By Bruce Wehrle
sports@salisburypost.com
TYRO — Here’s how the night went for West Davidson’s football team against Salisbury:
Blink: Hornets 7 -0.
Blink, blink: Hornets 14-0.
Blink, blink, blink: Hornets 21-0.
Before the night was through, West Davidson suffered a blinking 59-0 homecoming loss to the Hornets in the Central Carolina Conference opener for both teams Friday night at Glosson Memorial Stadium.
“They’re the defending state champions and I told (Salisbury) coach (Joe) Pinyan that I’m not so sure they’re not a better than last year’s team,” said West coach Dale Barnes. “I mean, they’ve got every facet of it — they’re very good on special teams, their offense has got a very good scheme that they’re running, and they’re very fast on defense.
“They’re just a very good football team.”
No kidding.
And the Hornets showed why, scoring almost as soon as they first laid hands on the ball.
Salisbury’s Dejoun Jones fielded the opening kickoff at his own 24 and returned it to the West 17. After West suffered a 5-yard penalty for encroachment, Salisbury quarterback Brian Bauk connected with wideout Jon Hall on a 12-yard TD pass.
That put the Hornets up 7-0 just 22 seconds into the game. Blink.
“That touchdown set the tone,” conceded Barnes.
West was forced to punt on its first possession, giving Salisbury the ball at its own 36. But Jones broke open a 48-yard run on the second play form scrimmage, bringing the ball to the West 3. From there, Dominique Dismuke ramble in for a 14-0 lead.
The Hornets added a third score less than three minutes later when Bauk scored on a 6-yard run.
It was just that kind of a night for the Hornets, who were chewing off large chunks of yardage with almost every carry.
And there was not much the Dragons could do about it.
“We were hoping to slow them down and maybe move the ball a little bit ourselves,” said Barnes, whose team is 0-1 in the CCC, 3-3 overall. “But we didn’t accomplish either one of those things.
“It’s not much different than the scheme we played against them for six or seven years,” said Barnes. “Some years you’re successful and some years you’re not. But the speed difference is bigger now than it’s ever been. The speed of their offensive linemen, defensive linemen and linebackers is at another level than what we’ve seen.”
The Hornets built their lead to 31-0 by halftime with a 44-yard run by Dismuke and a 26-yard field goal from Michael Mazur.
It seemed like Salisbury’s four TDs in the second half were nothing more than exclamation points to the victory.
So the question now is how does West recover form this loss?
“Our kids are very resilient,” said Barnes. “They’ll come back in Monday ready to go back to work and get ready for Lexington because they understand if they don’t, they’ll get pounded on again. We’ve got to have a lot of pride about ourselves and get back after it.”
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NOTES: Dismuke rushed for 162 yards and 4 TDs while Jones added 134 yards and 1 TD. … The Hornets are now 6-1 overall, scoring 328 points in those seven games while allowing just 64. … In all, the Hornets rushed for 385 yards. … West managed just 50 yards rushing in the game. … Nicole Michael was named homecoming queen.