MOUNTULLA — Bad news for the rest of the South Piedmont Conference: West Rowan routed East Rowan 50-7 Friday night and coach Scott Young says his guys weren’t really clicking on all cylinders.

“I didn’t think our defense was all that sharp and didn’t think we ran the ball all that well early in the game,” Young analyzed. “I thought we were OK — but just OK.”

You can’t blame Young for trying to keep his talented team from getting big-headed. Obviously, he doesn’t want his guys getting overconfident — not with 3A South Piedmont Conference contests with powerhouses Northwest Cabarrus, A.L. Brown and Concord looming over the next three weeks.

But make no mistake, West (4-1, 2-0 SPC) was impressive in rainy, muddy Mount Ulla Friday. Mighty impressive.

So maybe, you should ask East coach Tom Eanes for a second opinion.

“West’s good,” said Eanes, shaking his head. “They are just so physical. I mean, they came out there and smacked us.”

West did little wrong except miss a few extra points until East (1-5, 0-3) blocked a punt long after it no longer mattered. West had the ball five times in the first half. It scored five touchdowns.

Meanwhile, West’s intense defense, led by linebackers S.J. Culbertson and James Francis and lineman Brant Marlin, allowed East very little in the way of payback.

Drew Davis did pass for 107 yards (51 on one delivery to Cal Hayes Jr.), but East’s running game never got off the ground.

“They have a complex offense,” said Culbertson. “We were concerned about that when the game started. But not for too long.”

Falcon quarterback Jared Barnette threw for three touchdowns, while Ben Hampton scored three. Freshman Joe Jackson took the second-half kickoff the distance and Jonathan Diggs added a fourth-quarter exclamation point with a 76-yard scoring run.

The Falcons were near perfect, committing no turnovers, while getting three picks from their secondary.

The carnage started early when Barnette caught the Mustangs bunching against the run and hit a streaking Horatio Everhart a good 10 yards behind everyone for an easy touchdown.

Touchdown No. 2 was set up an interception of a Davis pass that was tipped by Eric Weimer and then corralled by Brandon Bailey.

East stopped the next three Falcon plays, but on fourth-and-7, Barnette dumped a short pass to Diggs and the bullish senior did the rest, crashing through East defenders for 38 yards to make it 12-0.

Hampton, a junior fullback, then ran around right end for a two-point conversion — a play which got him rolling toward a truly spectacular night.

“Coach Young just talked a lot about stepping up and getting more physical tonight,” said Hampton. “I think I’m making progress every game.”

An amazing play by Barnette and Hampton got another West drive jump-started early in the second quarter. East got a big rush on Barnette, but he eluded three defenders and shoveled a pass to Hampton behind the line of scrimmage that was eerily similar to the one that N.C. State’s Philip Rivers dished to Koren Robinson in Thursday night’s ESPN game.

Hampton made the grab and then trampled would-be tacklers for 27 yards and a first down. Moments later, Hampton made it 20-0 when he went nine yards through a city-block sized hole cleared by the Falcons’ offensive line.

“You have to give it those guys,” said Hampton. “It wasn’t too hard to take that one in. It’s always a team effort.”

Down three TDs, East then showed some fight by putting together a 70-yard drive.

Raymondo Brady got the touchdown from the 3 when he hauled in a fourth-down pass over the middle from Davis.

That was the point in the game when the momentum may have swung a bit toward the visitors, but the Falcons weren’t about to let that happen.

With the O-line asserting itself and East committing a big personal foul, the Falcons rolled for a quick touchdown to re-take control. Hampton cruised in for the score from the 11.

Eanes admitted that the quick response may have taken something out of the Mustangs.

“We’ve had a tendency this year to get down when people score on us,” he sighed. “But we knew coming in that our defense was gonna have a hard time stopping them.”

West got the ball back once more with just 1:23 left in the first half, but no one doubted they’d score yet again. The Falcon did, when Hampton ran down a 39-yard fling from Barnette, tipped it, juggled it and then grabbed control as he hurtled through the end zone for a 33-7 halftime score.

“I didn’t think there was anyway I was getting to that one,” laughed Hampton. “Maybe if I don’t have a future in sports, I’ve got one in the circus as a juggler.”

More likely, sports fans will see Hampton playing college baseball or football one day, but he was one heck of a high-wire act last night.

“Ben can do a lot of things,” said Young. “This was his career night. He had a night tonight like few people will ever have.”

East came back out for the second half determined to play hard, but that’s when Jackson stormed past everyone with a burst of speed to return the initial kickoff 86 yards to paydirt.

“It looked like that maybe took away any wind East had left,” said Young.

The Falcons didn’t rub it in further, playing conservatively the rest of the way. West was down to the East 1 late in the third quarter, but Young sent in Steve Meseroll for a field goal.

When Diggs broke his 76-yarder, the clock showed 9:17 left to play, but reserves from both teams battled in scoreless fashion the rest of the way.

“East played us tough at times,” Young said. “It was just a night that we big-played ‘em to death.”