Timing is everything, and Jeff Safrit wishes it worked out differently for his Mustangs.

For the second straight year, East Rowan lost to Concord. Friday night’s 17-7 defeat came on the heels of a 33-21 decision in 1998. In both cases, East had just lost to powerful Kannapolis teams while Concord enjoyed an off week.

“Every year when we play them we play them after Kannapolis,”Safrit said. “They have an open week, two weeks to prepare. They always seem to come out and play good.”

Concord’s defense was ready for everything East ran, whether it be reverses to Cal Hayes or quick passes in the flat. The Mustangs were limited to 74 yards total offense.

Making East Rowan’s scheduling even more difficult this season was a slow start. Losses to Central Cabarrus and West Rowan left the Mustangs needing two wins against Northwest Cabarrus, Kannapolis and Concord. The only one that came was a 20-12 defeat of Northwest.

“They had three hard weeks where they’ve got to beat two out of three people to get in the playoffs,”Concord head coach E.Z. Smith said.

This time around, it didn’t happen.

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slamming the door: After the East defense surrendered two touchdowns and 174 yards of offense in the first half, Concord scored only a field goal on 110 yards of offense in the final 24 minutes. Smith credited Mustang coaching for that change.

“Jeff Safrit is a great football coach and that’s what his job is, to adjust,”Smith said. “Then we counter-adjust.”

The biggest difference came late in the game, when a weary defense surrendered a first down on third-and-long midway through the fourth quarter.

“In the fourth quarter it seemed like we’d have them third and long and they’d get it,”Safrit said. “Other than that we played aggressive, we hit ’em.”

Prior to the 1999 season, West had scored 50 points in a game only three times in 40 years.

This season, however, the Falcons have bettered 50 twice, beating Salisbury 53-0 to open the season and whipping Sun Valley 68-8 on Friday night.

Other 50-point efforts by the Falcons over the years include a 53-6 win over Troutman in 1960; a 66-7 romp over Taylorsville in 1967; and a 63-0 romp over West Iredell in 1974.

West actually scored more points Friday than it scored in a couple of entire seasons.

West’s lowest-scoring season ever was 1962. That year, the Falcons were shut out eight times and scored an unlucky 13 points on their way to an 0-9-1 mark.

West has scored 338 points this season (33.8 ppg), which is a higher scoring pace than the school-record one established by the 1994 team, which put up 406 points in 13 games (31.2 ppg).

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HURRYINGHORATIO:Horatio Everhart doubled his interception total for the season with two picks against Sun Valley.

One of the interceptions was turned into six points by a streaking Everhart, who took a second-quarter theft back 60 yards.

“I saw the ball coming and jumped up,” said Everhart. “After that, I just remember a lot of blocks ahead of me.”

Everhart is only 5-foot-10, 155 pounds, but he had the night’s biggest hit when he flipped 240-pound Sun Valley tight end Kenneth Hammond when he went airborne after a pass.

“I liked that hit even better than the interceptions,” said Everhart.

Everhart didn’t think much of Sun Valley’s football team, but knows things will be more interesting in basketball season when he’ll be a member of the Falcon squad and Hammond will star for Sun Valley.

“Sun Valley, they’ll be talkin’ junk,” said Everhart. “But they were doing that tonight, too.”

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HEY, NOBODY’SPERFECT: Late in the first half of West’s romp, QBJared Barnette spotted Scooter Dalton running free in the Sun Valley secondary.

Barnette delivered the ball on the money for what would have been his third TD pass of the night, but Dalton somehow dropped it.

“I saw it coming and I said to myself, ‘All right, touchdown, touchdown!’” said Dalton.

“But then I let it hit my pads and it bounced off.”

Dalton’s teammates promised to give him a hard time about the drop, but it was the only downside of a night that saw him surpass 1,000 rushing yards for the season.

Dalton was promised a game ball by coach Scott Young.

The Cavaliers made NorthStanly its own worst enemy Friday night, using four Comet turnovers in the 34-26 win.

MarcusLawing recovered a fumble on the 1-yard line and ran it in for an easy touchdown at the end of the game.

Anthony Nguyen and Keighan Butler also recovered fumbles. Butler, the county leader, now has five recoveries.

Alfonzo Miller also had a pass interception.

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MANY HAPPY RETURNS: The Cavaliers’ Andre Byrd is one of the top pass receivers in the county, but he’s also a dangerous return man.

Byrd had eight kickoff and punt returns for 225 yards against North Stanly, including a 67-yarder that set up a touchdown. He had four other runbacks from 23 to 36 yards.

Byrd, counting five pass receptions, had 262 all-purpose yards.

The Raiders will surpass 2,000 rushing yards for the season Friday night. South presently has 1,951 yards, second in the county behind West (2,129).

East is a distant third with 1,436.

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PICKOFTHELITTER: South leads the county in interceptions with 11, thanks to a recent surge by sophomore Ricky Childers, who leads the county with five.

No sooner was Friday’s game over than quarterback Terry Johnson gave Ken Drye a high-five and yelled, “No interceptions!”

The Hornets’ season-ending 31-10 loss to Ledford was only the second time this season he hasn’t thrown one. Coming into Friday, he had three picks in each of his last four games. But he played his best game against Ledford, going 14-of-26 for 141 yards.

“They tease me every game but I love it,” said the good-natured senior. “They’re my boys. They told me if I didn’t throw an interception it would be a wonderful day for me.”

Johnson never expected to play quarterback. He was playing tight end to stay in shape for basketball. But early in preseason, Salisbury head coach Raymond Daugherty tried him and liked what he saw.

“I thought I’d be back there for one or two games,” Johnson said. “But (Daugherty) said, ‘You’re my quarterback.’ From that day on, I committed to the program. I told him I’d do whatever he wanted.”

When Davie County quarterback Drew Ridenhour went down with a partially-torn ACL early in the season, the War Eagles’ offensive line knew that when he returned to action, it would have to take its level of play up several notches.

Ridenhour, an excellent all-round athlete, had good mobility prior to the injury; after it, he was slowed considerably.

Somehow, the Davie line, when it wasn’t opening holes for 1,000-yard rusher Ricky White, managed to keep Ridenhour’s jersey clean in Friday night’s 17-6 win over Mount Tabor.

“Drew can throw the ball if we give him time, said Davie lineman Jeff Frisby. “He’s a good quarterback, but he’s not gonna be able to get it done without time.”

Given plenty of seconds by his line, Ridenhour hit pass plays of greater than 50 yards to Nick Propst and Rod Tenor Friday as Davie closed out a stunning 9-2 regular season, which included a 4-0 mark in the Central Piedmont Conference.

The Wonders were badly banged-up in their 21-7 win over Northwest Cabarrus last Friday.

Fullback Duran Lipscomb had to visit the dentist to repair a couple of chipped teeth, but has recovered from the concussion he got from a collision with a Trojan.

Punter Ron Anthony is in a neck brace and probably won’t be able to go on Friday. JoshLee would replace him.

Lee may also have to step in for quarterback Justin Hardin, whose right shoulder popped out more times than Ryan Klesko in Friday’s first quarter.

Hardin remains questionable for the upcoming showdown with Concord.

Hardin’s dad and coach, Bruce Hardin, said Sunday at the household was interesting.

“Justin had ice packs all over him,” he said. “He had a packet of frozen peas on his shoulder and frozen corn on his knee.

“Then I saw that (Justin’s twin brother, receiver Blair) had butterbeans on his shoulder. What I asked my wife was, ‘What’s going to be left for supper?’”

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