High school football: Falcons fighting back from disastrous start
Published 3:45 am Monday, September 25, 2023
Carson's Foday Dyer 2, photo by Wayne Hinshaw
West's Evan Kennedy and South's James Ritchie 18. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
West's Evan Kennedy 6 on TD run pass South's Ryan Walden 56 and Zach Barham 24. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
West's Evan Kennedy 6 slips away from South's Ashton Frampton 43 for a TD. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
South's Landon Richards 10 flips West's Elijah Holmes 18 . photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
South's Jadon Moore 9 on a long TD Run. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
South's Jadon Moore 9 and Landon Richards 10 celebrate Moore's long TD Run. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
West's Evan Kennedy 6 breaks a tackle by South's Macon Fuller 21. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
West's Evan Kennedy 6 after a TD Run. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
West's Coach Louis Kraft. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
West's Jaylen Neely taking hand off from QB Brant Graham 5. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
South Jadon Moore 9 running behind Joaquin Bernal 4 and Orion Collins 40 photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
South QB Brooks Overcash 7. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
South's Marshal Faw 2 catches a pass in front of West's Aubree Robinson 7. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
West's Jaylen Neely 11 and South' s Joaquin Bernal 4. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
West's Evan Kennedy 6 slips away from South's Joaquin Bernal 4. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
South's Jadon Moore 9 kicks extra point after long TD run. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
South's Landon Richards 10. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
South's Jadon Moore 9 punting. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
West's Jaylen Neely 11 running between South's Ashton Frampton 43 and 61. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
West's Jaylen Neely 11 running from South's 25. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
South's Landon Richards 10. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
South's Landon Richards 10 faces West's Aubree Robinson 7. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
South's Coach Chris Walsh. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
West's QB Brant Graham 5, photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
West's Evan Kennedy 6. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
West's Jaylen Neely 11 and South's Jamie Klassette 51. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
West's Hunter Miller 50. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
South's Brooks Overcash 7. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
South's Landon Richards 10 being tackled by West's Kevin Toomer 9. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
West's Jaylen Neely 11 runs between South's Conner Richards 45 and 61. photo by Wayne Hinshaw, for the Salisbury Post
Staff report
MOUNT ULLA — West Rowan rolled 59-28 against South Rowan in a South Piedmont Conference football game played on Friday.
The result wasn’t a surprise. The Falcons haven’t lost to South since the Raiders pulled one out in overtime in 2000. West’s winning streak in the series was extended to 19 in a row.
“We overmatched them some in the trenches,” West head coach Louis Kraft said. “But South has some skill people, guys who are elusive and hard to tackle. They’ve got receivers that could play for anyone in our conference.”
Jadon Moore (6 catches, 70 yards) is one of those receivers who can play for anyone. He provided the biggest highlight for South. When West kicked off after taking a 13-0 lead, Moore took the kickoff to the house, breaking tackles early in the run and then out-sprinting people down the West sideline.
Moore’s play got South back within 13-7, but it was 33-7 pretty quick. West had its offense in high gear on Friday.
“A couple of things have happened,” Kraft said. “We’ve got a sophomore quarterback (Brant Graham) who is getting better every game. And we’ve got a special player that we got the ball to more often tonight. Evan Kennedy makes explosive plays. Evan had the sort of production tonight that we need from him and the sort of production that he deserves. He works hard at it, but things didn’t go our way in the early part of the season. Cramps knocked him out of the game at Kannapolis, and that was a factor in losing down there. Hopefully, this game is the one that gets him going.”
Kennedy had six catches for 194 yards. Jaylen Neely has emerged as a go-to running back for the Falcons, which means Kennedy is free to line up almost anywhere. He can line up in the backfield or as a field-stretching receiver. He’s also a threat to go all the way on any touch in the return game.
Graham threw three touchdown passes, two to Kennedy and one to Elijah Holmes. Despite quite a few drops, Graham had 207 passing yards.
Neely had three scoring runs and had 201 rushing yards on 23 carries, while Kennedy had one rushing TD. The balanced Falcons (2-3, 2-0) had over 250 rushing yards.
West also got a passing touchdown from backup QB Brody Tucker. He hit Max Brown for an 8-yard score.
West led 59-14 before South (1-4, 0-2) got two late touchdowns.
With West building a huge lead, South had to throw, and the Falcons were able to disregard the run and put heat on the passer.
The Falcons had eight sacks, including three by Kevin Toomer and two by Hunter Miller.
“It was good to see that old Falcon pass rush,” Kraft said. “We’ve kind of been missing that.”
Brooks Overcash threw for 159 yards and three touchdowns for the Raiders. He found Alex Furr open in the end zone and two Overcash swing passes to Landon Richards resulted in scores after Richards made hard-nosed runs.
Richards also had 84 rushing yards.
West continues to work its way back from an 0-3 start that included a late loss to A.L. Brown and blowouts against Davie and Mooresville.
The Falcons have won their two league games.
“Our start to the season was disastrous, and there’s really no other way to put it,” Kraft said. “The last three minutes of the first half against Davie were a train-wreck. Then the Mooresville game — that was the first time since I’ve been coaching here that I felt like we were just overmatched. Mooresville is that good. But we’re getting closer to where we expected to be. We’re making more big hits on defense and more explosive plays on offense.”
Northwest Cabarrus visits West Rowan next for the WSAT Game of the Week, and then the Falcons will go to Robinson.
Those teams are unbeaten and look like the power teams in the South Piedmont Conference. They both will be favored against West, but Kraft is confident his team is improving and will be ready to battle.
‘These next two weeks are going to define our season.,” he said. “We know that.”
