MOCKSVILLE — Before the football season kicked off, Davie County coach Doug Illing thought he had a pretty good team.
It’s beginning to look like he was right.
The unbeaten War Eagles earned their first prescription-strength victory — and fourth overall — when they battered fourth-ranked Mooresville 31-13 Friday night.
“We’ve taken a big step forward,” Illing said after Davie handed the visiting Moores (2-1) their first loss. “We’ve got a mission and so far we’ve taken four steps up the ladder. That’s what we’ve got to keep focused on.”
If the subjects were focus and concentration, the prize pupil was Neil Rice. In his first complete game since returning from a left ankle injury, the senior fullback was a bulldozer in pads — plowing his way for 114 yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown that sealed the deal.
“All I heard about was their great speed on defense,” said Rice. “Everyone said they were too fast for us. Well, none of that matters when you put your head down and start running North-South.”
Rice was most effective in the final period, when he bumped and bruised his way for 65 yards and helped Davie melt the clock.
“When Neil sees somebody, he doesn’t try to juke them or fake them out,” said Davie quarterback Dan Sullivan. “He’s gonna go right over them. That’s how he wore down their defense. By the fourth quarter they didn’t want to see him anymore.”
Mooresville saw plenty of Mike Clement, too. The shifty tailback sliced and diced for 83 yards on 10 carries and scored a pair of first-half touchdowns — including a six-yard run to the house that gave the War Eagles a 7-0 lead less than two minutes into the game.
“That first possession, we just ran it down their throats,” said Sullivan. “They came out flat and we did everything right. They couldn’t stop the run.”
The opening drive proved crucial, especially since a fumble recovery by all-state linebacker Patrick Lowery had set it up. On Mooresville’s second play from scrimmage, quarterback Patrick Marsh made an errant toss to tailback Chris Winford and Lowery pounced on the loose ball on the Moores’ 26-yard line.
“Even though it was a bad pitch, it was because the defense was in (Marsh’s) face,” Lowery explained. “The whole night we played in-your-face defense. That was just the start of it.”
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