By Mike London
Salisbury Post
GRANITE QUARRY — Coach W.A. Cline stood on the East Rowan football field, raised a head still filled with white hair and gazed up at the bleachers with watery eyes.
Not everyone gets a stadium named after them, and this was Cline’s night. It was special for him, and then some.
“This was the first time I’ve walked on this field and looked up at the stands in 30 years” said Cline who was East’s head coach from 1967-75 and then returned for an encore from 1987-94. “This was a reunion with a lot of men I haven’t seen in a very long time. There were a lot of stories told. It was just a great night. This school, this football field, this community have always been close to my heart.”
For 17 years in all, Cline led the Mustangs. There were a fistful of championships and one perfect season in 1969, the Year of the Mustang. Forty years would pass before Scott Young, who played for Cline, would lead West Rowan to the county’s next perfect season.
“When I came to East in 1967 I’d already coached in Danville, Va. for four years and I’d coached a year as a college graduate assistant, so I knew talent when I saw it,” Cline said. “We had a lot of rookie coaches on the staff and one of them said to me, ‘Hey, we’re pretty good, aren’t we?’ And I answered, ‘Yes, we are good. We’ll win our share.’ We went 5-5, but we weren’t bad at all. Then the next year, we integrated, and we got better.”
East also added record-breakers CM (Yates) and Johnny (Yarbrough) to the offense in 1968. Yarbrough still holds some Rowan County records. His 43 career touchdown catches may be the county standard forever.
The “Y Boys” were sophomores when East won the first conference championship in school history in 1968. Then came the 13-0 magic of 1969, the historic defense led by Willie Lowe, and the Yates-to-Yarbrough passing combination that made headlines and pulled out playoff games. No North Piedmont Conference champ had won against the South Piedmont champ in the Piedmont championship game since 1961 — not until East beat Concord. And then East beat Shelby.
As Cline was honored at halftime, East trailed Salisbury 24-14, but the Mustangs (3-3) had gotten back in the game after trailing 18-0, and there was no shortage of energy in W.A. Cline Stadium.
Ironically, East’s passing game had been close to zero all season, actually somewhat worse than zero, with six interceptions and no touchdowns. But on this night, on this special night, on Cline’s night, East’s 6-foot-3 sophomore quarterback Julian Cauble and 5-foot-10 junior receiver Jason Bonds experienced breakouts simultaneously. They had the games of their lives. For one night, at least, they performed a decent impression of Yates and Yarbrough. Three times Cauble found Bonds sprinting past Salisbury DBs, and the Mustangs rallied for an improbable 27-24 victory. East had lost by 57 points to the Hornets in 2024.
“I think we’re a running team,” East’s second-year head coach Brian Flynn said. “But we’ve had problems running the ball all year because teams have been loading the box against us. So that was a big part of our game plan for Salisbury. Get their guys running side to side some. Get their guys worried about defending the edge. Make them get some of their guys out of the box. They were just daring us to throw it, and when teams do that we have to make them pay for it. Tonight we did. Our guys work like crazy in practice, so it hasn’t been for any lack of trying on their part of the coach’s part that we haven’t been very successful. But tonight, Cauble and Bonds, they did what they’re capable of doing. They did what we’ve been asking them to do.”
While Cauble was best known as a promising baseball pitcher before Friday, Bonds’ biggest contributions to East athletics before the Salisbury game had been on the golf course.
“I didn’t play football in middle school, didn’t play football my freshman year at East,” Bonds said. “My friends talked me into going out my sophomore year and it turned out to be a lot of fun. This year has been even more fun because we’ve won some. Winning is fun.”
Bonds was the team’s leading receiver coming into the game, but with no TDs, nothing to set off any fire alarms. His previous most impactful game had been four catches for 55 yards. But against the Hornets, he had 10 catches for 164 yards. Cauble threw for 194.
“It was quite the night,” Bonds said. “We got our first touchdown pass on a double move and that gave us some confidence. The whole team got some energy from it. Even down 18-7, there was a ‘we can do it’ feeling in the huddle. Everyone on the team knew we were in the game. You could feel the momentum shifting.”
The Hornets stayed man-to-man on Bonds. There was no deep help with the box still stacked with Hornet defenders. After Bonds got his second touchdown on a basic ‘g0′ route, the Mustangs were down 10 at halftime.
“Salisbury was doing a great job of stoning our running game in the first half,” Flynn said. “But those touchdown passes helped us get our running game going a little bit. That loosed them up some. Jaxon Lyons is a very good young back and he runs hard and we we were able to start pounding it some.”
There weren’t many huge chunks for Lyons, who battled for 67 yards, but there were steady gains, as East’s offensive line went to work. Lyons got the touchdown that cut the Hornets’ lead to 24-21.
Bonds’ teammates have nicknamed him “James,” a reference to James Bond, 007, the world-famous British secret agent.
“Not my idea,” Bonds said with a sigh. “But everybody calls me James.”
Bonds was about to shake and stir the Hornets one last time.
He got loose again, Cauble made the throw, and the o-line gave him time to make it. The third TD connection of the night. It was like Yates and Yarbrough used to do it. It was like old times.
One last defensive stand — Salisbury had first and goal at the 9 late — and the Mustangs owned their biggest victory in a long time.
“It was a very emotional night for this program, this school and for this community,” Flynn said. “A great night for East Rowan football.”
