MOUNTULLA — West Rowan’s football team answered its first conference call of 2001 with a resounding hello on Friday night.
Overcoming a bit of static in the form of four lost fumbles, West annihilated visiting 3A North Piedmont Conference opponent North Iredell 42-0.
The resounding rout communicated to the rest of the world that even though the Falcons are now in a revised conference (only A.L. Brown, East Rowan and Northwest Cabarrus are still in the same league with West from last season), they still look upon themselves as proud defending champions.
“Getting a win in our first conference game is so important,” said Falcon safety Brandon Bailey. “We’re still conference champions. And we don’t intend to ever give that up.”
Bailey was entitled to talk a little smack, because he certainly smacked around more than his share of Raider ballcarriers. The junior had two big hits for losses on sweeps.
Linemen Kendall High and Luke Drechsler and linebacker Brandon Culbertson also came up big, as a punishing Falcon defense held the Raiders (3-3) to three first downs and a miserable 64 yards of offense.
North was forced to punt eight times.
“They couldn’t run it on us, they couldn’t pass it on us,” said Falcon cornerback Matt Morgan. “You know, they really couldn’t do much of anything.”
Morgan recovered a fumble forced by linebacker Stephen Ashby and Tyrell Little and Mark Sturgis contributed interceptions, as the Falcons generally delighted an overflow homecoming crowd.
“We have to be real pleased with a win like this,” said West coach Scott Young. “We were plenty concerned about North Iredell. They’ve got some fantastic athletes and they’d been winning some ballgames.”
The turning point of the night came with the game just a couple of minutes old.
West’s Little had lost the handle on the opening kickoff and North had set up shop on the Falcon 14. Three plays later, the Raiders had pushed just outside the West 4, needing just a couple of more feet for first-and-goal.
After a timeout, North went with a handoff to fullback Robert Rankin. But Rankin didn’t gain an inch. He was met at the line of scrimmage by Drechsler, who bear-hugged him to the ground.
“You have to credit all the film the coaches showed us this week, all the preparation they gave us,” said Drechsler. “I knew they were coming to my side and I knew what play was coming.”
After the destruction by Drechsler, it was pretty much a West avalanche.
“That first stop set the tone for the whole night,” said Bailey.
It must have. The Falcons (4-2) didn’t stay backed up long. Three plays later, Ben Hampton set sail on a 73-yard gallop all the way to the North 8. Three times on the run, Hampton appeared to be stopped. Three times he kept going, leaving a trail of rundown Raiders strewn in his wake.
“I was just lucky to break out of that big pack of white shirts,” said Hampton. “I really should have gone all the way. I finally tripped over my own feet. I tackled myself.”
Moments later, Hampton punched in the first of his three rushing TDs. He would finish with 182 yards, 140 of them prior to halftime.
Morgan’s fumble recovery and return of a free ball that had gone dribbling down the far sideline, set up Hampton’s second score late in the first quarter.
A big punt return by Bailey set up TDNo. 3 on a perfect pass from QBGary Scott to a wide-open Brandon Hiatt in the middle of the field. Scott hit Hiatt in stride on a 34-yard strike.
West beat the clock and the Raiders to make it 28-0. Scott found a slanting Horatio Everhart from the 6 with 14.6 seconds remaining.
The Falcons could have named the score in the second half, finally settling for 42-0.
West played it reasonably close to the vest after halftime, but kept moving the ball because it’s offensive line was blowing open huge holes for Quincy Redmond and LaGrande Andrews, even after Hampton and Scott called it a night.
So wide were the gaps torn in the Raider line, it’s quite likely that Allison Moore, a track and cross country star who was crowned homecoming queen at halftime, could have had a big rushing night.
“Our O-line isn’t that big and maybe it isn’t that strong,” said Hampton. “But they’ll come off and hit people. I think they take everybody by surprise.”
Sturgis’ pick set up a 29-yard scoring burst by Hampton in the third quarter, Redmond dove in for a fourth-quarter score and Steven Meseroll finished off a 6-for-6 night on PATS to cap West’s third straight win.
“We’re improving each week,” said Young. “Hats off to our defense tonight. The only thing I didn’t like was the four turnovers. We do that next week (at A.L. Brown) and we’ll get smacked.”
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