There were plenty of people talking about the gutsy performance of West Rowan tailback K.P. Parks after the Falcons’ resounding 35-7 thrashing of South Point on Friday night in the Western 3A final.
Parks, despite playing with a high ankle sprain, looked like his old self, rushing for 112 yards and scoring three times as the Falcons advanced to the state championship game at BB&T Field in Winston-Salem next Saturday.
But you can bet Parks was taking all of those pats on the back and shoving them directly toward Jonathan Hill and Dominique Noble.
They were the real Friday Night Heroes.
Receiver Hill is known for using his hands to catch footballs (he had one catch for nine yards), but it was the ball his hands corraled on the ground that may have saved the day for West.
With the score tied at 7, Parks fumbled at his own 28. But Hill came up with the ball. It kept a 97-yard drive going and West led 14-7.
“That was a huge play,” West coach Scott Young said.
Just before halftime, Noble, also a high-jumping basketball player, blocked a punt that was carried into the end zone by teammate Austin Greenwood. That gave West a 21-7 halftime lead and the pumped-up Falcons never looked back.
“That was a fantastic play,” Young said.
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If Young seemed like a man of few words on Saturday, there was a reason. He was watching his beloved Alabama play Florida in the SEC championship game. Once again, I forgot his media rule: no interviews when the Crimson Tide is on TV.
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Speaking of Parks, Young didn’t start him, going with Tim Flanagan instead.
“Of course, we’d like to have No. 2 out there,” Young said of Parks. “But we were saving his carries. Flanagan’s been in the program for four years. He did a good job.”
West athletic director Todd Bell was told South Point had vociferous followers, and he found out early Friday morning.
There were Red Raider fans in Falcon Stadium at 9:30 a.m., 10 hours before kickoff.
By 3:30 p.m., the parking lot was already filling up and there were at least 50 South Point fans standing out by the gate.
They came early but they also left early as West dominated the game.
Bell estimated between 4 and 5,000 fans crammed into 3,700-seat facility in Mount Ulla.
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West’s defense must do an about-face when it meets West Craven for the state title.
After concentrating solely on the run against South Point, the Falcons must now turn their attention to the pass.
Brett Mooring threw a whopping 48 times in a 22-19 win against Rocky Mount to take the Eastern title, including a 4-yard scoring pass with 34 seconds left that gave the Eagles the victory.
Mooring was 28 of 48 for 345 yards.
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West Craven is another great high school story.
Clay Jordan has been a coach for 31 years and announced before the season that this would be his last.
The school is located in Vanceboro, close to New Bern. Jordan and Young exchanged film in Raleigh.
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A neat tidbit: West will play at the home of Wake Forest, where former Falcon star Tristan Dorty, a redshirt freshman defensive end, is currently preparing for a possible bowl game with the Deacons.
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Several calls came into the Post on Friday night, wanting to know the final score. The conversations were all the same.
“West won 35-7,” they were told.
“Huh?”
“West won 35-7.”
“They did?
“35-7? Wow.”
“No one expected that,” Young said. “But it was a fun atmopshere. It was something special.”
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With so many football players on Mike Gurley’s basketball team, West’s two NPC games, Tuesday against North Iredell, and Friday against Lake Norman, will be rescheduled.
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We chided South Rowan coach Jason Rollins, a South Point graduate, on which bleachers he’d be sitting in Friday. For the record, he and his staff sat on West Rowan’s side.
Rollins said he and his staff can’t wait to go cheer on the Falcons next week.
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And finally …
Forget yards passing and yards rushing. AD Bell gave us the stats that really matter.
Concession stand stats.
During Friday’s game, West sold:
– 120 gallons of hot chocolate.
– 660 hot dogs. (A total of 800 were made but 140 were reserved, along with drinks, for South Point’s team).
– 300 pounds of french fries.
– 40 large pizzas.
– 600 Chick-fil-A sandwiches.
– 120 chicken nugget boxes.
Ah, cholesterol heaven.
Bell opened the gates at 5 p.m. and by halftime, West was completely out of food. He called Marlowe’s Restaurant in Salisbury and begged for anything the place could prepare and get to the stadium as quickly as possible.
Marlowe’s came through with hotdogs, chicken sandwiches and corn dogs.
“It was the first time we’ve ever sold corn dogs at a high school game,” Bell chuckled. “The little kids were happy.”
Unfortunately, South Point fans had already lost their appetite.
“By that time,” Bell said, “the South Point fans were on (Highway) 801 heading south.”
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Contact Ronnie Gallagher at 704-797-4287 or rgallagher@salisburypost.com.