MOCKSVILLE — Davie County’s football team wasn’t about to wait for the CPC season to start winning ballgames.
The much-hyped War Eagles fired all their guns at once in Friday’s season-opening rout of visiting Alexander Central.
“This is what you’re always hoping for,” coach Doug Illing said after Davie scored on seven of its first 10 possessions and won a 49-6 laugher. “That you go out there and things happen the way you want them to happen.”
They happened all right. Davie, ranked as high as 10th in the state in one preseason poll, used superior line play on both sides of the ball to absolutely waffle the guests from Taylorsville.
“The big guys up front did a great job,” Davie quarterback Dan Sullivan said, adding a plug for linemen Chris Nichols, A.J. Scales, Dave Poplin, Justin Lanning, Trent Young and tight end Jeremy Lynch. “We just ran it down their throats. That’s all we had to do.”
With fullback Neil Rice nursing an ankle injury on the sideline, most of the work was accomplished by shifty halfback Mike Clement. The 5-9 junior rushed for a game-high 73 yards — 62 came in the first half — and scored three touchdowns.
“He’s got that third gear that he puts it in,” said Illing. “He’s been running hard and he’s got a line that’s blocking real good for him. He’s gonna find the holes.”
Clement found the end zone twice in the first half. He opened the scoring on a 5-yard scamper around left end midway through the opening period. His second score, a 1-yard dive behind right tackle Nichols, provided a 21-0 lead with 3:58 on the clock.
“You know I didn’t get to play in the first two scrimmages,” Clement said with a coy smile. “That’s what boosted me up. It made me go.”
Davie led by four touchdowns at halftime before turning the game into a free-for-all in the third quarter. There was Clement’s final TD, a 5-yard, sharp-angle turn into the end zone. Then defensive back Billy Riddle intercepted a pass by Brandon Kinnaird — AC’s sophomore quarterback — and returned it 56 yards down the right sideline for a score with 2:01 left in the quarter.
Sixteen seconds later Davie iced the game when linebacker Jon Goode scooped up a Kinnaird fumble and raced 16 yards through some bumper-to-bumper traffic and into the end zone, producing a 49-0 edge.
“We all talked about the importance of turnovers,” said teammate Josh Pfaff. “And we knew we were playing a good defensive game. But when Billy and Goode scored those touchdowns, we just felt we couldn’t be beat.”
Not on this night, anyway. Davie’s bullet-proof defense forced five turnovers, limited Central to five first downs and yielded all of 88 total yards.
“We always talk about forcing turnovers,” said all-state linebacker Patrick Lowery. “We wanted at least four — that was our goal. Overall, we were real aggressive, real physical. I was proud of our guys.”
What pleased Illing most was the convincing knockout punch his team delivered.
“We prided ourselves all summer on being a late-finishing team,” he said. “That’s something we could not do last year. We didn’t finish. We couldn’t put teams away in the fourth quarter. It just so happens we finished them in the third quarter tonight.”
Those are good vibes that the War Eagles will carry into next week’s marquee matchup at West Rowan, a surprising 21-14 opening-night loser to South Iredell.
“We feel good about this,” said Clement. “Tonight you saw the real Davie. We’re bad boys for life. We can’t be stopped.”
n
NOTES: AC’s first-year coach Chris Deal said Davie’s physical line play spelled the difference. “We had trouble blocking their defensive linemen and linebackers,” he said. “It wasn’t a very good night for us. Davie stuck it to us pretty hard.”
Central’s touchdown came with 4:53 remaining when sophomore Dustin Kerley returned a fumble 36 yards for a score. ... Besides Goode, Davie’s Timmy Redmond and Adam Sain had fumble recoveries. Ben Allred added a second-quarter interception. ... Davie kicker David Wooldridge converted all seven of his PAT attempts and booted six of eight kickoffs into the end zone.
Today's News
