NEW LONDON — Monroe High’s Jamison Crowder returned the opening kickoff 91 yards for a score and the Redhawks never looked back en route to a 62-3 win over North Stanly on Friday.

“To be 7-0 right now, that’s the one thing that we talked about before the game,” coach Johnny Sowell said after the win.

Monroe jumped out with 28 first-quarter points and took a 42-3 lead into the half before allowing some of the junior varsity players to get some touches.

Throughout the first three quarters, big plays were Monroe’s trademark. Monroe had touchdown plays of 35, 53, 65,, 56 and 58 yards; twice they scored on the first play of the drive and once on the second play.

“We got some kids that can hit some home runs, and we’re going to give those kids the opportunity,” Sowell said.

Shamiir Hailey carried much of the load on the ground, giving Monroe 164 rushing yards, two touchdowns and a two-point conversion.

Defensivey, Issac Blakeney stood out, constantly pressuring the opposing team’s quarterback. By the third quarter, Blakeney had forced bad throws thanks to 12 quarterback pressures and three sacks.

“They like to run a lot of option, so my job, no matter what the quarterback did, I had the quarterback,” Blakeney said.

“We knew a couple weeks ago that he might have the opportunity to play that position at the next level, and he’s enjoying it right now,” said Sowell of Blakeney, who has committed to Duke.

“Oh I like it. They’ve usually got me at cornerback, but I like playing defensive end,” Blakeney added.

Moving into next week’s home matchup with Union Academy, Sowell said his team needed to work on tackling and special teams coverage in order to prepare for stiffer competition later in the year.