Davie snaps skid with convincing win
Published 2:40 am Saturday, October 25, 2014
By Brian Pitts
The Davie County Enterprise-Record
MOCKSVILLE — In the wake of three straight losses, Davie County vented on visiting Parkland Friday. The War Eagles’ win was a 58-6 cakewalk that added to the Mustangs’ misery.
The War Eagles (5-4, 1-3 CPC) put up the most points since their 62-7 win over Reynolds in 2006 and posted the largest margin of victory since a 56-0 thrashing of Berry Academy in 2007.
The Mustangs (0-10, 0-5) haven’t won since 2012 and saw their losing streak grow to 21.
The War Eagles took care of business quickly. They scored touchdowns on five of six possessions to build a 37-0 lead at the half.
Parkland’s six first-half possessions went like this: turnover on downs, safety, fumble, punt, punt, interception.
In the first half, Davie County produced 15 first downs, 368 yards and averaged 11.5 yards per play. For the half, Cade Carney rushed for 95 yards, Parker Correll ran for 73 and passed for 139 and three TDs, and Ben Ellis had 84 receiving yards and two scores.
“We practiced all week, in every rep we took, like we were 21 points down at the beginning of the game,” coach Devore Holman said. “Because you can see that they haven’t won a game and your kids can say: ‘Well, we’ve got it made.’ But you have to play every snap.
“We felt like we were 21 down at the beginning, and at halftime we felt like we were down 37-0.”
A mercy-rule running clock was inevitable, but Parkland delayed that by using a long kickoff return to set up its lone TD in the first minute of the second half.
At 51-6, Davie triggered the running clock with 4:52 remaining in the third.
Davie’s offense enjoyed two major flurries, scoring 16 points in a span of 1 minute, 49 seconds in the first quarter and scoring 21 in a span of 3:40 in the third.
The only suspense was whether Davie’s three main ball carriers were going to reach 100 yards in the same game.
It’s happened twice — Cooter Arnold, Justin Brown and Jamar Bratcher turned the trick in ‘03 and ‘04. Carney (106 rushing yards), Correll (85) and Cameron Coleman (84) made a collective run for it, but fell short.
Correll had the biggest performance, throwing three TDs and rushing for two more. Ellis caught four passes for 112 yards to top the century mark for the sixth time in nine games.
“I think everybody that was healthy played,” Holman said. “Those guys sweat every day on scout team, and we told them when they went in that we don’t want them just going in for the sake of going in. We want them to go in with a purpose of executing what we coach them to do.”
Another blowout is a possibility next week when Davie County hosts Reynolds, whose only win was over Parkland. “We’re going to take the same type approach against Reynolds,” Holman said.