Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Senior night for 23 football players and two support staff

By Jay Spivey
For the Clemmons Courier

After last Friday’s thrilling victory against Davie County, West Forsyth has won three of its last four games.
The Titans have a very good chance to improve upon that on Friday when Reynolds comes to Jerry Peoples Stadium on Senior Night in the final home game of the season.
“It means something, but at the end of the day, senior night is senior night,” Coach Adrian Snow said. “You’ve got to be willing to play. You can’t lose focus and what it’s about.”
West Forsyth is 3-5 overall and 3-2 in the Central Piedmont 4-A after edging Davie County 34-31.
“We’ve gotten better every week,” Snow said. “That’s all you can ask.”
Meanwhile, Reynolds is 2-6 overall and 1-4 after losing to East Forsyth 51-0 last Friday.
“They’ve got some talent and they’ll be hungry,” Snow said. “Hopefully, our kids will be, too.”
Junior running back Caman Chaplin came to play against Davie County last week. He rushed for 357 yards on 38 carries and four touchdowns, including the game-winning touchdown with 33 seconds remaining.
“We’re going to come ready to play no matter who the team is,” Chaplin said. “We’re just going to come ready to play.”
As for Reynolds, it defeated High Point Central (1-7) 31-0 in the season opener. However, it lost the next four games before defeating winless Parkland 39-6 on Sept. 28. Since then, it lost to Glenn 21-0, and lost to East Forsyth last Friday at Deaton-Thompson Stadium.
“It’s been different each week,” Coach Pat Crowley of Reynolds said. “I thought that against Glenn our kids came out and were ready to play. We played really hard. It was 0-0 at halftime. Our offense is young. The whole team’s young. And we’re struggling to try to score points. Any break we can get, we need.”
In last week’s loss against East Forsyth, Reynolds trailed 51-0 at halftime, and the second half was played with a running clock.
“I told (my players), I said, ‘Don’t let (Friday) night affect the next couple of games,’” Crowley said. “They’re a really good team. We were playing with one hand tied behind our back and one leg wasn’t working. I was proud of the kids to go out there and fight as much as they did. What are you going to do?”
West Forsyth finished with 507 total yards against Davie County. Trying to stop that kind of production for Reynolds this week will be a defense led by Tashawn Jeter, a 6-foot-1 cornerback who has committed to Marshall and was just recently named to the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas roster.
Cedric Hooper, who is a 5-8, 173- pound safety, senior Justin Williamson, a 5-8, 164-pound safety, junior Luke Sanders, a 6-2, 215-pound linebacker, senior Troy Holmes, a 5-10, 204-pound linebacker, and Crowley’s son Joe, who is a 6-2, 190-pound sophomore defensive end are also counted on defensively.
“I stressed to our defensive coordinator, we’ve got to stop the run first,” Crowley said. “If you’re going to have any success in the CPC you’ve got to stop the run. Even Davie, who has become of a throwing offensive (team) of late, they run the ball. If you stop the run, you have a chance.”
One other thing that the Demons will have to contend with other than Chaplin is quarterback Bert Rice of the Titans. He was 17-of-26 passing for 165 yards and a touchdown against the War Eagles last week.
“What I think they’ve gotten better at as the season’s gone on is their play-action passes,” Crowley said. “They are going to throw a lot of screens.”
The Demons are young on offense, led by sophomore quarterback Lane Albright and sophomore running back Jaylin Murry.
“Our goal is to go out there and win the games,” Crowley said. “(I’d) love to go out there and knock off West, and finish up with Reagan and beat them. Just like West has improved, I feel like there’s certain parts of our game we’ve gotten better at.
“The defense is much better than it was last year. Our special teams are better. Our offense is struggling, but I feel like the next game is the game that we’re going to put it together.”
West Forsyth will honor its 23 senior players and two members of the support staff in a pre-game ceremony. Those senior player are:
Kian Bailey, Will Hayes, Ziggy Malave, Ahmar Van Eaton, Camden Caldwell, Matthew Del Hierro, Ty Thomas, Kennison Moore, Ben Prusko, Jont’a Smith, Connor Davis, Max Cheeck, Anthony Ponce, Hank Ballard, Devante Early, Ethan Krebs, Theodore Toland, Mehki Wilson, Malachi Payne, Anthony Reid, Alejandro Morillon, Kaleb Benson and J.D. LeGrant.
The two senior members of the support staff for the team are Maddie Munsie and Rachel Hull.
“I hope our seniors ball out,” Chaplin said. “I pray they do what they’ve always wanted to and get in. And they can now.”