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By Jay Spivey

For the Clemmons Courier

It just seems like yesterday that West Forsyth football traveled to play cross-county rival East Forsyth in the regular-season finale. The game proved to be one of the wackiest games played this season in the Central Piedmont 4-A. 

It wasn’t really yesterday, but the two teams are set to meet again this Friday, just three weeks after East Forsyth won 48-42, as No. 14 West Forsyth plays at No. 3 East Forsyth in the second round of the NCHSAA Class 4-A playoffs at Fred E. Lewis Stadium in Kernersville. 

This game was set up after West Forsyth (8-3) defeated No. 19 Waxhaw Cuthbertson 10-3 this past Friday night, and East Forsyth (11-0), which won the Central Piedmont 4-A championship, defeated No. 30 Matthews Butler 38-32. 

“We’ve got a second shot at East, which not everyone can say in the season,” Coach Kevin Wallace of West Forsyth said. “So, we’ve got a second shot and we’re going to see if we cannot beat ourselves and not do the things that cost us things in the at the end towards that game throughout the game, and play a disciplined game.  

“So, I mean I know they’ve made some changes and stuff. So, we’ll see. It’s going to be a good game.” 

The same thing can be said for East Forsyth as it prepares to play West Forsyth for the second time in three games after both teams were idle the week after the first meeting.  

“I think it’s a real good chess match between coaching staffs, you know, because you have seen each other really in the past three weeks,” Coach Todd Willert of East Forsyth said. “When you go to the playoffs, obviously, we both played tight games, so you’re actually going to see what teams are going to do when they really need to make plays. So, it becomes a great chess match between both coaching staffs.” 

In the first meeting on Nov. 1, Jailyn Moore of West Forsyth scored on a 46-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Riley Horton with 4:57 left in the fourth quarter to help tie the game at 42-42.  

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

“We’re going to see if we can pull one out,” Wallace said. “You know, it’s going to be a tough game. It’s going to be a hard-fought-game. It’s going to an intense game. It’s going to be a physical game.” 

However, East Forsyth came right back, led by quarterback Bryce Baker, who has committed to play at North Carolina. East Forsyth drove and scored after Baker threw a pass to JP 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.   

It was the second time in the last two seasons where the Titans led late, but the Eagles came back to win. The Eagles won 42-35 last year in the regular-season finale in Clemmons. 

“From last year, we cut it down from about 12 minutes left in the game where they took the lead, or 11 minutes, something like that, to 9 seconds left to win it,” Wallace said. “I got on our kids the last two weeks hard about it… we’re not here for moral victories. We’re not here to lose on the last 9 seconds of the game.” 

Against Cuthbertson, West Forsyth finished with 199 yards rushing on 40 carries, led by 125 yards on 12 carries by Horton. The Cavaliers finished with 129 yards rushing on 31 carries, and finished with 143 total yards. The Titans finished with 269 total yards.   

“Like, that’s not what we’re here for. We’re programming and training you and mentally preparing you and physically preparing you to pull out those games. So, we’ve got to do a better job and we’ve got a shot at it.” 

But it has been the Eagles who have found a way to come back and win the last two games. 

“We’ve made some plays,” Willert said. “It’s nothing I’m happy about. I’m happy we’ve won, but I’m not happy the last two times we’ve played to win. You know, you’re happy that you’ve come back and win those games, but you wish you wouldn’t have to be in those situations. But hopefully we’ve learned, give us some confidence.  

“And, you know, once again It’s East versus West. So, you kind of throw all that stuff out the second round of the playoffs. You know, emotions will be high. Like I said, It’ll be a great atmosphere.” 

Baker finished the first meeting 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. The Eagles finished the first meeting with 519 total yards, including 299 yards rushing, 

In contrast, the Titans finished the game three weeks ago with 413 total yards, including 222 yards rushing. 

“We know where we can attack a little bit up front, hopefully,” Wallace said. “But we’ll see. I don’t know. I mean we’re going to watch that film and our defense is going to get after it (Saturday) in the film room with them, and we’re going to tweak things, you know, things I think we can, and we’re going to tweak some things and we’re going to throw it all at them again.” 

This past Friday against Butler, Baker was 9-of-13 passing for 136 yards and two touchdowns. Cannen Rottweller led the Eagles in rushing with 155 yards on 17 carries. Gilchrist had 78 yards receiving on four catches. 

“Coach (Ron) Horton, our offensive coordinator, doe a great job, him and Bryce,” Willert said. “You know, this being the second year together I think they kind of really gel together. This last game versus Butler, you know, I think they did some coverages that kind of take away our deep balls.  

“So, we just ran the ball. I think we ran for almost 9 yards a carry, 10 yards a carry. So, that’s kind of what we did. Bryce was very efficient.” 

Another thing this game does is ramp up the intensity because it’s a playoff game. The two teams have met in the playoffs a handful of times, the last being in 2022 when East Forsyth won 49-0 in Kernersville in the first round of the playoffs, which proved to be the final game for Coach Adrian Snow of West Forsyth before he resigned. The previous week, East Forsyth won 53-7 in the final game of the regular season.  

And as a byproduct of winning three weeks ago, East Forsyth gets to play this game at home. Had West Forsyth won the first game there would’ve been a three-way tie between West Forsyth, East Forsyth and Mount Tabor.  

“I don’t know if it means a lot more,” Willert said. “You know that you’re going to have a lot bigger crowd. That’s the cool part. You know, you’ve got a lot of people there. You know, you get to the playoffs, everything’s exciting.  

“It was exciting to play Butler. You know, I think we played them two other times since I’ve been here and we never beat Butler, so it was kind of cool to play them and finally beat them. Everything’s cool once you get to the playoffs.” 

The winner of Friday’s rematch in Kernersville will play the day after Thanksgiving in the third round of the playoffs against Friday’s game between No. 11 Northwest Guilford (9-2) at No. 6 Mooresville (10-1). If East Forsyth wins on Friday, it would play the third-round game at home. If West Forsyth wins on Friday, it would play on the road.  

“It just means more,” Wallace said of the rivalry with East Forsyth in the playoffs. “I don’t know. It means more because the conference championship is something we always want, and we want to go after it. And we want it. But it’d be quite interesting if we could get the win and send them home and we’re playing Thanksgiving.”