By Brian Pitts
For the Salisbury Post
Davie gave up 293 passing yards last night to visiting North Davidson. Unfortunately for the War Eagles, that was only a small part of their misery.
North running back Kennedy McKoy put together a masterpiece at Davie’s expense, rushing for 339 yards and six touchdowns as the Black Knights put up 728 yards to blast Davie 59-29.
While North improved to 7-0 and 2-0 in the Central Piedmont Conference, Davie stumbled to 4-3, 0-2. One week after watching Reagan score 58, Davie’s beleaguered defense was ripped to shreds again as it allowed the most points in 19 years for the second week in a row.
Davie is averaging 35 points but allowing 38. Davie’s offense found its form after digging a 21-0 halftime hole, scoring 29 points in the second half, but it hardly mattered as North rang up eight TDs for the game.
“They’re good in a lot of areas,” Davie coach Devore Holman said. “On more than one occasion we had multiple people around (McKoy), and for whatever reason, we didn’t execute. We didn’t tackle well at all.”
Davie mounted a rally in the second half. Jonn Young drilled a 47-yard field goal to make it 21-3, a 41-yard pass to Ben Ellis keyed a 76-yard scoring drive that cut it to 28-10, and Correll and Ellis hooked up for 56 yards to make it 31-16 late in the third. Davie got within two scores again in the first minute of the fourth as Brandon Lankford hauled in a 49-yard pass to make it 38-23. Davie got within two scores yet again at 45-29 on Correll’s 39-yard run with 7:54 to play.
But the Black Knights, averaging 42 points a game, big-played Davie all night. They ripped off 10 plays for 20-plus yards, including gains of 75, 55, 48, 50, 85 and 47 yards. The only thing that could slow North was the yellow laundry as it was penalized nine times for 113 yards.
Correll passed for 274 yards and rushed for 82 as he accounted for 94 percent of Davie’s offense (378 yards). It marked the senior’s sixth 200-yard passing game. Ellis had another big game with six catches for 140 yards as the junior surpassed 100 for the fourth time.
North, led by Tennessee-bound defensive lineman Shy Tuttle, put the wraps on Cade Carney, holding him to 38 rushing yards while beating Davie for the third straight time.
It doesn’t get any easier after Davie’s bye next week. The next game is at unbeaten West Forsyth.
“We’ve got to figure out how to put four quarters together,” Holman said. “I’ve got to do a better job of coaching them to play four quarters. We’ve got to get that done.”