From staff reports
West Rowan coach Scott Young has heard the whispers about his offensive line not producing like usual.
That sounds a bit ridiculous considering K.P. Parks has already run for 1,259 yards in seven games.
“Our offensive line took some heat early in the year,” Young admitted. “People were saying, ‘They’re not as good as the old West Rowan offensive lines.’
“We’ve even heard that from opposing coaching staffs. It wasn’t meant as disrespect. It was an honest evaluation.”
Young is happy the line is beginning to step up. Garrett Teeter, Joseph Kerley and Ricky Moore are looking good in their senior seasons.
“The line is starting to come of age,” said Young, a big ol’ lineman himself when he was in high school. “Those guys are a big part of our success, not just running, but passing the football.”
And just for the record, the Falcon quarterbacks should put West over 1,000 yards passing this week. West has 974 going into Week 8.
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LITTLE BIG MAN: A.J. Little came up big in West’s 48-0 win over Carson on Friday.
Young knew early in the game that the Cougars were going to pick on his 5-foot-9, 145-pound junior defensive back.
“It was evident in their game plan they were going to try and get Daniel Yates isolated on A.J.,” Young said. “I saw it on the first play. Yates usually lines up right in the formation 90 percent of the time. He lined up on the left.”
Little doomed that strategy by intercepting a pass on Carson’s second possession. He was never burned and gave up only one catch for five yards.
“A.J. had his best game, by far,” Young said proudly.
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COMING ON: Sophomore Patrick Hampton has been splitting time at tight end with senior Dustin Davis, but his reps in practice have increased.
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WRONG GAME: Young was a bit befuddled when told that former West star Tristan Dorty, now a redshirt freshman at Wake Forest, was seen at South Rowan on Friday watching the Raiders play East Rowan instead of being at his alma mater, watching West.
Young reasoned that Dorty, a former Shrine Bowl defensive lineman, was there because he is related to South receiver B.J. Grant.
“The last time he was off, he came to watch us play,” Young said. “I’m going to have to fuss at him about that.”
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THE STREAK: West will be going for its 28th straight win in the county when it travels to Young’s alma mater, East Rowan, on Friday.
Fans and coaches pointed to several different potential turning points in the Hornets’ 16-8 CCC victory against West Davidson on Friday.
There was Salisbury’s 82-yard hook-and-ladder play to get on the scoreboard, there was a muffed punt by West Davidson when it was in control and there was Frankie Cardelle’s fourth-quarter field goal that finally gave the Hornets their first lead.
All big plays, but Salisbury coach Joe Pinyan believed the turning point came in the locker room at halftime.
“We were able to get the guys in there and calm them down a little bit,” Pinyan said. “We convinced them they were going to hit many big plays against West Davidson and they had to be willing to slug it out with them and take the gains of 3 or 4 yards.”
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QB SUB: Salisbury sophomore John Knox, the usual starting quarterback, didn’t play in the first quarter.
Pinyan said he sat Knox down because of a “social issue” that took place off the field.
Linares Pagan took the snaps on Salisbury’s first two offensive series, and while both were three-and-outs, there were no disasters.
On both possessions, Pagan and the Hornets were pinned deep in their own territory and stayed very basic on offense.
“I thought Linares did a good job,” Pinyan said. “He didn’t make any mistakes. He didn’t turn it over. That gave us a chance.”
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BALL OF CONFUSION: Salisbury looked out of whack on the PAT try following the touchdown that cut West Davidson’s lead to 8-6 late in the first half because a half-dozen Hornets thought they were kicking the point and the rest thought they were going for two.
Knox threw an incomplete pass.
“We were kind of maddened on that extra point,” Pinyan said.
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BALL OF CONFUSION II: Whether you prefer to call it the hook-and-ladder, the hook-and-lateral or the hitch-and-pitch, Salisbury produced an 82-yard touchdown on a third-and-12 gadget play to finally break the ice against a stingy West Davidson defense.
“That’s a play we work on all the time in practice,” said back A.J. Ford, who scored the touchdown. “We knew it would work.”
Recording stats on that play is almost as difficult as defending it.
Knox, who threw the ball 12 yards to Romar Morris, the hook man, was credited with 82 passing yards on the play because Ford, who accepted a lateral from Morris, hauled it another 70 yards to the end zone.
Morris gets credit for a 12-yard reception.
Ford gets credit for 70 receiving yards, even though he had zero receptions in the game.
Ford, a big play waiting to happen, made two receptions for 112 yards, including a 65-yard TD, in a win against West Stanly.
For the season, he has two receptions ó for a whopping 182 yards. That may be some kind of record.
Ford has scored 10 touchdowns this season.
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BIG AND TALL: It’s no secret Salisbury’s unusual bulk on the defensive line creates problems for opponents running the football.
At 6-foot-4 385-pounds, Kiontae Rankin presents quite an obstacle, and Jason Hayes, 6-3, 285, who plays next to him, would be the biggest guy on some teams.
“We’ve got very small guards and a small center trying to block those people,” West Davidson coach Dale Barnes said. “And even if we get them blocked, those 6-5 guys have arms long enough to reach over us and cause problems.”
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TURNING HEADS: Turnovers are the key stat in most high school games, and the biggest reason the Hornets are 7-0 is they they have a turnover ratio of plus-12 ó 21-9.
Salisbury has turned the ball over fewer times than its opponent in five games and the turnovers were even in the other two.
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LONG DISTANCE: Big plays are helpful, and the hook-and-ladder deal was Salisbury’s seventh TD of more than 60 yards this season.
Ford has four of them.
The Raiders had a chance to lose control of their game against East Rowan on Friday, but South found a way to win instead of letting a momentum swing turn a lead into a loss.
South led 18-0 when East scored a touchdown late in the third quarter. The Mustangs then recovered an onside kick at the 50-yard line and trailed just 18-7. South had controlled the game to that point but hadn’t extended its lead, and the Raiders had experience losing close games this season (24-21 to Statesville, 24-20 to West Iredell).
Instead of losing composure, South got the ball back on a fumble recovery by Reid Shaver and went on to win 31-7.
“Finally, after three years, we are finding ways to win, and they understand how to win,” South coach Jason Rollins said. “They’re still making some mistakes, but every team makes mistakes.”
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GETTING BETTER: Running back Deandre Harris rushed for a career-high 187 yards on just 15 carries against the Mustangs, an average of 12.5 yards per carry.
Harris also rushed for three touchdowns and had runs of 46 and 65 yards on two of his last three carries.
“He’s coming along quick,” Rollins said. “It’s really hard to take him down. We’ve seen a lot of people struggle to take him down once he gets moving. Of course, you put Kelsey Robinson or Cadarreus Mason in front of you, it kind of creates a pretty good hole for you.”
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CLEAR FOCUS: One week after defeating Daniel Yates and Carson, the Raiders stopped Ben DeCelle and East. In each game, South knew its primary focus defensively.
“When we played Carson, you stop Yates, you stop Carson,” Shaver said. “Same for East. You stop DeCelle, you’re gonna stop East ó pretty much.”
The Mustangs struggled all night Friday with dropped passes, and coach Brian Hinson said two factors played into the miscues.
“We moved Ben to tailback some, so we got some new guys in there that haven’t been playing a whole lot at wideout,” he said. “That might have affected it a little bit. Then you got a different quarterback throwing it to them also.”
That quarterback, Trevor Monroe, finished 6-for-18 for 47 yards and two interceptions. Monroe replaced Marquise Weddington as the starter against South.
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UP IN THE AIR: Hinson said he made the quarterback change last week and that it wasn’t necessarily a permanent one.
“Marquise and Trevor are gonna compete for it,” he said. “We gotta have some leadership at that position, and whoever gives us the most leadership will be there.”
North’s 10-6 loss to previously winless East Davidson put the Cavaliers in danger of compiling their first winless season since 1958.
Besides East Davidson (1-6), the Cavs have lost to East Rowan (1-6) and Forbush (2-6). so they’ve had opportunities.
North faces Providence Grove and Central Davidson, a pair of beatable 3-4 teams, the next two weeks before finishing up with Lexington and Salisbury.
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GROUNDED: North has scored one TD each of the past five weeks.
North’s Eagle Stadium was once known as “The Airport,” but the Cavs are still waiting for their first touchdown pass of 2008.
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TAKEAWAYS: North’s defense has generally played pretty well since early September, but it’s not forcing many turnovers.
North has played turnover-free on offense the past two weeks, but the Cavaliers are still minus-10 on turnover ratio (15-5) for the season.
Quarterback Zach Illing threw for 315 yards in a 37-20 loss to West Forsyth. He completed at least three passes to four different receivers.
He has 692 yards passing in the past two games. He threw for an eye-poipping 377 in a 50-49 win over Greensboro Page a week earlier.
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HALL OF FAME: At halftime of Friday’s game, three former War Eagles were inducted into the Davie HigHall of Fame.
Chris Jacobs, a Shrine Bowl player and University of North Carolina lineman, went in along with the father-son team of Buddy and Patrick Lowery.
Patrick was Central Piedmont Conference player of the year in football, wrestling and track.
Buddy, in his 33rd year of coaching, has a record of 589-92 in wrestling with three state championships.
Coming off a bye week, the Wonders (5-2, 3-1, South Piedmont Conference) play host to hapless Piedmont (0-8, 0-5).
According to Brown offensive line coach Todd Hagler, Friday’s game isn’t expected to be a cakewalk.
“(Piedmont) has struggled, but they’re doing some things defensively,” Hagler said. “They put a lot of people up in the box and play a lot of man-to-man coverage, and make it hard for you to run the ball. Not many people have had a lot of success running consistently on them.”
The key will be the play of quarterback Jamill Lott, who has accounted for more than half of the Wonders’ offensive numbers this season. The senior has run for 476 yards and five touchdowns, and passes for 791 and seven TDs.
“There’s going to be pressure on Jamill, and pressure on our receivers to make sure their routes are precise,” Hagler said. “There’s also going to be pressure on our offensive line. When they’re in that man coverage, they’re going to bring some people … and some guys are going to be on their own little island blocking people.”
West Davidson may have its hands full with rival Ledford tomorrow.
Workhorse back Alex Grubb went down with a third-quarter ankle injury and was on crutches during the fourth.
William Rankin took over most of the ballcarrying duties when Grubb went down, but he was knocked out of the game by a big hit by Salisbury linebacker Ike Whitaker.
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KEEP AN EYE ON: West Davidson sophomore quarterback James McCandies, a former running back who is learning a new position, has the look of a future star.
McCandies is mobile and has a good arm, but he’s still learning. He threw the ball twice against Salisbury after he had scrambled past the line of scrimmage and flags fell.
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Ronnie Gallagher, Mike London, Bret Strelow, Nick Bowton, Bill Kiser and Brian Pitts contributed to the notebook.