East Forsyth defeats West Forsyth with late touchdowns, captures Central Piedmont 4-A title

Published 5:14 pm Saturday, November 2, 2024

KERNERSVILLE – It was like deja vu all over again Friday night at Fred E. Lewis Stadium for West Forsyth.

Much like last year against East Forsyth in Clemmons, West Forsyth led with a chance at a share of the Central Piedmont 4-A title. However, the same result happened Friday night as quarterback Bryce Baker fired a 3-yard touchdown pass to JP Gilchrist with 9.4 seconds remaining to help East Forsyth slip past West Forsyth 48-42 and finished undefeated to win the outright conference title.

Had West Forsyth (7-3, 5-2), which led 35-21 at halftime Friday night, won it, it would’ve set up a three-way tie between itself, East Forsyth and Mount Tabor since all three would’ve been 6-1. But that didn’t happen. Since East Forsyth won and Mount Tabor, which defeated West Forsyth and lost to East Forsyth, defeated Parkland Friday night and finished runner-up, West Forsyth finished third.

“We were in this spot before,” Coach Kevin Wallace of the Titans said. “This is back-to-back-years. We were up going into it and we didn’t finish the game. So, we’ve got to find a way to finish the game.”

For the Eagles, it was their third straight conference championship.

“We won by 10 (last year),” Coach Todd Willert of East Forsyth said. “We were down 14 at one time (last year) because that was kind of part of the speech in there. It’s good. We needed a game like this to wake us up a little bit – the coaching staff, myself, the players, everybody, trainers, everybody needs to wake up a little bit because there’s no takebacks now once you get to the playoffs.”

The NCHSAA Class 4-A playoffs were originally supposed to begin next Friday, but because of Hurricane Helene in September, the NCHSAA pushed back the playoffs a week to allow the teams in the mountains to make up some games. Therefore, the pairings will be announced Sun., Nov. 10, and the first round will begin Fri., Nov. 15.

“It’s hard. Two years in a row,” Wallace said. “That’s really hard. You know, we’ve got to bounce back. We can’t let this game affect us in two weeks. And that’s going to be the biggest thing. We’re going to have to overcome it in two weeks.”

As for East Forsyth’s win Friday night, with the score tied at 42-42, East Forsyth took possession at its own 30 with 4:51 left. East Forsyth drove all the way to the West Forsyth 3-yard line with 14.9 seconds left. Willert was forced to call timeout.

“We were freaking terrible at time management at the end of the game,” he said. We did really good and when we got to cutting time, you know, we screwed up. We got the wrong personnel out of a timeout. Just terrible coaching. And we had to throw the ball because if it was incomplete, if it was incomplete then we were going to kick the field, obviously. So, we had to throw the ball there.”

And throw the Eagles did. Baker, who has committed to play quarterback at North Carolina, threw a pass to Gilchrist in the left-front corner of the end zone to take a 48-42 lead with 9.4 seconds left. However, Brayden Cresimore’s extra-point kick was blocked.

Baker finished 18-of-26 passing for 220 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Baker was also the leading rusher for the Eagles with 103 yards.

“We didn’t play well tonight. That’s a great team. Honestly, we probably should’ve lost tonight,” Willert said. “But we found a way. The kids found a way. We made plays.

“Bryce didn’t play his best game, but we needed to our two guys stood up – JP and Bryce – and they make that play at the end of the game.

Quarterback Riley Horton of the Titans, who finished 9-of-13 passing for 189 yards and three touchdowns, and added 148 yards on 19 carries with two touchdowns, was sacked on the final play of the game.

But it was a tale of two drives for Horton in the fourth quarter. Tied 35-35 after Jailyn Murry of East Forsyth scampered in for a 4-yard touchdown with 7:16 left and Cresimore added the extra-point kick.

On the ensuing drive, Horton fumbled after running for a first down, and Solomon Brown picked up the loose ball and dashed 47 yards for a touchdown with 5:09 left to help take a 42-35 lead.

However, just 12 seconds later Horton fired a 46-yard touchdown pass to Jailyn Moore to help tie the game at 42-42 with 4:57 left.

“When we scored on that one, I thought we just needed one more defensive stop,” Wallace said. “And we just couldn’t get it, you know. It was just kind of right there outside of our reach. They made a play at the end.”

The Titans led 35-21 at halftime after outscoring the Eagles 29-7 in the second quarter.

However, with 3:18 left in the third quarter, punter Max Williamson of the Titans had his punt blocked and the Eagles recovered at the Titans’ 16. One play later, Cannen Rottweiler scored on a 16-yard run to help trim the lead to 35-28.

“They didn’t rush anybody,” Wallace said. “We’ve got to clean that up. You know, we had a new kid in there and we’ve got to coach them harder, and we’ve got to coach them harder and get them right. He tried. He just didn’t get it done, and we’ll coach him up and we’ll move forward. And he’ll learn from that mistake. But he’s got to get over it, too.”

East Forsyth went on an 11-play, 82-yard drive and scored on a direct snap to Jailyn Murry for a 3-yard touchdown with 7:16 left in fourth quarter to help knot the score at 35-35.

East Forsyth finished with 519 total yards, including 299 yards rushing, and had 33 first downs. Corey Blair had 99 yards rushing on 15 carries and two touchdowns.

“Jailyn Murry was unbelievable,” Willert said. “Jailyn Murry is – he plays both ways. He plays special teams. I’ve never really had a guy that is gone both ways since I’ve been here in my 22 years. And just puts out, man. He does all the great things.”

West Forsyth finished with 413 total yards, including 222 yards rushing.

“I think we got run-heavy,” Wallace said. “I think we just felt too confident in the run. And one of three plays they made and it hurt us. And we got behind the sticks early on in the third quarter and early on in the fourth quarter, which didn’t help.”

As for the playoffs, West Forsyth will definitely be in, and it has an excellent chance of playing the first round at home.

The Titans have no game this week, but it will practice Monday, Wednesday and Thursday since there is no school on Tuesday because of Election Day. The NCHSAA football playoffs pairings will be announced next Sunday afternoon.

“I hope we can get over it,” Wallace said. “So, we’ll see. I hope we can get over it and we can move forward. We just can’t concentrate on it.

“We’ve got to realize – we failed (Friday night), but we’re not failures and we we’ve got to make sure it was an attempt in learning, and we learned from it. We learned from it to move forward to next season.”