The Falcons climbed the mountain of respectability by planting a 29-22 loss on highly-regarded North Rowan and in the process, proved they are for real.

They are the deal.

Scott Young’s resilient Falcons were still proving themselves coming into Friday. Despite averaging 51 points in the opening two contests, there were still doubters out there.

“I was a doubter,” admitted an impressed North coach Roger Secreast. “And there are doubters who don’t think they’ll do well in their conference (the South Piedmont 3A). I’m not one of them. Right now, if I had to pick, I’d pick them and Kannapolis to win the thing. What’s really good about that is we play Kannapolis (Sept. 17) in our next game.”

If Wonder coach Bruce Hardin asks for a scouting report?

“I’d say, you better outscore them because West is going to score some points.”

Another bit of good information for SPCfans: keep the ball away from Scooter.

Both of them.

Scooters Dalton and Sherrill put on an offensive display Friday that wowed the overflow crowd that showed to see what all the hubbub was about in Mount Ulla.

West wasted little time in strutting its stuff. Justin Davis took the opening kickoff 46 yards. Sherrill caught two passes from Jared Barnette, setting up Dalton for a two-yard touchdown run and a 7-0 lead five minutes into the game.

From there, West mashed the Cavs’ defense up front, allowing Dalton and fullback Jonathan Diggs to run at will. The final totals showed Dalton, a senior transfer from Lexington, with 169 yards on 28 carries and Diggs with 146 on 13 tries.

For the game, West ground out an eye-popping 360 yards. It opened up the airways for the ever-improving Barnette, who completed 11 passes for 106 more.

And Sherrill? The basketball player had six catches for 65 yards and rushed three times for 41 more.

“I‘ve told Dalton for three years that if he ever wanted to leave his place, we’re closer than anybody else — we’re only 17 miles away,” joked Secreast. “I thought he looked tremendous. And of course, Sherrill looked great too.”

But the key to West’s win was Diggs, the unheralded running mate of Dalton. Unheralded, that is, until now.

The 5-foot-11, 205-pound fullback, stunned North with a 74-yard scoring burst around right end on the Falcons’ second possession. In the third, he added a brutish 43-yard run up the middle, breaking four tackles, giving West a 23-14 lead.

“People think he’s a bruiser,” said Young, “but he’s just as fast as Dalton.”

Diggs pumped up not only the large home following but also his defense.

“After seeing Diggs run like that, the defense was hyped,” beamed defensive back Terris Sifford.

It’s a good thing. West was facing dangerous quarterback Mario Sturdivant, who finished with 161 yards in the air but only 18 on the ground.

“We emphasized one thing,” said linebacker S.J. Culbertson. “And that was contain Mario. He’s a great athlete.”

“We didn’t want to let his running beat us,” said Young. “Believe it or not, we’d rather have Mario throwing. We thought for the most part, we had some pretty good secondary guys who could cover their receivers for the most part.”

Sturdivant did throw for two touchdowns but never torched West with big gainers. His longest completion was 24 yards to Graham Hosch.

When Sturdivant drilled a five-yard scoring pass to Chris Phillips with four minutes left, followed by a conversion pass to Alfonzo Miller, West’s once-comfortable 29-14 lead had shrunk to 29-22 and had Young second-guessing himself.

On the previous possession, he decided to go for it on fourth-and-one from his own 23 and failed when Diggs was stopped for no gain.

“I had to apologize to my players,” Young said. “They played hard for me tonight but I made a stupid call.

“I went for it because on two of our previous punts, I saw (Jonathan Britton) put a lot of pressure up the middle and I was concerned about a blocked punt and a momentum change.

“Our defense gave up 14 points. I’m not going to pin those last eight on them. Those are mine.”

West took over after the kickoff on its own 33 with 4:01 left and everyone in Falcon blue was fan, coach and player was holding his or her collective breath. If North’s quick-strike offense got the ball back, who knows?

It never happened. This night belonged to the Falcons.

Young put Sherrill in the backfield and along with Dalton, helped West run out the clock by converting two key third-down plays.

It left West 3-0 and sky high.

“We knew this was the mythical county championship,” said lineman Bryan French. “We may have proven ourselves tonight.”

Sifford was sure of it.

“We’re confident,” he said with a big grin. “We’ve got gas. We’re cooking.”