The Chapel Hill High School football team did the unthinkable Friday night, stunning the undefeated defending state champion Southern Durham 39-28 in a Class 3AA third-round playoff game.

The No. 12 seeded Tigers were a prohibitive underdog coming in and lost to Southern Durham, the top seed, 38-12 in early October. Despite making major strides Chapel Hill also lost in a rout to Northwood and in heartbreaking fashion to Orange in the regular season.

Southern Durham, the defending state champions in the division, saw a remarkable 27-game winning streak come crashing down under the weight of a steamrolling Chapel Hill express.

The hungry Tigers (12-3) pounced on the Spartans for an early 9-0 lead and consistently fought off the Spartans (13-1) throughout in mostly maintaining a lead. Southern Durham, to its credit, fought back to make it 22-22 at intermission, but then allowed the next two scores early in the third and fourth quarters as the Tigers held on.

Tigers quarterback Connor Stough completed 23-of-43 passes for 258 yards and a touchdown, with Logan Tisch adding a pair of touchdown runs. Andrew Gillespie’s 35 yard touchdown run came early in the fourth quarter and was crucial in the win.

Connor Albrecht, WCHL/Chapelboro.com’s ‘Grid Great of the Week’ this past week again did his part with a late field goal that provided the final cushion.

Chapel Hill’s defense also amassed five sacks of Southern Durham standout quarterback Kendall Hinton.

Orange, which may have unwittingly fueled Chapel Hill’s amazing run with a 38-37 win over the Tigers in the regular season, wasn’t so fortunate in its third-round clash.

The Panthers, aka ‘Crush’, were overrun in the second quarter by three touchdowns en route to a bruising 31-7 loss at the hands of Northern Guilford.

C.J. Freeman had a two-yard touchdown run and quarterback Cam Harris ran for one score and threw for another as the Nighthawks built a 21-0 lead.

A field goal and another Harris touchdown strike, this time to Max Maynard, all but put it away for Northern Guilford. The Nighthawks (13-1), who beat Northwood in the opening round, will host Chapel Hill next Friday in the semifinals of the 3AA state playoffs.

Garrett Cloer hit Bryse Wilson for a touchdown pass for the Panthers, who ended their still impressive season at 13-2.

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