Cliches — those well-worn phrases that every gridiron coach keeps in a handy place right next to his depth chart — are a necessity when it’s time to handle the media, the fans — even the players.

For instance, you didn’t have to make a long distance phone call to Davie County head coach Doug Illing this week to know what he told his players as his heavily favored team prepared for tonight’s homecoming game against South Rowan.

“We have to take them one game at a time,” Illing surely said. “South’s better than its record, and on any given night they can beat anybody in the Central Piedmont Conference.”

There you are. Three tried-and-true cliches in a row.

South head coach Rick Vanhoy is a UNC grad and a geography teacher who can tell you the average rainfall in Bermuda, the highest mountain in Bulgaria and the principal exports of Burundi. He’s sharp enough that he’ll occasionally send a Post sports writer scrambling to a dictionary to look up a five-syllable word that he’s just dropped on them.

But Vanhoy can also interject a good old-fashioned “dadgum it” when the need arises. And he also knows how to throw in a timely cliche.

Ask Vanhoy about the Davie game — amazingly enough, South’s very first conference contest this season comes in Week No. 9 — and he comes out firing.

“No one expects us to beat Davie, so we’ve got nothing to lose,” he says. “We’ve just gotta challenge our kids and hope they can rise to the occasion.”

A couple of cliches.

But there’s this funny thing about cliches. Phrases hang around long enough to become cliches for one good reason. Because they’re very often true.

But is it possible that 1-6 South can beat 6-2 Davie? Sure it is.

Many area coaches have been impressed with South. And some coaches have wondered just how good a banged-up Davie team is, especially after its knockdown, drag-out, triple-overtime win over 2A Ledford and its stunning loss to Central Davidson. Then there was the War Eagles’ loss to North Davidson, a good 3A team, but a team that South manhandled in an August scrimmage.

South and Davie have played two common opponents. Davie nipped Mooresville 13-7, while South lost to the Devils 21-3, after trailing 8-3 most of the way. South whipped Salisbury 31-0. The Hornets gave Davie a tussle into the second half before falling 34-6.

There’s not much question that South’s nonconference schedule, which has included bouts with 7-0 Kannapolis, 6-1 Northwest Cabarrus and 5-2 West Rowan has been stronger than Davie’s.

Statistically — at least offensively — there’s not much to choose between the two. Davie, led by horse Ricky White (already a 1,000-yard rusher) gets 186 rushing yards and about 90 passing yards per game. South’s wishbone attack gets 180 on the ground, about 70 in the air.

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South was off last week, which gave Vanhoy a chance to do two important things before tonight’s make-or-break mayhem.

One: he had a chance to scout Davie-West Forsyth. He reports that the War Eagles are immense and imposing.

“Their defense is big, fast and talented,” he said. “And people talk about their quarterback (Drew Ridenhour) being hurt. He’s got a bad ACL, but he throws the ball with his arm, not his knee. And he doesn’t need two legs to hand off to Ricky White.”

Two: Vanhoy was able to lay a cliche on his team.

“I told the guys that we’re zero-and-zero now,” he said. “Friday night is a fresh start — a brand new season.”

The hardest part for South’s players right now is the mind game. The Raiders have proven they can compete, they have yet to prove they can win, that they can finish. And it’s no consolation for them that the losses have been competitive. Losing the close ones in ‘99 has actually been tougher on the Raider psyche than the blowouts of ‘98.

“People look in the paper, see we’re 1-6, and think we must be terrible,” said Vanhoy, who hurts more for his players and assistants than himself. “But we’re not. The great thing, though, is that if we go 4-0 the next four games, we’re the conference champs and no one’s gonna remember 1-6.”

Even three out of four in a league that looks as wide open as Randy Moss on a fly pattern gets South in the playoffs.

The players are sold on Vanhoy’s “fresh season” concept.

“We’ve got the talent. It’s a lot more even playing field this year than last,” says massive senior guard Brian Billings, a co-captain. “The matchups aren’t bad at all. What I’m tellin’ the team is that we can beat anyone if we just get our hearts and minds on the same page.”

The young guys obviously believe this season is far from over, especially the kids who man assistant coach Linn Williams’ improving secondary. A secondary that will be tested by Ridenhour.

“We know we’re good enough,” says soph cornerback Ricky Childers confidently. “It’s conference time now, and that means it’s time to win.”

“We’re way better than our record, we’ve just had some mental mistakes,” says junior corner L.J. Ratcliff. “We’re not down. We know we’ve got a pretty good football team.”

And maybe sophomore safety Brad Lanning says it best of all.

“I know some people doubt what we can do, but I think we’re going to surprise some people,” he said. “ This team wants it. It wants it a lot.”

That’s a cliche, Brad.