Mount Tabor edges West Forsyth in Central Piedmont 4-A opener

Published 12:19 pm Sunday, September 22, 2024

Friday night’s high school football game between West Forsyth and Mount Tabor at Bob Sapp Field was billed as a matchup of two of the better teams in the Central Piedmont 4-A.

That still might come to pass, but despite a combined 33 penalties and six turnovers, Mount Tabor held on to edge West Forsyth 27-17 in the conference opener for both teams that was delayed 30 minutes because of lightning.

Of those penalties and turnovers, West Forsyth (2-2, 0-1), which was idle the previous week after a home loss against Weddington, had 18 penalties for 135 yards, and it also had two turnovers, both of which resulted in touchdowns for Mount Tabor. Mount Tabor, which was also idle the previous week after defeating Greensboro Page, wasn’t much better. It had 15 penalties for 147 yards and had four turnovers.

“We have to be better on offense,” Coach Kevin Wallace of the Titans said. “I don’t know any other way to say it. Offensively, we have played bad and have not hit in synch, and that’s all on me. And we’ve got to fix it.”

Neither team could get anything going early. However, the Spartans (3-1, 1-0) went on an eight-play 76-yard drive that finished with a 38-yard touchdown pass with 3:38 left in the first quarter from quarterback Lane Albright to receiver Jadon Blair, a 6-foot-5, 192-pounder, who also plays defensive back and has committed to play at Notre Dame. Endy Diaz tacked on the extra-point kick to give the Spartans a 7-0 lead.

Then, the wheels fell off for the Titans. On the ensuing possession, just 17 seconds after Blair’s touchdown, the Titans’ had the ball on their own 22-yard line. On the first play, the Shotgun snap from center sailed over quarterback Rocky Horton’s head and into the end zone.  Matthias Banks of the Spartans picked up the fumble in the end zone with 2:21 left in the first quarter to help push the lead 14-0.

“We’re just not consistent,” Wallace said. “We tried to put a new center back there to give us a little more help back there because he’s a better blocker and it just gave them another touchdown.”

Just three plays after the fumble recovery in the end zone, quarterback Riley Horton of West Forsyth dropped back to pass, and just as he was pulling arm back to throw, John Coles of Mount Tabor hit his arm, jarring the ball loose. Coles recovered the fumble in the end zone with 2:04 left in the first quarter to help extend the lead to 21-0.

“We’re just not executing – everyone,” Wallace said. “We’re not executing. I don’t know any other way to put it. It’s getting very frustrating. It’s everybody. It’s the O-line to the quarterback to the running back to the receivers. Like, we haven’t done anything together at all.”

Despite falling behind, the Titans began to chip away at the Spartans’ lead just before the end of the first quarter. With 50 seconds left, Jailyn Moore caught a 60-yard touchdown pass from Horton to help trim the lead to 21-7.

“They spotted us 14,” Coach Tiesuan Brown of Mount Tabor said. “I still wasn’t really worried about it. I felt about the defense going into this game.”

“Really, what happened y’all, we got up on them and they couldn’t just live with 3 yards,” Brown said. “They couldn’t live with 2 yards. They had to have the start make some big plays. When we gave up that long touchdown, I was kind of pissed off.”

West Forsyth trimmed the lead again midway through the second quarter. Albright fumbled after a 17-yard sack and West Forsyth recovered the fumble at the Mount Tabor 13. Five plays later, West Forsyth scored on a 1-yard keeper by Horton with 3:59 left in the second quarter to help trim the lead to 21-14.

The Spartans fumbled the ensuing kickoff and the Titans recovered. The Spartans were able to capitalize and score with 1:20 left in the second quarter on a 29-yard field goal by Kosta Dupuy.

“The first quarter felt like it was so long,” Brown said. “And I kept telling the guys when we went up 21, I said, ‘Guys, it is a lot left in this game. Don’t get complacent.’ But when we dropped that kickoff return right there in front of my face, I was like, ‘Oh, Lord, it’s happening.’”

Mount Tabor took the opening kickoff in the second half and went 10 plays, but Diaz’s 31-yard field-goal attempt went off the left upright, giving West Forsyth the bal. However, the drive was quickly thwarted.

“I thought we were good. Coming out, we could chip away,” Wallace said. “Came out, we went like four-and-out, three-and-out, whatever it was.”

The Spartans extended the lead to 26-17 on a 40-yard touchdown pass from Alrbight to Blair with 4:07 left in the third quarter, and Diaz added the extra-point kick to make it 27-17.

Together with senior Shamarius Peterkin, a 6-3, 170-pound wide receiver/defensive back, whe has committed to Virginia Tech, Mount Tabor has a formidable tandem of receivers. Albright finished 7-of-16 passing for 126 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions.

“If teams stand two high we’ve got to be able to run,” Brown said. “So, they was in a lot of two high tonight and we was able to run the football.”

The Titans had fourth-and-2 on the Spartans’ 6 with 8:55 left and Horton was stopped short to turn the ball over on downs. West Forsyth turned the ball over again on downs the following drive.

“Defensively, we played great,” Wallace said. “We have played our butt off for four weeks and the offense has not matched the defense yet. So, we’ve got to get better offensively. We really do.”

West Forsyth finished 89 yards rushing on 29 carries, led by 46 yards on 12 carries for running back CJ Blevins. Horton finished 10-of-20 passing for 109 yards and a touchdown.

“We’re going to try some things. I have things in my mind. I’m trying not to make a rash decision right now. Wait til the weekend. We’ll evaluate the film again and go from there.”

Go from there means a home conference game next week against Parkland (3-1, 1-0). Parkland was off this past Friday after defeating Glenn 14-9 at home last week in its Central Piedmont 4-A opener.

“We need to get back out,” Wallace said. “The bye week, we did some good things, but it’s rust…We haven’t done a good job of coming out of the bye week this year.”

Parkland’s lone loss was 22-10 against Carver on Sept. 6 at home in a nonconference game. Parkland has outscored its opponents 95-65. West Forsyth defeated Parkland 56-9 last year at Deaton-Thompson Stadium.

“We have to execute better,” Wallace said. “I mean, it comes down to execution. We’ve got to throw balls, catch balls, run right routes, block the right people, and not go downfield. I mean, it’s a lot of stuff we’ve got to clean up. And we’ve got to limit distractions as a team and we’ve got to get that done.”

The game was rescheduled for Thursday due to anticipated weather concerns.