Paige, West Forsyth throttle Davie County; Reynolds up next to close out home portion of season
Published 1:12 pm Saturday, October 19, 2024
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Darell Paige, 2, breaks a tackle against Davie High School. - Brad Richard, NC Prep Photos
Riley Horton tucks the ball away to run for West Forsyth. - Brad Richard
Hunter Cruise turns his eyes downfield. - Brad Richard, NC Prep Photos
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By Jay Spivey
For the Clemmons Courier
CLEMMONS – Friday night’s “Battle for the Yadkin River Bridge” was one-sided as Darell Paige accounted for four touchdowns while West Forsyth pummeled Davie County 48-10 in a Central Piedmont 4-A game at Jerry Peoples Stadium.
West Forsyth (6-2, 4-1) has won four games in a row since losing its conference opener on Sept. 20 at Mount Tabor 27-17. Included in those four wins were shut-outs to Glenn 40-0 and Reagan 27-0 the previous two weeks.
“They played well,” Coach Kevin Wallace of West Forsyth said. “We were decisive on stuff. We’ve got to execute a couple things, but we were decisive, getting balls to the right targets, the right reads. (Quarterback) Riley (Horton) has got to be a little more accurate, but he was accurate on some the big plays. The run game was great.
“Defensively, I think it’s good for us because we saw what we need to work on moving forward because you pitch two shutouts you kind of get full of yourself a little bit. So, it’s good to kind of bring them back home and see what they’ve got to do, which hopefully we can work on this week and be better next week.”
It didn’t take long for the Titans to take momentum. The Titans took the opening kickoff, but they went three-and-out. The War Eagles (2-6, 1-4) took possession, but Braxton Bowling fumbled with 10:38 left in the first quarter and DaViare Eldridge of the Titans recovered at the War Eagles’ 33.
West Forsyth took advantage of the turnover and scored four plays later after Horton threw a 19-yard touchdown pass to Paige. West Forsyth often goes for two-point conversions, but place-kicker Kosta Dupuy missed last night because of injury. Paige took a handoff from Horton and darted in for two points to take an 8-0 lead with 9:31 left in the first quarter.
Like many times when the War Eagles and Titans play, it was nip-and-tuck for the first quarter. Right after the Titans took an 8-0 lead, the War Eagles went on a 10-play drive and finished it with a 28-yard field goal by Max McCall with 6:23 left in the first quarter to make it 8-3.
The see-saw battle continued on the ensuing drive for West Forsyth. Running back CJ Blevins had a 36-yard run, but he fumbled. Hunter Cruise of West Forsyth picked up the loose ball and rumbled the remaining 44 yards for a touchdown to make it 14-3 with 6:06 left in the first quarter. Max Williamson, who was filling in for Dupuy converted the extra-point kick to make it 15-3.
However, Davie County quickly answered. It took the kickoff after Cruise’s touchdown and scored six plays later on a 6-yard run by Bowling with 4:10 left to help make it 15-10.
Bowling finished with 81 yards rushing on 21 carries.
“We battled some injuries towards the end of the half, but right before halftime and the second half,” Coach Tim Devericks of the War Eagles said. “But our kids battled, man. We battled. I’m super-proud of them tonight.”
Despite the touchdown by Bowling, the Titans answered right back after going on an 11-play, 75-yard drive, finishing with an 8-yard touchdown run by Paige to help extend the lead to 22-10 with 11:33 left in the second quarter.
“We knew they were going to be a run-heavy team,” Devericks said. “And so, that’s what we were guarded for and trying to get some re-routes on some receivers and try to let our corners run with them, and for the most part they did a good job.”
Davie County went three-and-out on its next drive.
“I think defensively we needed to calm down,” Wallace said. “Once we calmed down and started doing our assignments, we were fine. But we were doing some plays where we were dipping inside and they were getting outside. We weren’t carrying crossers across the field. In coverage, we were looking in the backfield.
“And once we calmed down, Coach (Will) Billingsley got on them and locked them back in they were fine.”
West Forsyth went on a 10-play drive and scored on a 44-yard touchdown pass from Horton to Paige, but the extra-point kick was blocked to make it 28-10 with 6:05 left in the second quarter.
Horton was 13-of-29 passing for 209 yards and three touchdowns.
“Explosive plays were big for us offensively,” Wallace said. “I know that. That is one thing we always try and win in the game, so we missed some long ones.”
Paige scored on a 3-yard run, his fourth touchdown of the game, with 3:19 left in the second quarter to help extend the lead to 35-10.
Paige had three rushes for 33 yards, and West Forsyth had 323 yards rushing on 48 carries. West Forsyth finished with 573 total yards.
“It was good,” Wallace said. “I think we had some excitement.”
With 10:43 left in the third quarter, quarterback Draeton Nance of Davie County was intercepted by Eldridge.
“We’ve got a really strong defensive line,” Wallace said. I think we did a great job. We blitzed when we needed to and got there on the blitzes and caused some issue. So, that we great and our secondary held up. Our secondary held up really well.”
The War Eagles finished with 192 total yards.
West Forsyth took possession and went three-and-out, but Wallace called for a fake punt. Williamson threw a 46-yard pass to Eldridge to continue the drive. Blevins scored six plays later on a 7-yard touchdown run with 7:23 left in the third quarter, but the extra-point kick was blocked to keep it 41-10.
The Titans scored their final touchdown on a 13-yard touchdown pass from Horton to Cruise 2 minutes left in the third quarter to help make it 48-10.
It just added to the tough stretch the War Eagles have gone through for the past month. They have lost four games in a row.
“We stick together and do things the right way,” Devericks said. “And see these kids’ effort, and that encourages me.”
As for West Forsyth, it was a dominating win.
“We were just challenging our kids, you know, and explaining that this is the original rivalry,” Wallace said. “And our kids gotta understand that. This game means a lot to alumni, our older generations. You know, the ones now only think of Reagan and East (Forsyth), kind of. But this one matters a lot.”
West Forsyth will close out the home slate next week with a game against Reynolds (4-4, 2-3). Reynolds lost 61-14 against East Forsyth Friday night.
West Forsyth defeated Reynolds 54-14 last year at Deaton-Thompson Stadium. It’s also a game that involves second-year coaches at their respective schools. Joe Davidyock is the head coach at Reynolds.
“We’re both from New Jersey, and I recruited him,” Wallace said of Davidyock. “I’ve known Davidyock for a long time. Joe’s a good coach, young coach. Hopefully he’s finding his way and doing things and learning – things I’ve gone through, everyone else has gone through.
“You know, they’ve got a couple players from last year we really remember, we’ve got to watch for.”
Davie;10;0;0;0;–;10
W. Forsyth;0;0;0;0;–;48
WF – Darell Paige 19 pass from Riley Horton (Paige run)
DC – Max McCall 28 FG
WF – Hunter Cruise 44 fumble return (Max Williamson kick)
DC – Braxton Bowling 6 run (McCall kick)
WF – Paige 8 run (Williamson kick)
WF – Paige 44 pass from Horton (kick blocked)
WF – Paige 3 run (Williamson kick)
WF – CJ Blevins 7 runs (kick failed)
WF – Cruise 13 pass from Horton (Williamson kick)
Records – Davie County 2-6 (1-4), West Forsyth 6-2 (4-1)
