Just before he was about to dig into the postgame smorgasbord, Cary quarterback Kendall Smith set his plate aside and made his thoughts known about receiver and defensive back Morgan Harris.

“I love this guy,” said Smith, who completed 10-of-13 passes for 183 yards and three touchdowns. “This whole week of practice, he was working his butt off. I just wanted to see him do it in the game. He’s had a rough year so far with dropped passes. He promised to step it up, and he did tonight.”

Harris caught three passes for 129 yards and two touchdowns and he had two interceptions to help the Imps to a 40-20 win over Green Hope Friday.

“He did a great job tonight, and it was nice to see that,” said Cary coach Ben Kolstad.

On the Imps’ first possession, Harris hauled in a 47-yard touchdown pass from Smith.

After Cary’s Cameron Castor scored on a 57-yard punt return that put the Imps up 13-0, Harris intercepted Green Hope’s Max Drisco’s and returned it 24 yards to the Green Hope 31. A minute into the second quarter, Denny Feracho (10 carries, 84 yards) scored the first of his two touchdowns on a 2-yard run.

“We started off fairly strong,” Kolstad said. “We were playing good defense. We executed on offense. We kind of took what they gave us.”

While Cary clicked early, Green Hope struggled mightily.

The Falcons went three and out and had one turnover on their first four possessions. During that time, Cary built the 19-0 lead.

“We’re not good enough to come from behind like that,” Green Hope coach Steve Katz said. “Defensively, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Green Hope’s season-long struggles were compounded earlier in the week when quarterback Marcus Varsano was lost for the season after tearing an ACL in practice.

“Losing him like we did, on a freak accident in practice, was really hard on our kids,” Katz said. After falling in the three-touchdown hole, Green Hope fought to keep the game reasonably close. Rueben Ford (22 carries, 97 yards) scored the first of his three touchdowns midway through the second quarter on a 1-yard plunge, cutting the Imp lead to 19-7.

But Cary responded on the next play from scrimmage. Smith and Harris hooked up for the second time for a 71-yard touchdown and a 26-7 lead.

Ford scored again with one second remaining before halftime, but Cary responded on the opening series of the second half. Feracho capped an eight-play, 65-yard drive with a 14-yard touchdown run that put the Imps on top 33-13.

Early in the fourth quarter, Cary’s Smith tossed a 5-yard TD pass to Castor for a 40-13 lead.

“Everybody did a good job,” Harris said. “The receivers, quarterbacks, we were clicking tonight.”

Green Hope (1-7, 1-3) faces a brutal three-week stretch to close out the season. They have home dates against Fuquay-Varina and Athens Drive sandwiched around a road trip to Lee County. Just to be eligible for the postseason, the Falcons will have to win all three.

“It’s not getting any easier, that’s for sure,” Katz said. “We’ve learned from our experiences and we look forward to playing good competition.”

Cary (4-4, 2-2) squares off with rival Apex this week, before closing out the season with home games against Panther Creek and Fuquay-Varina. Kolstad would like to finish the season with four straight wins. But before they can do that, they must first win two in a row, something they haven’t done all season.

“It’s been back and forth,” Kolstad said of the season to date. “We have to [win]. We don’t have a choice. We’re now 2-2 in the conference. Every week counts. We play a real good Apex team next week, and we’ve got to be ready.”