CONCORD — For a half, fans wondered who those fellows were who were wandering around aimlessly in those blue and white uniforms.
But in the second half of Friday night’s 3A South Piedmont Conference game, West Rowan played like what it is.
Like a champion.
And one half of championship caliber play from the Falcons was enough to take care of fired-up Central Cabarrus 28-13 on the Vikings’ Senior Night.
“We are the champions,” yelled linebacker James Francis, the Shrine Bowler who has become even more dominating since tragedy struck his family. “Now it’s time to recognize West for something besides basketball. We play football at this school, too. We are not a fluke. We are for real and we demand respect.”
That’s quite a speech from the normally low-key Francis, whose pal and fellow destructive linebacker S.J. Culbertson kidded him about his “long-windedness.” But it was an oration that was right on the money.
Because this West team has accomplished things no other flock of Falcons have ever done. West is 10-1 overall and 8-0 in the South Piedmont Conference.
The 10 is significant; the eight is magnificent. The 10 wins are a school record. The 8-0 marks West’s first undefeated conference season ever and its first league title ever.
Had West lost, though — and after that first half, Falcon fans had reason to be concerned — it would have had to share the title with A.L. Brown, which mashed Concord 28-0 last night.
“We didn’t want to share anything with Concord or Kannapolis,” said super sophomore safety Brandon Bailey, who was all over the field. “I’ve worked hard but I’ve only been here two years. A lot of these guys have been working for this night for four years. Tonight, we wanted to be selfish. We wanted this championship all to ourselves.”
But West coach Scott Young had to feel like blowing a gasket after that first 24 minutes. West was down 7-0 at the half and had misfired offensively in every conceivable way. West had the ball six times in the first half, but had just four first downs and penetrated no further than the Central 26.
West put the ball on the ground three times in the opening half, dropped three passes and incurred a penalty that ruined its best running play. Offensively, at least, it looked like a team playing out the string, not one that will host a first-round state 3A playoff game this Friday.
One play told the first-half story. Quarterback Jared Barnette somehow eluded three tacklers and on the dead run fired a strike downfield. It hit Horatio Everhart, the county’s leading receiver, in the chest— only to bound away harmlessly to the turf.
“Honestly,” said Young, “we looked for a half like we wanted to give this thing away — like we had come down here to share part of something that we had worked all year for.”
West’s defense kept the Falcons in the game in the first half, allowing a late touchdown, but generally stuffing Central’s great running back Lamont Reid. Francis stopped Central’s first two possessions almost single-handed and West got big hits from Bailey, Brant Marlin and J.D. Watkins and an interception from Eric Weimer.
Young peeled some paint from the walls at the half. After all, there had been no doubt that the Falcons’ most exciting play had been Steven Meseroll’s 65-yard punt.
“Can I tell you anything that I said in there at half? asked Young rhetorically. “No.”
“There definitely wasn’t anything said that you could print in a newspaper,” laughed Bailey.
Players spoke their minds, as well as coaches.
“I said some things about heart and how if we didn’t want it any more than it looked like we did, maybe it was time to start practicing basketball,” said DBTerris Sifford, who would contribute a juggling interception in the second half. “But I was talking about myself as much as anyone on this team. We all had to play harder.”
Everyone got the message. Loud and clear.
You could see the West players jumping around and chomping at the bit on their sideline as the halftime show performed by the Central band ran overtime. But the eager Falcons refrained from chasing the band off the field. Instead, they would chase off a pretty good Viking football team.
“Central is good — a quality team,” said Young. “But in the second half, we showed up. The key was the offensive line. They went to work and got the job done. And our backs ran hard.”
And don’t forget that Falcon defense, which stopped Central (4-7, 3-6) three times inside the 10-yard line in the second half.
The West onslaught started on its first play of the second half. Jonathan Diggs rolled for nine yards, then Ben Hampton romped for 30. Then it was another 9-yard gain by Diggs and a 23-yard bolt by the electrifying Hampton to the end zone.
“Ben Hampton,” said Bailey, “is just awesome.”
And less than two minutes into the second half, it was 7-7.
Central’s first play after West’s kickoff was a disaster. Star receiver Michael Ricks fumbled a pitch on a reverse, and the 250-pound Marlin dove headlong to recover it.
Four Diggs runs up the gut later, West led 13-7. Then Diggs made it 15-7, running roughly 100 yards to score on a wild two-point conversion.
The momentum had swung by then, but the game was still far from decided. Central was determined to avenge its painful loss to West in ‘99 — a defeat that had swatted the Vikings from the state playoffs.
Central drove most of the field, but was held to an Andrew Long 3-pointer thanks to two big plays by
Sifford.
But Viking Dane Thompson swiped the ball from Diggs to set up another field goal. Now it was 15-13 with 10:57 left to play.
But Hampton answered with the play of the night, charging 54 yards like a wild bull. It was a run that was fun — at least if you weren’t a Viking. Hampton ran over two defenders, stiff-armed two and sidestepped two. He was finally dragged down by his facemask at the Central 11.
After the penalty moved the ball to the 6, freshman Joe Jackson, returning to the lineup for the first time since the A.L. Brown game on Oct. 6, zoomed in for a score to make it 22-13.
Sifford came up with his spectacular pick when Central QBJake Roberts tried to respond with a deep ball down the middle.
Then West scored the clinching touchdown at the 7:46 mark when Bailey took a snap from the shotgun and blew by everyone down the sideline.
West’s defense shut the door from there. Central nearly scored on a 59-yard pass play from Roberts to Matt Easley, but Bailey ran the receiver down to save a sure six. Then the Vikings were denied completely when Weimer batted down passes on both third and fourth downs.
And soon the Falcons and their fans were celebrating.
“This feeling is so great, that there’s no way I can describe it,” said Bailey.
“We earned the win,” said Young. “We beat a team with a Division I tailback (Reid) and a Division I receiver (Ricks). Offensively, Central’s as good as anybody. You have to give them some credit.”
Young called his team around him after the game and told them he was so proud that he was going to take it easy on them at practice this week.
The team’s response started as a murmur, then changed to a loud rumble.
“No, no, no!” yelled all the seniors. And then the younger players joined in.
“Aw right,” replied Young with a smile. “You might have made me change my mind a little bit. OK, maybe we’ll keep working just as hard as we have been.”
That statement set off a chant of “Conference champs!, Conference champs!” that could be heard all over Cabarrus County.
And maybe as far away as Mount Ulla.
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