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By Jay Spivey

For the Clemmons Courier

The NCHSAA Class 4-A playoffs were announced this past Sunday and West Forsyth was named the No. 14 seed in the West and will play host to No. 19 Waxhaw Cuthbertson on Friday.

Neither team has played since Friday, Nov. 1, but the NCHSAA granted the extra week to the regular season to allow the teams in the mountains to make up some games because of those missed during Hurricane Helene. West Forsyth (7-3), which plays in the Central Piedmont 4-A and finished third in the conference at 5-2, last played two weeks ago in a 48-42 loss at East Forsyth. Cuthbertson (7-3), which plays in the Southern Carolina 4-A and coached by Duke Howell, finished third in the conference at 2-2.  

“It was good,” Wallace said of the break. “We were able to kind of recoup a little bit, you know, try to put that tough loss behind us, focus forward, refocus.”  

West Forsyth will try to surpass what it did last season. It defeated Charlotte Audrey Kell 32-15 at home in the first round and lost 47-7 at Matthews Butler in the second round. 

We’re here now. It’s a whole other season. That’s what we’ve got to understand,” Wallace said. “They’ve got to understand also that the expectation isn’t one home game. That was the expectation that was set with last year’s group.” 

One person Wallace noticed on film about the Cavaliers is defensive lineman Cole Webster, a 6-3 senior, who has committed to play at James Madison.  

“They’re aggressive upfront defensively,” Wallace said. “They’ve held teams to pretty low numbers.” 

Offensively, the Cavaliers are predominant running team. Junior Mason Iovino, according to MaxPreps.com, leads the Cavaliers with 1,220 yards rushing on 190 carries with 18 touchdowns. 

“They’ve been going through some quarterbacks. There’s been some changes,” Wallace said. “So, defensively is their strong suit.” 

The two teams do have a common opponent – Weddington (10-0), which won the Southern Carolina 4-A and is the No. 2 seed in NCHSAA Class 4-A playoffs. Weddington will play host to No. 31 Kannapolis A.L. Brown (5-5) on Friday in the first round.  

Weddington defeated West Forsyth 48-13 in Clemmons on Sept. 5 in a nonconference game, and visiting Weddington defeated Cuthbertson 33-7 on Oct. 25.  

“It’s good to see them on film,” Wallace said. “And I’m not saying we played very well against Weddington. So, we made some changes after the (Mount) Tabor game (27-17 loss in the conference opener on Sept. 20), but I think it’s really benefitted us the last six weeks. They’re going to be well coached.” 

If West Forsyth wins on Friday, it will likely go back to Kernersville next Friday to play No. 3 East Forsyth. East Forsyth (10-0) plays host to No. 30 Matthews Butler (4-6) in the first round on Friday.  

“We’re going to preach to our guys that we’ve got to bounce back from last week (East Forsyth loss),” Wallace said. “You can’t have drop-offs. We can’t play three quarters and that’s been our almost Achilles’ heel all year is that we play almost three quarters in those games and not four.”