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By Jay Spivey

For the Clemmons Courier

KERNERSVILLE – West Forsyth was hitting on all cylinders Friday night as Darell Paige rushed for three touchdowns and the defense shut out Glenn to win 40-0 in a Central Piedmont 4-A game at Marty Stanley Stadium.  

After a sputter on its first drive after quarterback Rocky Horton of West Forsyth (4-2, 2-1) was intercepted, quarterback Brady Robinson of Glenn (2-4, 0-3) was intercepted on the ensuing drive on the West Forsyth 29. 

From then on it was all Titans. The Titans capitalized on the interception and marched 71 yards in eight plays and scored on a 1-yard touchdown by Paige with 4:39 left in the first quarter to make it 6-0. However, the pass for two points failed.  

“Those guys, Tommy (Green, head coach at Glenn) and Rodney Alexander, the DC (defensive coordinator at Glenn), I was here with them. So, long history and they’re great coaches and great motivators for the kids. And schematically they do a great job,” Coach Kevin Wallace of West Forsyth said. “So, our kids made some plays when we needed to tonight and it was good. It worked out for us.” 

West Forsyth took possession with 3:21 left in the first quarter and scored five plays later on a 37-yard run by Page with 10:37 left in the second quarter to extend the lead to 12-0. However, the pass for two points failed. 

“I think we’ve just got to make a play and we can calm down, relax and go out there and play our game,” Wallace said. “I think we get a little too hyped up at times.” 

The Titans added to the lead with 6:36 left in the second quarter after Jailyn Moore caught a 47-yard pass from quarterback Riley Horton. Kosta Dupuy added the extra-point kick to extend the lead to 19-0.  

The Bobcats took possession with 3:39 left in the second quarter and went on an 11-play drive, but PJ Dean sacked Robinson on the Titans’ 8-yard line with 10 seconds remaining to turn the ball over on downs. 

“We emphasize the middle 8 (minutes),” Wallace said. “So, we say the last 4 minutes of the second quarter and the first 4 in the third are big (are a) a big momentum-changing time. So, I think we played well in those 8 minutes. And we’ve been harping on them. I was proud of the kids how they did that, how they played.” 

Indeed, did the Titans take advantage of the first 4 minutes of the third quarter. The Bobcats took the opening kickoff of second half, but they punted three plays later. The Titans took possession on the Bobcats’ 47 with 10:17 left in the third quarter and scored four plays later on a 1-yard run by CJ Blevins with 9:45 left in the third quarter to help push the lead to 26-0. 

Blevins finished with 115 yards on 12 carries with a touchdown. 

On the ensuing possession, Glenn had three consecutive incompletions and punted back to West Forsyth. 

“They’ve played the run well all year. So, proud of that,” Wallace said of the defense. “But we’ve done a good job of stopping the run, trying to make teams one dimensional, to throw. It’s almost like we lose our swagger every game for like one series or something like that. But then, we’re fine.” 

After the punt, West Forsyth scored six plays later on a 13-yard touchdown pass from Jerrell Crawford, who transferred from Glenn, to receiver Hunter Cruise to help push the lead to 33-0 with 7:20 left in the third quarter.  

“We were going into it this way,” Wallace said. “We think each one (quarterback) gives us something different. And I don’t want to make anything of Jerrell being here before and that, but it was just, we were at the point of (Crawford) gave us some more. And I want to start giving him reps, so we can see if he will do some stuff that we expect him to do, we’ve seen him do in a game a game situation for us.  

“He made some plays. He’s got some stuff he needs to correct. He missed some open throws, but he made some plays.” 

Wallace elected to use both Crawford for much of the game. Horton was 6-of-11 passing for 88 yards, and Crawford was 5 of 11 for 65 yards. 

“I’ve never been a big split-quarterback kind of system,” Wallace said. “But I think Jerrell does give us something else that Riley hasn’t give us yet. Riley did do some good things tonight. So, we’ll the film, we’ll evaluate, make a decision next week on what we’re going to do.” 

Paige scored his third touchdown of the game with 10;26 left in fourth quarter to help push the lead to 40-0. 

“(Paige) is very explosive,” Wallace said. “And getting the ball on the perimeter and stuff like that hasn’t been a good answer for us right now. We haven’t been doing that successfully. So, we’re trying to get him the ball.  

“And you could see it tonight, we’ve always said for Darell, last year and this year, he touches it he can go to the house every time. So, we need to get him the ball, take some hits off CJ a little bit. And It’s been working.” 

West Forsyth will be back on the road again next week as it travels to Pfafftown to play rival Reagan. 

Reagan (4-2, 2-1), coached by Josh McGee, defeated Davie County 31-14 Friday night in Mocksville. Reagan defeated West Forsyth 35-26 in Clemmons last season.  

“We’ve got to calm down and let the talking on social media go,” Wallace said. “I think that was part of our stuff last year, and that’s the hardest thing. Our kids get so worked up with all that stuff. And we’ve got to let that go.” 

The Raiders lost junior quarterback Jacob Smith, who has committed to play at N.C. State, to a torn ACL, which he suffered earlier in the season.  

Brenner Pridgen has stepped in for Smith, and before the Davie County game this past Friday, Pridgen was 31-of-47 passing for 366 yards and six touchdowns.  

“We saw their Glenn-Reagan game two weeks from Saturday,” Wallace said. “(McGee) is trying to do some stuff. He’s going with some quick game, he’s motioning, doing some things to try and get some advantages. He did a good job against Glenn.  

“…We’ll get the film (Saturday) and go from there.” 

And redemption might be on the minds of the Titans. 

“I think we’re hungry to get them back because last year,” Wallace said. “I think we’re hungry for that.” 

 

 

Forsyth;6;13;14;7;–;40

Glenn;0;0;0;0;–;0 

WF – Darell Paige 1 run (pass failed) 

WF – Paige 37 run (pass failed) 

WF – Jailyn Moore 47 run (Kosta Dupuy kick) 

WF – CJ Blevins 1 run (Dupuy kick) 

WF – Hunter Cruise 13 pass from Jerrell Crawford (Dupuy kick) 

WF – Paige 38 run (Dupuy kick) 

Records – West Forsyth 4-2 (2-1 Central Piedmont 4-A), Glenn 2-4 (0-3)