By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

MOUNT ULLA — West Rowan’s football team hadn’t beaten A.L. Brown in 24 years, but the Falcons looked like sure things as they lined up for a point-blank field goal, down two, in the final seconds of Friday’s opener for both teams.

West Rowan kicker Carter Durant already had made two field goals as the Falcons made a crowd-pleasing charge from trailing 21-0 in the first quarter to leading 26-21 in the fourth.

Now the Wonders led 28-26, but Durant was set to change that.

A.L. Brown head coach Justin Hardin told his guys during a tense timeout that it was either block the field goal or lose, that someone had to make a play, and then they went out and blocked it. Specifically, sophomore linebacker Dhilyn Hollis blocked it. Hollis had starred at linebacker as the Wonders shut out the Falcons in Thursday’s jayvee game. As an eight-quarter player, he got a chance to help out the varsity as well. He had a good week.

“Carter makes that kick 99 out of 100 times,” West head coach Louis Kraft said. “But it was a low kick, and the protection was not good.”

That kick had been expected to ignite a West celebration. Instead it triggered one by the Wonders. Even Hardin temporarily lost his mind, bouncing and hugging, as a jayvee kid turned bitter defeat into sweet victory.

It was all Wonders early.

They scored three touchdowns in a five-minute span in the first quarter. Mekhi Herron got the edge for a 43-yard scoring run. CJ Gray fired a 50-yard TD pass to Ja’Meer Langley. Then Bryce Morgan had a rushing touchdown from the 8.

West was reeling, but didn’t fold and stabilized.

“Our offensive line played a great game,” Kraft said. “We made a lot of plays. We got a lot of defensive stops.”

West owned the second quarter behind junior QB Brant Graham, who had a rushing touchdown and a passing touchdown. Durant kicked a 37-yard field goal right before the half to make it a 21-17 game. The Falcons still trailed, but they had all the momentum in the world.

West sustained its role as the aggressor in the third quarter. Another Durant field goal made it 21-20. West scored again on Graham’s second TD pass of the night as the fourth quarter began, with long, tall Josiah Young making his first scoring catch. A try for a 2-point conversion failed, but the Falcons owned their first lead at 26-21.

With West seemingly in control, Keith Kellam made a huge play for the Wonders, stripping the ball from Graham on a sack and recovering the fumble. That set up a 4-yard scoring run by Gray for a 28-26 A.L. Brown lead with 9:38 left in the game.

West still wasn’t rattled and moved into position for the win at the end, but then the Wonders made a desperate play to hold on.

Herron carried 18 times for 111 yards for the Wonders.

Gray was 8-for-12 passing for 117 yards. Langley had three catches for 71 yards.

West piled up stats. Jaylen Neely, who wasn’t cleared to play until Wednesday, had 28 carries for 148 yards. Cooper Martin had 14 carries for 95 yards.

Graham was 14-for-21 for 198 passing yards. Kennedy had four catches for 66 yards and a TD. Brennon Stevenson had two catches for 57 yards. Max Brown had an outstanding night as a blocking tight end, and contributed a 30-yard catch.

“We had lots of stats, but stats are for losers,” Kraft said. “We dominated the game. It just didn’t go our way.”

West is 1-19 against the Wonders.

Now the Falcons have to get ready to play on the road against a Davie team that was train-wrecked 66-20 by Mooresville.

The Wonders move on to play at Northwest Cabarrus. The Trojans were upset by coach Brian Hinson’s West Cabarrus squad on opening night.