By Marc Pruitt
For the Clemmons Courier

West Forsyth’s last gasp wasn’t quite deep enough. In a game that featured just about everything, the Titans came up a little bit short in a 30-24 loss at Mount Tabor on Friday night.

It was the second loss in six days for the Titans, who traveled to Virginia last Saturday before losing to Oscar Smith.

West (1-2) let an eight-point lead slip away in the fourth quarter against Mount Tabor in the span of 1 minute, 27 seconds, as the Spartans came roaring back to pick up their first win of the season.

Trae Archie had a big night for the Titans, accounting for three touchdowns. Archie had an 82-yard kickoff return for a touchdown and scoring receptions of 13 and 4 yards.

The Titans, already banged up with injuries in several key areas, were dealt another blow when starting quarterback Shane Jarvis was injured late in the second quarter and did not return.

“It’s tough now that we’re 1-2, but at the end of the day, we had a lot of fight in us,” Coach Adrian Snow said. “We’ve got to clean some stuff up and keep getting better. It’s a war, and this was a battle. You can’t let one battle mess up the war. We’re banged up in a lot of positions, but that’s not an excuse. We’ve got the ‘next man up’ mentality, so let’s go. I thought we played hard, we just have to continue to work on playing smarter.”

Clinging to its 24-16 margin in the fourth quarter, West pinned Mount Tabor at its 25-yard line with 7:23 left to play. On the third play of the series, JaQuan Albright broke a 63-yard scoring run right up the middle of the field to cut West’s lead to 24-23. Patrick Smith blocked the Spartans’ extra point attempt with 6:19 to play.

On the ensuing kickoff, the Spartans went into their bag of tricks and pulled off an onside kick that was eventually recovered by Elijah Kollock all the way down to the West 29-yard line.

Five plays later, the Spartans took the lead at 30-24 when Albright connected with Rah’Keim Roberts on a 17-yard touchdown pass with 4:52 left.

Albright was making his first start at quarterback this season and was hard to handle. He finished with 23 carries for 202 yards and a touchdown to go along with 160 passing yards and two touchdowns.

The Titans were forced to punt on their next series but got the ball back one last time with 1:36 left and no timeouts. Starting the drive at their 14-yard line, quarterback Jalen Ferguson — who came into the game late in the second quarter after starter Shane Jarvis sustained an injury — found receiver C.J. Graham behind the defense for a 43-yard gain. Graham caught the ball near the right sideline and made a cut towards the middle of the field to elude the defenders converging on him and had plenty of open field in front of him.

But Graham got tripped up by a Mount Tabor defender at the Spartans’ 42-yard line. The Titans moved the ball to the Mount Tabor 27, but Ferguson’s pass toward the end zone on the final play of the game was intercepted by the Spartans.

West fell behind 7-0 in the first quarter before a 32-yard field goal from Triston Hawkins and trailed 10-3 before Archie’s blistering kickoff return for a touchdown. G’Mone Wilson, who finished with 135 yards on 26 carries, ran the conversion run in for an 11-10 lead.

West took an 18-10 lead on Archie’s 13-yard touchdown catch from Jarvis and led 24-17 after Ferguson connected with  Archie for a 4-yard touchdown pass with 1:29 left in the fourth quarter.

Those were the last points the Titans could muster, however.

“At the end of the day, it’s a nonconference game,” Snow said. “Do we want to win all of them? You’re dag-blame right we do. We’ve got to get healthy. We’ve got to get better. But that’s football. Adversity is part of it. And what tonight shows us is we’ve got a lot of fight left in us.”

Next Friday, West returns to Jerry Peoples Stadium to take on High Point Central. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

West Forsyth  11    7     6     0   —   24

Mount Tabor   10   7     0     13 —   30

MT—Zyquez McMillian 46 pass from Albright (Aaron Muse kick)

WF—Hawkins 32 FG

MT—Muse 33 FG

WF—Archie 82 kick return (Wilson run)

WF—Archie 13 pass from Jarvis (Hawkins kick)

MT—Rah’Keim Roberts 27 interception return (Muse kick)

WF—Archie 4 pass from Ferguson (kick blocked)

MT—Albright 63 run (kick blocked)

MT—Roberts 17 pass from Albright (Muse kick)