MOORESVILLE — The last thing West Rowan coach Scott Young expected when he got off the bus at Mooresville was a shootout.
Instead, Young’s Falcons found themselves at the O.K. Corral. And, unfortunately, West was the Clanton boys, while coach Mike Carter’s wishboning Blue Devils were the Earps. Mooresville won 36-29 to end West’s history-making season at 12-2. The Devils move on to host Ragsdale, an upset winner over South Point, next Friday night in the state semifinals.
“I really thought our defense would be able to handle Mooresville,” sighed Young, whose defense had not yielded more than 22 points in regulation time this season.
But a West defense that had limited A.L. Brown to 143 rushing yards and South Rowan to 134, was shredded by Mooresville for 342.
“They drove us and big-played us and then they big-played us again,” said Young. “I never thought that would happen to us. If someone told me, we’d come over here and score 29, I had to believe we were going to win.”
But third-seeded West was wrecked by three blazing Blue Devil runs. A pitch to halfback Chris Winford went for a killing 61-yard touchdown with 21 seconds left in the first half when Carter would have been content just to run out the clock.
Second-seeded Mooresville’s other halfback, Lonnell Dunn, busted runs up the gut for tackle-breaking scoring blasts of 43 and 51 that left Falcon defenders shaking their heads. West had allowed only one touchdown run over 20 yards all season (by A.L. Brown’s Chris Carter) prior to last night.
It is impossible to say how much impact West’s loss of safety Terris Sifford, who broke a kneecap in a pick-up basketball game on Wednesday, had on the game.The rangy Sifford may have been able to prevent one of those runs from going the distance. It’s something Falcon fans will agonize over for awhile, but there is no quantifiable answer.
And besides, none of the Falcons were making excuses.
“We came too far this year for something like this to happen, but their speed just killed us,” said Falcon linebacker James Francis. “Our defense shot itself in the foot all night. Put this one on our shoulders.”
And Mooresville also got the game’s first break. Carter looked back at a game filled with numerous momentum swings and wild plays, but pointed at a turnover on West’s first offensive possession as the single biggest play of the game.
West had stopped Mooresville’s first drive and faced a third-and-5 situation at its own 29. Quarterback Jared Barnette went back to pass, but was sacked and Mooresville ended up gaining possession after a wild scramble at the Falcon 5.
One play later, Blue Devil quarterback Cortney Patterson romped into the end zone for a 6-0 lead. West spent the rest of the night climbing a steep hill.
“Look,” said Carter. “West is good, as good as everyone says and as good as we expected them to be. We were fortunate to get that big a break that early in the football game. After that it was pretty much a deadlock.”
After that break, Mooresville kept the pressure on , going up 14-0 in the second quarter on the first of Dunn’s runs and a two-point conversion. That run followed a failed fake punt by the Falcons that gave the Devils good field position.
West rallied on a perfect 42-yard strike down the sideline from Barnette to wideout Horatio Everhart to make it 14-7.
West has a shot to get even, but a drive sputtered deep in Mooresville territory when Barnette had passes dropped on both third and fourth downs.
“There were a lot of plays that we didn’t make that we usually do make,” said Young. “But Mooresville was extremely athletic, extremely fast and extremely good.”
Then came Winford’s dash for a touchdown in the dying seconds of the half for an unexpected 21-7 cushion for the Devils, who boosted their record to 13-1.
The Falcons went to the locker room, down, but not out.
“We just didn’t show up to play in that first half and I can’t explain why,” said fullback Ben Hampton. “Mooresville looked like the team that didn’t want to lose.”
West came out harder in the second half. The defense came up with a three-and-out. Then Hampton made an incredible punt return to set up a touchdown by equally incredible West freshman, Joe Jackson, who ran for 177 yards and two scores. Hampton’s two-point conversion run made it 21-15 with 5:04 left in the third quarter. At that point, West had its chance — if only the defense could deliver.
It couldn’t. Mooresville drove right back to score in six plays and added a two-point conversion for 29-15. West answered with a remarkable sideline-to-sideline scoring run by Hampton to get back to 29-22.
But again, Mooresville scored, This time on a Dunn burst with 10:35 left for 36-22. West retaliated for the final time with Barnette finding Everhart over the middle with 7:04 remaining.
West tried an onsides kick, but it failed to go 10 yards. Mooresville then took time off the clock, and a huge punt pinned West on its 1. The teams then traded punts. Out of timeouts, West got the ball back for a last gasp with 1:20 remaining, but the Devils’ defense held firm.
“It was an incredible game,” said Carter. I never felt comfortable until we made the very last tackle.”
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