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MOUNT ULLA—West Rowan’s football team passed on the Prozac Friday night.
Instead, the Falcons treated themselves and their jovial homecoming crowd to a stress-free win over visiting Harding.
“Everybody was really calm, not overconfident,” quarterback Jared Barnette said after West christened its SPC season with a 34-0 victory. “Nobody came in thinking we would blow them out. But we all went in knowing what our assignments were.”
“We knew they had some pretty good athletes,” added defensive lineman Brant Marlin. “We spent most of the game trying to keep our composure. It worked out real well.”
The Falcons (3-1 overall) can thank a defense that limited Harding (0-4, 0-2 CPC) to two first downs and 28 yards total offense. Eight times the visitors went three-and-out, and two other Harding possessions ended on turnovers.
“This is the best defense I’ve ever had the pleasure of coaching,” said West’s Scott Young. “And I think we’re getting overshadowed a lot. I know we lost one game (to South Rowan) and gave up 31 points, but that was because we had turnovers deep in our territory. We’ve controlled most games with our defense. Now that our offense is coming around, we’re becoming a more complete team.”
The Falcons quickly demonstrated as much. On their second possession Barnette eluded a strong pass rush, stepped up in the pocket and hit running back Jonathan Diggs with 28-yard touchdown pass.
Moments later the senior QB connected with reinstated wideout Horatio Everhart on a picturesque 25-yard TD pass down the left sideline.
“My wide receivers coach told me to take that little jab step on the way out,” said Everhart, who returned from a staff-imposed suspension. “I did the one step and my speed did the rest.”
West extended its lead to 21-0 by halftime when Joe Jackson capped a 10-play scoring drive with a 1-yard touchdown run. Both Jackson (115) and Diggs (117) finished with more than a hundred yards rushing.
“It was the line,” smiled Diggs, who also had a 64-yard touchdown romp nullified by a third-quarter penalty. “Every lineman contributed. The first string, the second string, everyone.”
West tacked on a couple of thanks-for-coming/arrive-home-safely scores in the third period. First Jackson trotted into the end zone on a 32-yard trap play. Then late in the quarter Barnette fired his third touchdown pass of the game when he hooked up with Everhart on a 15-yard slant pattern.
“That time I got the defender turned around in circles,” said Everhart. “He turned his back and I cut inside. That’s what made the play work.”
The rest was up to the West defense, which posted the school’s fourth shutout in two seasons. Harding advanced as deep as the West 34-yard line in the third quarter, only to be stopped when Brandon Bailey picked off a Marcus Jamison pass. On Harding’s final possession of the game, West’s Marlin pounced on a Jamison fumble deep in his own territory.
“We were all fighting over that last fumble,” said Marlin, a 6-1 senior. “It actually slipped out of (S.J. Culbertson’s) hands and I just dove on it. We should have picked it up and run it in for a defensive touchdown. That would have been wonderful.”
Culbertson, a linebacker with some Butkus in him, felt West’s read-and-react defense was a key ingredient. “We watched the guards,” he said. “And we knew what they were gonna do. Their guards told us what the play was.”
Though it may not have been anything to pound your chest over, the shutout was significant for West’s underrated prevent unit.
“That goose-egg — that was our main objective,” said linebacker James Francis. “We may get noticed, but we won’t get respect unless we start shutting teams out. This was a warning for the rest of the conference.”
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