MOUNT ULLA — Eight is enough these days for the West Rowan football team.
No 8, that is.
Jared Barnette, West Rowan’s senior quarterback, was a little bit Kordell Stewart, a little bit Kurt Warner and a whole lot of trouble for High Point Andrews Friday night in the second round of the state 3A playoffs.
He ran. He passed. And most of all, he found Horatio Everhart.
The dynamic duo combined for four touchdown passes as the Falcons overcame a quick 12-0 deficit to pound the Red Raiders 36-19.
It takes West into the third round at No. 2 seed Mooresville, which won over T.C. Roberson 24-7. And if Mooresville coach mike Carter wants a scouting report from Andrews head coach Dave Mizell, he’ll get an earful about Barnette.
“I’ll tell you what,” whewed a complimentay Andrews coach Dave Mizell. “ The kid that stepped up and played was No. 9, the quarterback. Was he No. 9?”
When told he was one numeral off, Mizell chuckled, “As much as he was running around, his number was blurred.”
It was a game of blurs.
Andrews came out and put 12 points on the board before the fans were evne settled on those frigid aluminum bleachers. Terrell Taylor took an Adam Mills pass 63 yards and after a West punt, Andrew went 80 yards on 10 relatively easy plays for another score. Tailback Bobby Rorie sprinted for 61 of those yards.
“I ain’t going to lie to you, I was scared,” admitted West coach Scott Young of the very quick hole. “They came out and jumped on us hard. They didn’t jump on us with fluke plays. They shoved it at us.”
It was at this point that Young turnned it over to his Young-to-Rice, er, Barnette-to-Evernart combination.
With under a minute left in the first quarter, Barnette surprised the Raider defense on first down. He lofted a beautiful spiral to Everhart. The junior receiver beat Brandon Grace, bobbled the ball a little in the end zone and cradled it for a 12-7 deficit.
“That first score was important,” Young said.
Especially to the defense. As the second quarter began, linebacker James Francis was seen barking at his teammates.
“I know they look at me as a leader and I told them we had to set the tone,” said the senior headed for the Shrine Bowl next month.
“Coach tells us something bad is always going to happen,” said burly defensive lineman Brant Marlin. “We basically have learned not to keep our heads down.”
West Rowan won this game in the second quarter. Even though a 45-yard hookup from Barnette to Everhart ended in a fumble, it was obvious that the Falcons had a good feel about moving the ball against the Raiders.
And defense began sensing that the high-powered Andrews offense had been shut off.
The defense quickly forced a punt and Barnette began his assault. He drilled a pass to David Terry for 17 and 20 yards. Diaper dandy Joe Jackson, playing like a freshman in college instead of a freshman in high school, bulled up the middle from five yards out. Ben Hampton the ran in for a two-point conversion and West had the lead 15-12.
“We were clicking early but to their credit, they never hung their heads,” Mizell said of West. “They’re tough. We couldn’t regain the momentum.”
Especially when the Raiders trudged into the locker room dazed and confused.
Two Falcon touchdowns in the last minute of the second quarter had that effect.
Andrews had its third straight three-and-out posession and West took over at midfield. Moments later, facing a third-and-10 at the Andrews 13, Barnette outsmarted two onrushing Raiders and found Everhart, who somehow manuevered his way in front of Grace for a touchdown and a 22-12 advantage with 1:27 left.
Kendall High recovered a fumble on the kickoff and again Barnette faced a third down play. On third-and-15 from the 30, he dodged the rush and hit Everhart in the back of the end zone. He kept his feet in and just like that, it was 29-12 at intermission.
Barnette was 7-of-8 at halftime for 188 yards. Everhart had four grabs for 127.
“I ran my routews the right way,” Everhart shrugged later. “When we got down, Coach told us to go and and make the big plays. So I did.”
West was far from satisfied, however.
“We were disappointed because we’re better than that,” scoffed Francis.
Mizell thought his team was back in it after a 14-play drive ended in a score and Cortez Mallory intercepted Barnette’s first pass of the third period.
“I thought we were on to something,” Mizell said.
But defensive backs Eric Weimer and T Sifford led a secondary that wouldn’t fold. It forced an incompletion on fourth-and-9.
“That was the biggest series of the game,” Young said. “We gave them an extremely short field and held. That’s what won the ballgame.”
The defense did thev rest, harrassing Mills time and again.
If it wasn’t High and Marlin, it was Francis and S.J. Culbertson. If it wasn’t J.D. Watkins and Justin McIntyre, it was Brandon Bailey. And if it wasn’t Josh Drechsler, it was little brother Luke.
“We love to hit,” said Francis. I stay in Woodleaf and S.J. stays in Cleveland so we don’t have anything else to do but hit people. They were the new visitors and we hit ‘em.”
Of course, Barnette and Everhart put the finishing touches on West’s 11th straight victory — on third down, of course.
With 4:11 left and facing a third-and-10 from the Andrews 15, Barnette hit Everhart with the final score.
“As much as I’d like to take credit for it, and as much as Coach (Todd) Bell would like to take credit for it, you can’t teach the speed Everhart has,” Young said.
And you can’t teach what Barnette did.
“He got things when we thought we had them in a hole,” said Mizell. “He ran around, avoided the sacks and put the ball right on the money.”
Yep, No. 8 was enough Friday night. Actually, Barnette was more than enough.
Today's News