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 7A 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 7A Defenders: Sacks Per Game

Minimum: 6 games

• Keysaun Eleazer, senior DE, Southeast Raleigh — 1.35 Sacks/Game
• Jace McCallum, senior DE, Hickory Ridge — 1.33 Sacks/Game
• Terande Spencer, senior OLB, Richmond — 1.31 Sacks/Game
• Manny Lewis, senior DE, Marvin Ridge — 1.25 Sacks/Game
• Ebenezer Ewetade, senior DE, South Garner — 1.11 Sacks/Game
• Jaylond Tate, junior DL, South Central — 1.11 Sacks/Game
• Xavier Johnson, senior DE, Jack Britt — 1.09 Sacks/Game
• Aiden Harris, senior DL, Weddington — 0.964 Sacks/Game
• Daniel Lugo, senior DL, Cleveland — 0.909 Sacks/Game
• Amari Reddick, senior DE, New Bern — 0.909 Sacks/Game
• Justin Blow, junior DE, South Central — 0.909 Sacks/Game
• Tyquan Richardson, senior DL, Garner — 0.833Sacks/Game
• Malachi Harris, senior DE, East Wake — 0.818 Sacks/Game
• Sterling Edwards, senior DL, Hillside — 0.8 Sacks/Game
• Lej’end Lockwood, sophomore LB, Butler — 0.778 Sacks/Game

Top Returning 7A Defenders: Interceptions Per Game

Minimum: 6 games

• Bryant White, junior DB, North Mecklenburg — 0.7 INT/Game
• Tayden McPhatter, senior DB, Garner — 0.667 INT/Game
• Deandre Charles, senior DB, R.J. Reynolds — 0.6 INT/Game
• Xavier Porter, senior DB, West Mecklenburg — 0.5 INT/Game
• Theron Batiste, junior DB, Cleveland — 0.5 INT/Game
• Kr’mir Barnes, senior DB, Southeast Raleigh — 0.5 INT/Game
• Xavier Hasan, junior DB, Cardinal Gibbons — 0.5 INT/Game
• Brendan Hicks, senior DB, Marvin Ridge — 0.5 INT/Game
• James Bell, junior DB, Smithfield-Selma — 0.429 INT/Game
• Jordan Hinson, senior DB, Reagan — 0.4 INT/Game
• Ricky Myers Jr., senior DB, Independence — 0.4 INT/Game
• Nikolai Lambert, junior DB, Purnell Swett — 0.4 INT/Game
• Deuce Geer, sophomore DB, Chapel Hill — 0.4 INT/Game
• Aiden Page, senior DB, Jack Britt — 0.364 INT/Game
• Lance Henderson, junior DB, Southern Durham — 0.364 INT/Game
• Jaylen Glover, senior DB, Lake Norman — 0.364 INT/Game

Top Returning 7A Defenders: Forced Fumbles per Game

Minimum: 6 games

• Keysaun Eleazer, senior DE, Southeast Raleigh — 0.5 FF/Game
• Jaylen King, senior DL, Cleveland — 0.462 FF/Game
• Ebenezer Ewetade, senior DE, South Garner — 0.444 FF/Game
• Jaylen Wilson, senior DL, Richmond — 0.4 FF/Game
• Aedan Davis, junior DB, South Garner — 0.375 FF/Game
• Lance Henderson, junior DB, Southern Durham — 0.364 FF/Game
• Gabe Roberts, senior LB, Heritage — 0.3 FF/Game
• Cameron Melvin, senior DL, Cleveland — 0.286 FF/Game
• Anthony Peele, senior LB, Page — 0.273 FF/Game
• Keshawn Stancil, senior DL, Clayton — 0.25 FF/Game
• Xavier Bonier, junior DL, Overhills — 0.25 FF/Game
• Jon Snipes, senior DB, Independence — 0.25 FF/Game
• Terande Spencer, senior OLB, Richmond — 0.231 FF/Game
• Darren Logan, senior DE, Cape Fear — 0.231 FF/Game
• Gavin Searcy, senior LB, R.J. Reynolds — 0.222 FF/Game

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