the team with 79 tackles in 2016. On Saturday, he had 1.5 tackles for loss.
North Carolina scored the game’s final 17 points.
The Shrine Bowl coincided with State Championship Saturday, when seven state championships were decided to end the fall sports season. While Moser, Smith, Edwards and Moore would have preferred to spend their Saturday playing at BB&T Field for the 3-A State Championship, Orange High was loosely represented in the state championships.
Former Orange running back Damon Scott, the backbone of the Panthers offense in 1992 that went to the 2nd round of the 4-A state playoffs, served as an assistant coach for the Shelby Golden Lions. At Carter-Finley Stadium, Shelby earned its 4th consecutive 2-AA state championship, defeating Jacksonville Northside 28-6.
After graduating from Orange, Scott became a I-AA All-American running back for Appalachian State. For two seasons, he shared the backfield with quarterback Scott Satterfield, who graduated from Orange in 1991.
Coincidentally enough, Satterfield also earned a coaching championship on Saturday. Satterfield, now the head coach at Appalachian State, earned its second consecutive Camillia Bowl Championship, holding off Toledo 31-28 in Montgomery, Alabama.
App State reached 10 victories for the second straight year and became the first FBS team to win two bowl games in its first two years of eligibility. Last season, it overcame a 24-7 deficit to beat Ohio 31-29 on a last-second field goal from Zach Matics.