MOCKSVILLE— After his scrimmage at Davie County Friday night, West Rowan football coach Scott Young said he will use the next seven days to get better.

He’ll start with his voice.

“I’m already hoarse, he laughed Saturday morning. “I’ve got to get my coaching voice back.”

He lost it yelling his approval over the Falcons’ performance against 4A Davie,which is expected to be a contender in the tough Central Piedmont Conference this season.

“I was real pleased with the effort,” Young said. “We’re real young and I was hoping to have a good scrimmage to get our confidence up.”

When play began, Davie’s Ricky White ran in for a long touchdown. Quarterback Drew Ridenhour found his favorite target in Thadd Johnson, who made several nice catches, including one diving grab and another for a score. Rod Tenor also had a scoring catch.

But the West secondary did intercept Ridenhour, a highly ranked quarterback, a couple of times and played better as the scrimmage progressed.

Offensively, Young was impressed with the running of Scooter Dalton and Jonathan Diggs. Quarterback Jared Barnette ran in for a score and looked good. Young also liked the play of receiver Justin Davis.

“Scooter — he’s pretty good,” Young said. “I like watching him run. I think both of our quarterbacks (including sophomore Ben Hampton) are coming on. They’ve both taken an equal number of snaps. Jared’s had a little more success but the other one has a lot of potential.

Defensively, Jason Fink, Terris Sifford and S.J. Culbertson drew praise from their coach.

Young, who spent three years at Davie, said it was weird being back on his old home field, but added that first-year West assistant David Hunt had to feel even odder about being back in Mocksville after two decades of coaching War Eagles.

“How do you think he feels?” Young chuckled. “He had been there 80 million years!”

SALISBURY-MOUNT AIRY: As young as Salisbury is, head coach Raymond Daugherty’s main goal Friday night when the Hornets hosted Mount Airy was to get his players hitting someone else besides a teammate.

“We just wanted to get some people playing under fire,” he said. “We made a lot of mistakes and we made some coaching mistakes. But they were all fixable. The staff started correcting those mistakes last night.”

Mount Airy was a well-coached and talented team, according to Daugherty.

Salisbury’s veteran mentor said it was nice hitting the field as a head coach for the first time since 1986.

“It felt great,” said Daugherty. “It was good to get back in the saddle, calling plays and getting involved.”

West will travel to Salisbury next Friday for the 1999 opener.

THOMASVILLE - A.L. BROWN: The Wonders embarrassed Thomasville last year in the Chair City, so A.L. Brown coach Bruce Hardin was a bit apprehensive about Friday night’s rematch at Memorial Stadium. He knew this scrimmage would be serious business for coach Allen Brown and the always-strong Bulldogs.

But Hardin need not have worried. The Wonders shut out the Dogs again, dominating the action on both sides of the ball.

“Allen wasn’t too happy when he left,” said Hardin.

After the jayvee squads butted heads in scoreless fashion, the Wonder varsity got in the end zone three times, while shutting out the Tommies.

“It was a good, physical battle,” said Hardin.

Wonder TDs came on a run by Marcello Stanback and on scoring aerials from Justin Hardin to Blair Hardin and Duran Lipscomb.

“We had good balance,” said coach Hardin. “We worked out a lot of kinks in our new offense.”

“I’m real pleased with where we are right now. “I especially liked our conditioning. It shows how hard the kids have been working. This is a performance we can build on.”

NORTH ROWAN-BUTLER : North coach Roger Secreast could not be reached for comment on Saturday morning.

His highly regarded Cavs scrimmaged 4A Butler in Charlotte on Friday night.