PITTSBORO — Seaforth quarterback Duncan Parker’s career night fueled the Hawks’ 48-0 rout over Chapel Hill Thursday.
Parker, a senior, threw for a career-high six touchdowns and ran in one to lead the Hawks to their first season-opening win in program history. Seaforth scored 41 points in the first half.
Junior tight end Mason Pooley caught three scores, going for 30, 15 and 45 yards. Senior receiver Max Hinchman caught a 37-yard strike for Seaforth’s first points, and after a long interception return from senior safety James Detzi, junior receiver Noah Fuller hauled in a 26-yard score to trigger a running clock right before halftime.
“We planned for it all week,” Parker said. “They kept leaving the middle wide open for us.”
Seaforth’s first offensive play from scrimmage was a lost fumble caused by Chapel Hill senior Connor Ellis and recovered by junior Troy Munday at the Hawks’ 19-yard line.
“It’s always next play mentality,” Pooley said. “That happened in the past. We move on. We come out better, we come out hot, and that’s what we did.”
Penalties, which plagued the Tigers all night, ruined Chapel Hill’s field position and helped Seaforth force a punt.
Hinchman’s score on the following possession began an avalanche of fortunate events for Seaforth.
Midway through the first quarter, Chapel Hill lost a fumble that was recovered by Seaforth senior Jackson Knoll at the Tigers’ 22-yard line. The Hawks turned it into Pooley’s first touchdown reception of the night.
To start the second quarter, Seaforth’s defense forced a turnover on downs, and on the next offensive possession, Parker found Pooley in the end zone again for a 21-0 lead.
Less than two game minutes later, junior safety Jude O’Neill intercepted a pass near midfield and took returned it to the Chapel Hill 7. Parker cashed in that turnover with a 7-yard touchdown run.
“We’ve been watching film all week, and they don’t have many concepts that they run,” O’Neill said. “So we were just on that the whole game. The whole unit played well. The (defensive) line, they were making it easy for us, so we just knew when our time was there, we had to jump the route.”
In the final two minutes of the game, senior receiver Connor Daley caught and ran in a score for 23 yards.
The Hawks avenged a close loss to Chapel Hill in last year’s season opener.
“Felt like we should’ve got that win last year,” Seaforth coach Tolbert Matthews said. “We allowed Chapel Hill to sneak out of there with the win, so we knew this year was the get back, and we think we handled business on the field today.”
Seaforth moved to 1-0 and will seek revenge again at Southeast Alamance on Aug. 28. The Stallions dominated the Hawks 41-12 in 2025.
“Like coach said, the only thing that can beat us is us,” Parker said. “I think that if we focus on ourselves and our assignments, and we do what we did tonight — play ball — we’ll be alright.”
Chapel Hill, now 0-1, will look to bounce back at home against Orange in Week 2.