In the month of April, HSOT Insiders will receive daily articles to preview the 2025 high school football season in North Carolina.

Today, we have a breakdown of the 8A N.C. High School Athletic Association returning defensive playmakers.

We don’t cover returning tackle leaders, since teams have very different definitions of what constitutes a tackle or an assist tackle from one another.

The defensive stats we tracked for this article are sacks, interceptions, and forced fumbles.

Since players often don’t play the same number of games, we break our stats down into averages.

To have players featured in these articles, teams either must post their full stats online or send them to Joel.

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Top Returning 8A Defenders: Sacks Per Game

Minimum: 6 games

1. Rashad Streets, junior DE, Millbrook — 2.0 Sacks/Game
2. Jaysen Oriol, senior DL, Panther Creek — 1.3 Sacks/Game
3. Daviel Eldridge, senior DL, West Forsyth — 1.2 Sacks/Game
4. Lacina Coulibaly, junior DL, Panther Creek — 1.1 Sacks/Game
5. Dontrell Mims, junior DL, Hoke County — 1.0 Sacks/Game
6. Quinton Cypher, junior LB, Millbrook — 0.96 Sacks/Game
7. Chase Sizer, junior DL, Millbrook (transfer from Wakefield) — 0.85 Sacks/Game
8. Kaden Smith, junior DL, West Charlotte — 0.846 Sacks/Game
9. Sam Johnson, senior DL, West Charlotte — 0.79 Sacks/Game
10. Sam White, senior DL, Leesville Road — 0.75 Sacks/Game
11. James Cochran, junior DL, Athens Drive — 0.72 Sacks/Game
12. Logan Kiser, senior DL, Leesville Road — 0.71 Sacks/Game
13. Jaden Colson, senior DL, Rolesville (transfer from Ravenscroft) — 0.7 Sacks/Game
14. Marshall Chalk, junior DL, Hoggard — 0.642 Sacks/Game
15. Everett Hoerdemann, senior DL, Hoggard — 0.636 Sacks/Game

Top Returning 8A Defenders: Interceptions Per Game

Minimum: 6 games

• Logan Faulring, senior DB, Apex Friendship — 0.667 INT/Game
• Davion Jones, junior DB, West Charlotte — 0.467 INT/Game
• Jalani Legette, senior DB, Panther Creek — 0.4 INT/Game
• James Bailey, senior DB, East Mecklenburg — 0.4 INT/Game
• KD Cotton, senior DB, West Charlotte — 0.357 INT/Game
• Evan Brown, junior DB, Leesville Road — 0.333 INT/Game
• Cairo Williams, junior DB, Millbrook — 0.333 INT/Game
• Lareun Wilson, junior DB, Jordan — 0.333 INT/Game
• Austin Jackson, senior DB, Northwest Guilford — 0.333 INT/Game
• Ryan Person, senior DB, Enloe — 0.273 INT/Game
• Aydric Spivey, senior DB, Willow Spring — 0.273 INT/Game
• Jacob McPherson, senior DB, Laney — 0.273 INT/Game
• Quinton Cypher, junior LB, Millbrook — 0.231 INT/Game
• Keith Taylor, senior DL, West Forsyth — 0.222 INT/Game
• Daniel Lovelace-Davis, sophomore DB, Leesville Road — 0.222 INT/Game

Top Returning 8A Defenders: Forced Fumbles per Game

Minimum: 6 games

• Kadorien Wallace, junior LB, Laney — 0.3 FF/Game
• Kaden Smith, junior DL, West Charlotte — 0.231 FF/Game
• Sam Johnson, senior DL, West Charlotte — 0.214 FF/Game
• Sam White, senior DL, Leesville Road — 0.167 FF/Game
• Sincere Gray, junior DB, West Charlotte — 0.167 FF/Game
• Austin Jackson, senior DB, Northwest Guilford — 0.167 FF/Game
• Logan Kiser, senior DL, Leesville Road — 0.143 FF/Game
• Juarod Williams, senior DL, Panther Creek — 0.125 FF/Game
• Evan Brown, junior DB, Leesville Road — 0.111 FF/Game
• Jaysen Oriol, senior DL, Panther Creek — 0.1 FF/Game
• Rodney Dunham, senior DE, Myers Park — 0.1 FF/Game
• James Bailey, senior DB, East Mecklenburg — 0.1 FF/Game
• Daviel Eldridge, senior DL, West Forsyth — 0.091 FF/Game
• Cairo Williams, junior DB, Millbrook — 0.083FF/Game
• Logan Faulring, senior DB, Apex Friendship — 0.083 FF/Game

HSOT Insiders should stay tuned to the site throughout the spring and summer months for more football preview articles.