When things aren’t going well for a team, it can be said that a season is heading south.

Then, of course, when the outlook brightens and things are looking up, that direction is north.

In Salisbury’s case, though, the 2000 football team is most definitely heading West. Thanks to a couple of key defensive plays from Justin West on Friday night, the Hornets pulled out an 18-14 victory over Concord. It marked the second victory of the year, making that two more times than last season that a Hornet ‘L’ headed west — into the “win” column.

“We have had several surprises this year, and Justin is one of the major ones,”Hornets head coach Raymond Daugherty said. “We expected him to be able to play, but not at the level he’s playing at. He’s done a better job than we’ve asked.”

Salisbury didn’t know what to expect from West because the 6-foot, 200-pound senior didn’t play football last season. Much to the chagrin of Daugherty and even soccer coach Tom Sexton, West left football for soccer.

“I’ve played football my whole life, but last year Ineeded to take a break,”West said. “I lost my passion for football.”

West might not have made enough of an impact on the football team to save the Hornets from an 0-11 campaign. But he wasn’t afraid of playing for a losing team as a senior. If it was just wins he was after, Sexton’s soccer squad went 19-3 in 1999.

A long summer of camping and hiking in Colorado as part of the Outward Bound program gave West time to ponder his future. He’d enjoyed a successful season as a sophomore, playing linebacker on the varsity squad instead of his natural defensive end position.

And deep down, West knew what sport he was supposed to play.

“I’m not a soccer player. When it gets to be fall, that’s the time when you get to hit people as hard as you can,”West said. “I missed football too much. I’m really glad I came back.”

So are the football coaches.

“We knew he was a good football player as a sophomore, but after taking a year off, we couldn’t have dreamed he’d do as good a job as he has,”Daugherty said. “Most of the time when a player comes back after being away, they realize how much they missed it and they perform at a better rate.”

West played well in Salisbury’s opening loss to West Rowan and in the 27-13 win over Albemarle. But he re-introduced himself to the football public in a big way Friday night against Concord.

The Spiders, a perennial state playoff squad in the powerful 3A South Piedmont Conference, marched into Salisbury with little regard for the 2A Hornets who had, after all, only one week ago snapped a 16-game losing streak.

“After the Albemarle game, we didn’t get as much respect as we thought we would,”West said. “We knew people had to take notice after the big game against Concord.”

TheSpiders noticed West immediately. Concord quarterback Jared John dropped back to pass on the first play of the game and threw a ball that West picked out of the air and returned 35 yards for a touchdown.

“After the interception we saw that Concord wasn’t as good as everybody had built them up to be,”West said. “We got loose after that and started playing football. We kept the momentum going.”

All the way through the fourth quarter. After Concord took a 14-12 lead, Salisbury rallied to make it 18-14 and the Spiders went back on the attack. But with less than 30 seconds to play, West came around the line and dragged John down for a big loss that helped seal the win.

“I’m hoping we keep on it,”West said. “We could see ourselves with two wins and just celebrate the rest of the season, but I don’t think we’re going to do that. I see our potential.”

The potential to head West again — perhaps for a first-round playoff game in November.