By Brian Pitts

For the Salisbury Post

MOCKSVILLE — That one cut to the bone.
Davie County had a 14-0 lead with under five minutes to play and coughed it up, losing 20-14 in overtime last night to visiting Page.

The loss spoiled the first game at the new War Eagle Stadium, seven miles from the old campus. The Pirates also spoiled a phenomenal defensive effort in Davie’s first outing under its new defensive coordinator, David Hunt, who has been on the sidelines since 1970, mostly at West Rowan and Davie.
When it was 14-0, head coach Tim Devericks summoned the hammer team while facing fourth-and-2 at the Page 39 yard-line with five-plus minutes to go. At that pivotal moment, the War Eagles could have hammered Page into submission.

But the hammer did not work as Ben Summers, who entered at QB for this play, was swarmed under for no gain on a sweep left.
From there, Page big-played Davie.

Two plays after the failed fourth down, Page quarterback Javondre Paige, who had thrown for 41 yards on 20 attempts to that point, scrambled left, bought time and found Nick Baker behind the secondary, the 58-yard TD reviving Page’s spirits and making it 14-7 with 4:51 to go.
Two plays later, Davie starting quarterback Josh Hall fired a pass to Jack Reynolds, who had position on his defender. But Alex Angus, who had several inches on the 5-foot-7 Reynolds, went over the receiver to reel in an amazing interception. To make matters worse for Davie, he returned it 37 yards for a game-tying touchdown.
So in a span of 42 seconds, it went from 14-0 to 14-14.
De’maura Isaac, who played a splendid game at cornerback, made a tackle on a fourth-and-10 play at the Davie 23 to set up overtime.
The War Eagles had possession first in overtime, and Adrian Cranfill picked up 5 yards to the Page 5-yard line. Two incompletions later — Hall looked for Evan Little both times — freshman kicker Guillermo Moure attempted a 22-yard field goal. It was blocked.
On Page’s first offensive play in OT, Paige, who had rushed for 16 yards on 15 tries through regulation, managed to churn 10 yards over left tackle to deal Davie the stinging defeat.
Two Hall bombs and Davie’s defense controlled the first 43 minutes.

On a third-down play from the Page 25, Hall lofted a corner-route spiral. Reynolds, the younger brother Chris Reynolds, who crushed the record book the past two years at quarterback, beat his man and caught it in the end zone. The freshman receiver put Davie on the board, stunning the favored Pirates. Moure’s first point-after kick as a War Eagle was true for a 7-0 lead with 7:50 left in the first quarter.
Isaac and Cody Hendrix buried the Page punter on a fake-punt play late in the first quarter. He needed three yards and got one.
Page couldn’t pierce Davie’s defense with conventional running plays, so it tried an end-around. It was going to be a 50-yard TD for Naim Bradsher, but two penalties worth 25 yards brought it back and kept Page off the board.
Isaac broke up a fourth-down pass late in the half — Page would go 0 for 12 on third-down conversions and 0 for 5 on fourth — and Kinston Whitener, Hunter Meacham and Matthew King made strong defensive plays in a three-play span early in the third period.
Page intercepted a Ben Summers pass but couldn’t cash in. Moments later, sophomore Evan Little ran a fly route down the right sideline. Hall hit him in stride for a 28-yard TD, giving Davie the 14-0 lead with 3:59 remaining in the third.
Big Ronald Wilson, the imposing defensive tackle for Davie, got his mitt on a third-and-11 pass as Hunt’s crew continued to frustrate Page’s offense. Later, Meacham disrupted a fourth-and-7 end-around play.
That set up the possession that brought on Davie’s hammer team at the Page 39. Page made all the key plays from there, making sure the road team won this annual opener for the seventh year in a row.