By Brian Pitts

For the Salisbury Post

CHINA GROVE — The pregame forecast pointed to a Davie County romp, and the War Eagles’ performance matched assumptions.
The visitors rolled up 43 points in the first 18:59, flipped on the running clock for the second half and buried Carson, 43-7, in the teams’ first ever meeting here Friday night.
The 4A War Eagles improved to 3-2 with their third straight win. The 3A Cougars sank to 1-4 — their fourth loss in a row.
Carson was hampered by the absence of injured quarterback Cole Sifford.
Davie’s dominance began with a third-and-10 pass from Josh Hall to Mason Wilson, who beat two defenders for a 35-yard grab. On the eighth play of Davie’s first possession, Josh Robinson took an option pitch from Hall and scored from 11 yards out.
Less than two minutes later, Davie’s Kinston Whitener beat two teammates to the punter and blocked the kick, setting up Davie’s offense at the Carson 18-yard line. Robinson shredded three would-be tacklers and scored on a 7-yard run.
Wilson’s 41-yard reception and Adrian Cranfill’s 17-yard run led to Skyler Schoppe’s 25-yard field goal. Less than a minute later, linebacker Cody Hendrix intercepted a Carson pass at the Cougar 36, took off down the left sideline and ended up scoring on the right side of the end zone.

Wilson picked off a Carson pass on the next play from scrimmage, and the first quarter ended with Davie steamrolling, 24-0.
On the first play of the second quarter, Hall placed a pass over a Carson defensive back and right into the waiting arms of Jack Reynolds, a 24-yard TD that gave the freshman receiver four scores on the year.
Following a 32-yard punt return by Reynolds, Robinson broke several tackles during a 9-yard TD scamper to cap a 36-yard drive in which Robinson accounted for every yard. (He also accounted for three TDs in the first 18 minutes.)
Two plays later, Davie was in the end zone again, this time when a fumbled pitch skipped back 19 yards. Defensive lineman Jalen Redmond was there to scoop it in the end zone. Davie’s lead was 43-0 with 5:01 left in the first half, a continuous clock began on the second-half kickoff and the score didn’t change until Carson’s Cameron Prugh, who took over at quarterback in the second half, connected with Jemarius Hairston for a 44-yard TD early in the fourth quarter.
The halftime stats reflected the one-sided affair. The War Eagles had 14 first downs; got 6 yards per rush from Robinson, Peyton Hampton and Cranfill; added 114 passing yards as Hall averaged 28.5 yards on four completions, including two for 76 yards to Wilson; and converted six of seven third downs. At the break, Carson netted just 8 total yards; failed on six pass attempts, went 0-for-4 on third downs and committed three turnovers.
With the running clock in the second half, Davie had no first downs, ran eight plays and netted 1 yard. Carson picked up 87 of its 95 yards after halftime.
Davie’s opportunistic defense recorded its sixth and seventh scores of the season. Redmond has been involved in three of those.