West Rowan had its share of big plays but not enough touchdowns in the 21-16 loss to
Concord Friday night.Justin
Davis, who has already had a county-record 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, raced
63 yards on a punt return for a TD that put West ahead 13-7 in the second period.
A 45-yard pass completion from
quarterback Jared Barnette to wide receiver Davis put West deep in Concord territory in
the third quarter, but the Falcons couldn’t score.
Horatio Everhart’s pass
interception and 37-yard runback to the Concord 30 set up a 35-yard field goal by Matt
Russ that cut the Spiders’ lead to 21-16 with 9:22 to play.
Then, with 2:48 left, Barnette
threw to wide receiver David Terry for an apparent 39-yard touchdown that would have given
the Falcons the lead, but a holding penalty nullified the score. West eventually lost the
ball on downs.
Mustangs head coach Jeff Safrit is
predicting stardom down the road for his fullback Chris Faavesi, who is just a sophomore.
Faavesi wasn’t supposed to
run the ball 23 times in East’s 20-12 win over NorthwestCabarrus Friday night, but
when Safrit saw him banging into the Trojan defensive line, he gave it to Faavesi over and
over and over.
The result was 102 yards rushing.
“Chris is just a bull,”
said Safrit. “He played all but three or four plays in the game. He is going to be
one of the best in Rowan County over the next two years.”
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IISFORISSAC: Safrit said he teases
senior Issac Washington about not having any hands. Those days may be over after
Washington intercepted two passes and recovered a fumble against Northwest.
“If we play hard, we can beat
anybody,” said Washington, who also got in on offense for some running duty when
Hayes went out.
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TOMTERRIFIC: Thomas Hendrickson is
one of Safrit’s favorites because he goes all out on every single play.
A sequence in the second quarter
proved it.
When Northwest tied the score at
6, Hendrickson and Washington burst through the line to block the extra point. The Trojans
then kicked off to Hendrickson, who backed up into the end zone and sped 46 yards to the
45.
Two plays later, he ran for 11
yards and a first down. Two plays later, he ran six more to the 20, setting up Brent
Lambert’s second of three touchdown catches.
“Idon’t know when
I’ve ever been prouder,” Safrit said. “We had some kids out there worn slap
out. But we played with intensity. There was some hard hitting going on.
“Itold them at halftime that
if we didn’t have penalties and didn’t turn the ball over, they couldn’t
physically stop us.”
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JUSTLIKETHEYDREWITUP: Northwest
quarterback Ryan Woodham came into Friday’s game with a bigger reputation, but when
the game was over, both coaches were lauding East’s sophomore quarterback Drew Davis.
“He looked good on tape and
was just as good in person,” said Northwest head coachGlen Padgett.
Brent Lambert caught the passes
but Safrit said that was because of good blocking.
“Iknew Brent could catch
it,” Safrit said. “Our problem has been having enough time to throw it. Tonight,
the offensive line gave us time.”
The Hornets first drive Friday
night, then their second one, certainly weren’t indicative of the team’s 34-20
loss to North Stanly.
Salisbury took the opening kickoff
and marched 73 yards on five plays. Running back Ken Drye ran 40 yards on the first play,
then quarterback Terry Johnson rolled out of the pocket for a 19-yard gain. Drye was
stopped just short of the goal line on his next run, setting up an easy Johnson keeper.
An onsides kick surprised the
Comets, and Salisbury wasted little time capitalizing. Johnson hit wideout Gromyko Walker
for 31 yards, Drye gained 14 yards on his next three carries and again Johnson had an easy
keeper into the end zone, this time from 2 yards out.
Twelve points in 4 minutes, 19
seconds.
“When we got field position I
was real pleased with the way the offense moved the football,” head coach Raymond
Daugherty said.
He also would have been pleased if
the Hornets had continued their success into the second half.
Salisbury held a 20-14 lead and
stopped the Comets on downs on the 11-yard line. A sack and two failed running plays led
to a punt and a quick North Stanly score. The Hornets trailed by eight points before they
recorded their first first down of the second half early in the fourth quarter.
“Our deficiency running the
football really showed up in the third quarter,” Daugherty said. “We
couldn’t punch it out.”
Drye finished with 81 yards on 15
carries, but was just 4-of-9 in the second half. The Hornet rushing attack finished with
minus-2 yards in the half.
Salisbury watched Kamal Watkins
run all over its defense in Friday night’s 34-20 win. The Hornets weren’t going
to let the speedy senior kill them on special teams.
Watkins ran the ball 30 times for
324 yards, scoring four times and throwing for a fifth touchdown on a halfback pass. When
it came to returning kicks, though, Watkins had an easy night — the Hornets went with
three onsides kicks and punted out of bounds several times to stave off the big play.
Watkins did manage two punt
returns in the first half. His 15-yard return set up his first touchdown run from 37 yards
out. His second return of 25 yards put North Stanly 15 yards from the end zone.
Combining the kick return yardage
and rushing totals with his two interception returns of 16 and 37 yards, Watkins finished
with 426 yards of total offense.
Raider Keith Garrett not only had
an 89-yard return for a touchdown in Friday night’s 27-17 loss to Davie County, he
took the next War Eagle kickoff back to midfield.
On that one, he hit exactly the
same crease that produced the touchdown, but this time he was slowed by kicker David
Wooldridge long enough for pursuing War Eagles to catch up and make the tackle.
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mystery man: South Rowan picked
off War Eagle quarterbackDrew Ridenhour twice Friday night. The team roster indicated that
the star defensive back was No. 5, Marquette Diggs. He’s no longer on the team,
however.
The real star of the secondary was
sophomore Ricky Childers, whose No. 10 jersey was misplaced. He did just fine in No. 5,
though, stopping two Davie drives with timely picks.
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BIGBOOTERS: The South-Davie game
showcased two of the better placekickers in the area.
Davie’s Wooldridge hammered
through two more field goals, including a 44-yarder. He has a school-record 11 field goals
on the season.
South’s Robby Basinger had a
long field goal of his own in the game (45 yards), his fourth of the year.
Davie QBDrew Ridenhour thoroughly
enjoyed his 291-yard passing night against South — his best effort of the season
— but his enthusiasm was tempered by the injuries that kept Davie’s star running
back Ricky White out of the 27-17 win over the Raiders.
“It was fun to throw the ball
that much,” said Ridenhour, “it’s the kind of offense I like. But,
honestly, I’d just as soon hand the ball off to Ricky for 20 totes. It didn’t
feel right without him. He’s a senior and this was homecoming.”
White’s tailback spot was
taken mostly by freshman Mike Clement, who delivered a fine night of his own with 90-plus
yards.
“He’s got jets,”
said Ridenhour. “He’s going to be great.”
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PREPLEADERSALERT: Die-hard prep
football fans may have noticed an omission from the coverage in Saturday’s Post
— prep leaders from around the state.
The Associated Press decided not
to take prep leaders any more, but after hearing several complaints from newspapers across
the state — including this one — the APelected to resume the feature this
weekend.
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Ronnie Gallagher, Steve Hanf and
Mike London contributed to this notebook. |
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