Injury likely to keep East quarterback Drew Davis out of Friday’s game

East Rowan quarterback Drew Davis will likely miss the Mustangs’ nonconference game at Jay Robinson tomorrow night.

Davis suffered a first degree separation of his right (throwing) shoulder when he was hit on a scramble in the second quarter of East’s 33-12 loss at Mooresville last week. Fortunately, nothing was torn or broken in the shoulder area, much to the relief of Mustang football coach Tom Eanes and baseball coach Jeff Safrit, for whom Davis is a star catcher.

Davis has been told by doctors he can resume throwing as soon as he can stand the pain. They’ve fitted him with a “shock absorber” for his shoulder pad and cleared him to practice, so long as he doesn’t take any hits.

There is a slim chance that Davis, who very much wants to play, will be in action Friday. Obviously East’s odds of getting its third win of the season improve considerably if Davis, who makes the Mustangs’ triple-option attack go, is able to perform at a reasonably high level.

If Davis can’t suit up, Eanes will most likely switch running back Cal Hayes Jr. to the QB spot.

Davis, a senior, is eighth in the county in total offense. He’s ninth in rushing and fifth in passing. If he does miss the Robinson game, he’ll almost certainly return for East’s homecoming contest on Oct. 26 against 3A North Piedmont Conference foe North Iredell.

The matchup didn’t look too tough on paper, but Roger Secreast spent a week fretting over whether his Cavaliers would be up for neighboring rival Salisbury.

“I was probably more tense about this before the game because we had a terrible week of practice. I think we were taking them a little lightly,”Secreast said. “I don’t give many pep talks, but tonight I talked to them a little bit to see if they were focused, and they were. I just didn’t know it.”

The Cavs eased their coach’s fear quickly, scoring 36 points in the first half. North eventually cruised to a 43-0 victory in the 2A Central Carolina Conference matchup to improve to 6-1 overall and 4-0 in the league.

“I think they were relaxed this week and I took it as being not ready,” Secreast said. “Sometimes they don’t get as nervous as I do.”

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un-official:Friday’s game had a bit of everything.

The officiating crew lost a member before the opening kickoff thanks to an insulin reaction. Paramedics were checking out the referee about 10 minutes prior to game time and eventually took him to the hospital for observation.

It made for a lot of keep up with, especially in the second half. The game was shortened to 10-minute quarters and a running clock following North’s final touchdown. However, there was enough confusion on when to run the clock and several multiple-penalty calls that the game actually didn’t end much sooner than expected.

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not much work:Despite North Rowan’s success running the ball against the Hornets, the Cavaliers’ bread and butter remains the passing game.

That’s why North planned on working with QB Alfonzo Miller in the third quarter, but it didn’t work out that way because on the one-sided score.

“They kept giving us the run, so we kept running it,”Miller said. “We were going to throw the whole third quarter, but we didn’t make it that far. We had to sit out.”

Miller entered the game averaging 152 yards per game passing. He finished with just 15 attempts against Salisbury, completing nine for 127 yards and one touchdown.

Miller also ran for 86 yards, totaling 213 yards. His average of total offense prior to the game was 247.

Raider defensive back Brad Lanning was happy that his interception against West Forsyth set up South’s first touchdown.

But he was just as pleased to regain the ground he lost in the interception race to Keith Clark earlier in the game.

Lanning picked off his fourth pass of the season on Friday night. Less than three minutes before Lanning’s pick, Clark intercepted his fourth pass of the year to briefly take the team — and county — lead.

“We’re always competing because Keith Clark’s got four interceptions,” Lanning said. “He’s got four, he went up one on me, so I had to get me one. It’s a little competition on the team.”

Clark got his pick with 5:19 left in the first quarter. Clark, running step-for-step with the West wideout, caught the pass in stride.

“Keith can be the posterchild for the guy that’s worked hard,” South coach Rick Vanhoy said.

“Obviously he’s not very big, but he’s worked to make himself a better football player. I guarantee you, if you go back and look at the film, all of his interceptions have been off of technique.”

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52 PICKUP:South Rowan’s 52-20, defense-fueled scoring onslaught against West Forsyth marked only the sixth time in school history that Raiders have reached the 50-point plateau.

The school record remains the 70 South scored on opening night against Mooresville in 1978, but this was the most the Raiders have ever scored against one of the Winston-Salem schools.

West quarterback Gary Scott hopes the Falcons’ off week didn’t cool off his right arm.

Scott’s having a nice, efficient year, but it’s hard for another quarterback to get noticed with the type of numbers that North’s Miller is throwing around.

Still, Scott’s quietly thrown for seven TDs, has had only two of his 86 passes picked off, and is fast becoming a serious running threat.

Mostly, he’s doing exactly what coach Scott Young wants him to do — putting the Falcons in position to win.

When a team has dynamic defensive numbers like the War Eagles it’s hard to improve them, but Davie managed to do just that last week against South Iredell. Surrendering only a field goal in a 28-3 romp, the War Eagles lowered their points allowed per game to a paltry 6.3.

To place that number in proper perspective, North, South and West all have pretty good defenses, but are yielding 19-20 ppg.

Davie hasn’t given up more than 116 rushing yards to anyone, even though it’s faced some strong running games from Mooresville, West Rowan and Freedom. Davie, by the way, is still the only team to beat Mooresville.

If you’re searching for a bright spot, how about receiver Andre Bruce. He’s No. 5 in the county in receiving with 13 catches for 197 yards.

Things are really picking up steam in K-Town, where junior QB Drew Maher went over 1,000 yards passing for the season last week. He’s had six TD passes and zero interceptions over the last two games and the Wonder offense hasn’t turned the ball over in its three outings since that disaster at Concord.

The Wonders’ 35-14 road win at Statesville on Friday was humongous. That victory, coupled with the previous week’s home win over West, puts the Wonders in great position to claim one of the NPC’s two playoff berths.

People in Mooresville last week were already talking about the Wonders’ visit on Oct. 26 and were predicting massive crowds. That game’s looking more and more like it’ll decide the NPC title.

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GOOD NEWS: It’s always a positive sign for the Wonders when Maher’s name doesn’t appear in the rushing stats.

That’s because the Wonders don’t run any designed plays with Maher carrying the ball. When Maher has zero rushes that means the offensive line didn’t allow him to be sacked.

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NIGHT AL: Aundrae “Touché” Allison had his fourth kick return (three punts, one kickoff) for a touchdown on Friday. And the Wonder speedster hasn’t exactly performed his special teams magic against slowpokes. Allison’s TD returns of 97, 75, 62 and 52 yards have come against North (two), Statesville and South Point.

Coach Mike Carter liked his team’s first half against East, but not the second half, when things got sloppy right after Mooresville’s opening drive.

“If we’re a real contender, we’re going to have to play a lot better than this,” Carter said.

Don’t feel too sorry for the sixth-ranked Moors, though — they’re good. Everyone knows about their offensive backfield, but that Blue Devil defense — which includes a growling linebacker named Bear Bryant — is underrated. (This Bear wears a helmet, not one of those funny checkered hats.)

“Mooresville’s defense is quick and aggressive and everyone’s always in the right spot,” praised East coach Eanes. “They’re a typical Mike Carter-coached team.”

Some national history is on tap for tomorrow night when the powerful Bulldogs (8-0), the state’s top-ranked 1A team in most polls, host South Davidson.

Bulldog back T.A. McClendon (6-foot-2, 219 pounds), who broke Nick Maddox’s state record of 114 TDs earlier this season, has now pushed his impressive tally to 139 career touchdowns, two shy of the national record.

McClendon reportedly has a bad shoulder and a bad knee, but continues to be bad news for Yadkin Valley Conference opponents. The only real suspense tonight is will T.A. shatter Brett Law’s national record in the first quarter or the second.

The Green Dragons are about to go from famine to feast.

After losing by 44 to Albemarle last week, coach Barry Mitchem’s boys could win by 44 against 1-6 Chatham Central.