By Brian Pitts

For the Salisbury Post

MOCKSVILLE — Davie County washed a sour taste out of its mouth and smiled once again.
The War Eagles scored 20 points in a span of nine minutes in the fourth quarter, shut out visiting Reagan in the second half and pulled away, 37-14, in the regular-season finale last night.
Davie (5-6, 2-3 Central Piedmont Conference) snapped a three-game losing streak and will now prepare for the 4A state playoffs. The last-place Raiders tumbled to 3-8 and 0-5.
The catalyst was sophomore running back Josh Robinson, who ran 27 times for 147 yards, representing the most rushing yards since teammate Adrian Cranfill’s 147 in September of 2016.
Junior Peyton Hampton, who is juggling offense and defense now that Davie lost star safety Broc Barnette to a season-ending injury last week, was clutch on his 10 carries, scoring two TDs. He got the ball four straight times and gained the final 10 yards on a 13-play, 71-yard drive that provided a 17-6 lead.
Reagan answered quickly, going 77 yards in a span of 1:38 and scoring with six seconds left in the first half. After a successful two-point run, the visitors chopped Davie’s halftime lead to 17-14.
Most of the third quarter was a stalemate. Reagan punted. Davie turned it over on downs as a fourth-and-1 play from the wildcat formation failed. Then Reagan sandwiched two punts around a Davie punt.
Davie finally intensified its grip on the game with a drive that bridged the third and fourth quarters. Cranfill converted a third-and-6 with a 12-yard burst. On fourth-and-2 from the Reagan 27, Hampton rumbled for 6. Hampton would get the ball on the final five plays of the 14-play, 64-yard drive, scoring from 5 yards out to give Davie breathing room at 24-14.
Then the floodgates opened. Hunter Meacham broke up a pass and Hampton caught the deflection. He would have had a pick-six, but holding on the return brought it back.
Five minutes later, Davie was bleeding the clock with repeated Robinson runs. Then quarterback Josh Hall caught Reagan’s defense offguard, faking a handoff to Robinson and turning the corner, his only rushing attempt resulting in a 32-yard, nail-in-the-coffin TD that made it 31-14 with two minutes left.
The Cody Hendrix-Meacham combination added the exclamation mark. Hendrix blasted backup QB Riley White as he threw. Meacham picked it and raced 29 yards for the final score.
Robinson, one of the few bright spots with 111 rushing yards in the 35-7 loss at East Forsyth the previous week, became the first War Eagle in three years to put together back-to-back 100-yard games. Cade Carney had three straight in 2014.
Senior Cooper Wall came in having already established career records for receiving yards and receptions. He added another career mark on Senior Night, catching a 4-yard TD pass from Hall in the first half to give him 32 TD catches. Ben Ellis had 31 from 2013-15.
Hendrix entered the game with 481 career tackles, 16 short of James Boyle’s school record.