The Rockets are a running team and they didn’t need much else in pounding Davie County Friday night 28-7 in the second round of the 4A playoffs.

Davie finished its second season under coach Doug Illing at 10-3.

“I’ll tell you what, they are physical up front and they whipped us inside the trenches,” Illing admitted. “Give their guys credit.”

Asheville Reynolds was at its smashmouth best, running off 62 plays on the ground for 277 yards. Josh Meadows (119 yards) and Andrew Oak (103) wore down Davie with punishing, time-consuming 3- and 4-yard thumps into the line.

Bobby Poss’ defense was also doing some smashing, another Rocket trademark. It held the War Eagles, the Central Piedmont Conference champions, to a grand total of zero yards on a season-low 18 carries.

Ricky White, who usually has 18 carries by halftime, ran just 10 times for a paltry 5 yards.

“Ricky busted his tail and the line busted its tail,” said quarterback Drew Ridenhour. “We just couldn’t find a seam, couldn’t find a hole.”

It was clear early on that Davie would have to pass to win the game, which was fine with Ridenhour. In fact, he helped put Davie on the board first, preventing Reynolds from its seventh shutout in the last eight games.

On its initial possession, Ridenhour found Thadd Johnson on the right sideline. The sure-handed Johnson hauled in the bullet, got past Jon Boggs and was off to the races, 58 yards for a touchdown three minutes into the game.

Ridenhour did a good job on the play, avoiding a rush.

“It was just an 8-yard out (pattern),” said Johnson. “Drew threw a good ball and it worked.”

“We executed it perfectly,” said Illing. “That’s something we’ve done recently.”

With a packed visitor’s side going wild, Poss was left wondering about the mental frame of his defensive backs.

“I was pretty sick about it,” Poss said. “I didn’t eat anything for supper so I didn’t throw up. But I didn’t feel good at all. You don’t know if it’s going to put a negative scare in your DBs’ heads. Our secondary is challenged every time we face a passing team. Pass defense has been our nemesis.”

Oak tied the game at 7 early in the second quarter and then things began falling apart for Davie.

Aroughing the punter penalty was called on the War Eagles, starting a Rocket drive to the Davie 16 where Oak fumbled. Zeke Earle recovered.

But on the very next play, Ridenhour fumbled and Kyle Poss — the coach’s son — scooped it up and ran 9 yards for a score and a 14-7 lead.

“For whatever reason, that took the zap out of us,” Illing said. “It destroyed us.”

Still, Davie had chances to put more points on the board before halftime, thanks to Earle, Davie’s rough-and-tumble free safety.

With less than a minute left, Earle intercepted Chad Davis’ pass and ran it back 40 yards to the Rocket 30. Davie attempted three passes toward the end zone, all of which failed. It set up David Wooldridge for a 47-yard field goal, which was on line but short by a yard.

“At halftime, we were very pleased with what we had done,” Illing said. “We were just kicking ourselves in the butt over that one fumble.”

Asheville Reynolds took up most of the third quarter with a vintage Rocket drive: 13 plays, 58 yards. It converted four straight third-down plays, including a surprising 13-yard touchdown pass from Davis to Seth Hipshire. It was Davis’ second and final completion of the night.

“We don’t throw much,” said Poss, “so when we do, we better be successful. Our fans are like, ‘What did we just do?’”

A 21-7 deficit in the second half against Asheville Reynolds was just too much to overcome for the War Eagles. The Rocket defense held Davie to just two first downs in the second half and the first came in the fourth quarter.

Reynolds, meanwhile, converted 10 first downs and seven in a row at one point.

“If you’re going to run the ball like we do, you better make third downs,” Poss said.

By the fourth quarter, the courageous Davie defense was spent. The Rockets led in time of possession almost 2-1.

“Our defense was on the field the whole night,” Illing sighed. “It gave the maximum effort possible but we just got tired.”

It showed on the final Rocket score in the fourth quarter. Facing a fourth down at the Davie 20, Oak somehow slid through the middle for an easy touchdown run with eight minutes left for a 21-point margin.

“I don’t know what was happening up the middle but they were powering their way through there,’’ said Earle. “We couldn’t stop them.”

The exclamation point came on the game’s final play when Jon Haney burst through for the Rockets’ third sack of the game, ending the career of Ridenhour, who set several single-season marks. Against Reynolds, he threw for 184 yards on 14-of-29 passing.

“This is rough,” said the 6-3 college recruit, one of many seniors who stayed on the field, wiping tears out of their eyes and hugging friends, family and fans. “I’ve played with these boys for a long time. I’ll miss playing Davie County football. It’s a great place to play.”

But as Illing said, this senior class has started something.

“They set the standard for the program that we want,” he said. “They believed in themselves.”

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