MOORESVILLE— For 28 years, Mike Carter has done it his way.
Fake to the fullback and give to the tailback. Or is that fake to the tailback and give to the fullback?
Or does the quarterback keep it? Or throw it?
If you haven’t guessed by now, Carter’s way is running the wishbone, an offense that is fun to watch — that is, unless you’re the defense.
Ask West Rowan, whose season came crashing to a halt in the quarterfinals of the 3A state football playoffs Friday night.
In the Mooresville Blue Devils, the Falcons played against North Carolina’s very best wishbone. And it was a very tough 48 minutes of football. Three hundred and 42 yards on the ground and 36 points later, Mooresville had advanced to the Western North Carolina finals by a mere touchdown.
“I would’ve never imagined in my entire life that we’d score 29 points and lose the football game,” said despondent senior defensive back Eric Weimer. “We just didn’t play West Rowan defense tonight.”
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One of the reasons was that the defense was missing a key ingredient: DBTerris Sifford.
The 6-3 senior leader was playing pickup basketball at the Cleveland YMCA earlier in the week. He went up for a dunk, all alone, and he heard a wicked pop. He had shattered his kneecap. Now, the recruit in both football and basketball won’t play until February at best and that comes only after some very intense rehabilitation.
“We missed his athleticism,” said Michael Ellison, another senior DB. “It hurt us a lot, especially on the run. We couldn’t make the plays.”
What happens with the wishbone is, you get frustrated, then you start second-guessing and then you watch somebody who you thought wasn’t in on the play at all racing downfield on a long run.
The perfect example came in the third quarter. Quarterback Cortney Patterson kneeled under center with fullback Carl Safrit and tailback Lonnell Dunn behind him.
Patterson appeared to hand off to Safrit but Justin McIntyre steamrolled him to the ground. Problem was, Safrit didn’t have the ball.
Patterson raced down the line and appeared to hand to Dunn. S.J. Culbertson pounded him to the ground. Problem was, Dunn didn’t have the ball either.
Twenty-one yards downfield, Patterson was picking himself up, another long run, another first down and another example of how beautiful that wishbone offense is.
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Why did Carter fall in love with this offense when he first began coaching?
“We won a few games with it so we have no interest in changing,” he said.
His players don’t want to.
“They like the option,” Carter said. “It gives a guy a physical challenge and a mental challenge.
“Every play our quarterback has to make a whole lot of decisions. We are a true triple option team. We do not pre-determine our plays. Somebody has to take the fullback, somebody has to take the quarterback, somebody has to take the pitch and somebody has got to take the end deep.
“Every single play.”
Patrick Sherrill shrugged. “We concentrated all week on it,” said the senior defensive lineman. “We looked forward to it. But you just can’t key on one person with so many in the backfield.”
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While 13-1 Mooresville moves on, West Rowan is left to think of what could’ve been and what was. This 12-2 season was, without a doubt, the greatest in school history.
Weimer walked slowly off the field, clutching his girlfriend’s hand and sucking back tears. The tears of despiar could just as easily have been tears of joy.
“It was one magical year,” he said proudly.
When practice started back in August, Sherrill didn’t think the Falcons would be at this point. Three months later, he had changed his tune.
“We’re the type of team that could’ve gone to that next level,” he said.
Carter was thinking the same thing. His team will join West in the newly-realigned South Piedmont Conference next year.
“All I’ve heard is Concord and Kannapolis are the real teams,” he said. “I know they have great football teams. But doggone it, West Rowan beat them and something ought to be said for that. West deserved to be here tonight.”
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The worst part of the game for Weimer was having to trudge back out there for the final play of the game as Mooresville ran out the clock.
“That was the worst feeling in the world,” he said. “You know the game’s over. There is nothing you can do but stand out there and say Mooresville played a heck of a game.”
Adding insult to injury, the score “Ragsdale 17, South Point 14” blared over the loud speaker. Ellison heard it and choked back even more tears.
“It hurts so bad,” he said.
“That could’ve been a playoff game at home,” lamented defensive end Luke Drechsler. “I’m sure we could’ve won. Then again, I felt we would’ve won this one.”
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Ronnie Gallagher is the sports editor of the Post.
Ronnie