Prep Football: West Rowan 42, North Iredell 0
Published 12:00 am Friday, October 12, 2012
By Ryan Bisesi
rbisesi@salisburypost.com
MOUNT ULLA – When West Rowan fans looked at the scoreboard when the clock hit zero Friday night, it read the Falcons as 42-0 victors.
The stat on West coach Scott Young’s mind was 4-0, that being the turnover differential in favor of visiting North Iredell.
While Homecoming festivities left a pleasant air surrounding the North Piedmont Conference win, it didn’t live up to the standard that Young has set in his 14-year stay at the school. Although they were primarily inconsequential, a pair of muffed punts along with an interception and a fumble wasn’t indicative of the team that’s won eight straight conference titles.
“I’m pleased with the overall outcome of the game with Homecoming and all that stuff going to plan,” Young said. “But I am so, so, so disappointed with the turnovers. Until we learn to value the football, we’re not going to play too long.”
Still the Falcons dominated in the familiar fashion the rest of the league has seen for quite some time. Quarterback Tyler Stamp’s three touchdown passes were a career-best and Daisean Reddick ran for 127 yards in his fourth straight game eclipsing 100 yards. West (7-2, 2-2) remained in the NPC race in its second-straight win after a shocking loss to East Rowan. Stamp completed five passes for 107 yards and made some shifty runs to amass 62 on the ground.
“We’re going to have to be able to pass the ball in the playoffs,” Stamp said. “That was a big part of our game coming in to improve the passing game.”
Defensively, the Falcons held their guests to just 14 yards rushing and 38 yards passing with Logan Stoodley and Kiero Cuthbertson claiming sacks. It was the first West shutout since a 21-0 win against West Iredell in the regular season finale last year. North (0-9, 0-4) was missing starting quarterback Jacob Queen due to injury. The Raiders only collected three first downs as Garrett Harshbarger completed four passes for 38 yards.
“They’re big and strong up front,” North coach Sandy Grinton said. “That was one of our main concerns.”
Reddick broke free for 72 yards on the third play of the game and didn’t stop until the pylons. It was the longest run of the season for Reddick, who sat out the first three games.
“The offensive line told me they got me,” Reddick said. “I saw the hole and exploded through it.”
After a NI three-and-out, West took over at the North 38 yard line and Stamp found Chris Patterson wide open in the end zone. Four plays from scrimmage and the Falcons were up 14-0.
“We knew coming into the game that was going to be one of our first plays,” Stamp said. “It was a run-pass option and I rolled out and was going to run it, The corner came up to play the run and Patterson was wide open.”
North recovered a punt that hit a West player seven plays later but the Falcons held on to make them punt it again. Stamp starred on the next possession, getting 13 yards apiece on a pair of scrambles. He found Anthony Pharr for a 17-yard touchdown pass a play later.
“For the most part our offensive line did a great job tonight,” Stamp. “There was a couple plays where they had coverage on the receivers so I pulled it down and ran.”
Stamp’s third touchdown pass came on a screen to Desmond Jackson right before halftime. Jackson had 147 all-purpose yards with 99 rushing and 48 receiving. The interception came in the final minutes of the first half.
Reddick added a third-quarter rushing touchdown and Jackson reached the end zone for the 10th time this season in the fourth.
“We did what we were supposed to do early and didn’t finish like we should have,” Young said. “That’s hugely uncharacteristic for West Rowan but it’s not been this year.”