By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — It wasn’t the best week for Rowan County football.

Maybe it was those 8 p.m. starting times due to the heat wave.

Other than Salisbury’s routine romp at Walkertown, Rowan schools went 0-5.

Ouch.

North Rowan wasn’t expected to win at Forest Hills, an extra-stout 2A, but there was hope that the Cavaliers would be more competitive than they were. North was down 27-0 at the half and lost 41-13.

West Rowan was an underdog at home against Davie, but no one really envisioned the Falcons giving up 60 points and being blown out. That doesn’t happen to West very often, no matter whom the Falcons are playing. Davie hadn’t scored 60 against West since 1965.

Stanly County proved to be an inhospitable host to its Rowan neighbors. NFHS provided an opportunity to watch all three of those Rowan-Stanly games on the computer, and North Stanly, West Stanly and South Stanly all are better than they generally get credit for.

In all three games, Rowan teams started bad, got it together, fought back, and fell short in the end. You can make an argument that all three games would have gone differently with one more flag — or maybe one less flag — but that’s part of the game. Road trips aren’t supposed to be easy.

East Rowan was a serious underdog at North Stanly, but played very well in the second half and lost 37-31.

South Rowan was expected to win at South Stanly, but dug a 27-7 hole and lost 27-19.

Carson and West Stanly was rated as a toss-up. That turned out to be an accurate forecast. Carson fought uphill for a touchdown and a 2-point conversion in the final minute of regulation to get to overtime, but lost 28-20 in the OT.

A bit south of the county line, A.L. Brown took a harsh loss to a neighbor. The Wonders fell 30-19 to a very good Northwest Cabarrus team. Northwest is going to be tough for any of the four Rowan County teams in the South Piedmont Conference to deal with.

So Salisbury is 2-0 and looking just as powerful as it’s been in recent seasons.

West is 0-2, with Mooresville on deck. That’s scary.

East is 0-2, with Salisbury on deck. That’s scarier.

Carson is 0-2, but is at home this week against Piedmont, also 0-2.

North is 1-1 and faces another road trip — to Anson. Not easy, but North will match up better with the Bearcats than it did at Forest Hills.

South had hoped to be 2-0 for the first time since 2009, but is 1-1, with A.L. Brown on deck following an open week.

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Summaries from Friday’s games. Full stories are online.

Davie 60, West Rowan 28

MOUN T ULLA — West Rowan actually led 14-13 midway through the second quarter, but Davie blitzed the Falcons for three touchdowns in the final minutes of the first half to take a 33-14 lead.

Then Davie poured it on the Falcons with an aerial circus in the third quarter.

Ty Miller threw seven — yes, seven — TD passes for the War Eagles (1-1) and topped 300 passing yards. Receivers Braddock Coleman and Ethan Driver had a field day.

West got a huge night from Jaylen Neely, who had 140 rushing yards, TD runs of 11 and 43 yards and a 2-point conversion. Evan Kennedy and jayvee back Cooper Martin had the other West TDs.

West got interceptions from Aubree Robinson and Tyrin Little.

Worst of all, West lost long-time offense line starter Tyler Kline for the season with a fractured and dislocated ankle.

Click here to see more photos from the Davie-West Rowan game.

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Salisbury 62, Walkertown 6

WALKERTOWN — The Hornets went on the road and devastated the Wolfpack (1-1) in a running-clock massacre.

Jamal Rule only had to carry the ball seven times to amass 165 rushing yards and three TDs.

Mike Geter only put the ball in the air 11 times but threw for 150 yards and four TDs.

Deuce Walker and Bennie Howard caught two touchdown passes apiece.

Hank Webb, a starting receiver and backup QB, caught a touchdown pass — and threw one. That doesn’t happen all that often.

Webb also does the kicking and kicked off a lot. He had four touchbacks.

Salisbury’s defense allowed one long run, but otherwise dominated. Jaden Warren got a defensive touchdown.

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West Stanly 28, Carson 20 (OT)

OAKBORO — Carson got 106 rushing yards, a touchdown and a 2-point conversion from Jay McGruder.

Makani Guida had a rushing touchdown.

Carson’s third touchdown came in the final minute of regulation on a 6-yard pass from Michael Guiton to Trevor Vaughn, and McGruder’s 2-point conversion enabled the Cougars to get the game to overtime.

An unsportsmanlike flag on the Cougars after West Stanly’s touchdown in overtime proved critical, as it was enforced on Carson’s offensive possession in the overtime. Carson had to start from the 25, instead of the 10, and West Stanly came up with an interception in the end zone on third down.

Carson Aman and Nehemiah Baldwin had key fumble recoveries for the Cougars. Londyn Johnson had an interception in the final seconds of regulation.

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North Stanly 37, East Rowan 31

NEW LONDON — East Rowan struggled on offense in the first half and needed a 43-yard field goal from Carter Honeycutt to trail 23-3 at halftime.

But the second half was a different story.

East quarterback Gavin Walker, who threw for 269 yards, was sensational after halftime and turned in a career game with four touchdown passes. He hit Billy Chesney twice for touchdowns, with AJ Goodman and Tijon Everhart getting one score each.

East’s defense came up with four turnovers and the Mustangs won the turnover battle handily, but North Stanly put up nearly 500 yards of offense, with running back Jay Jackson romping for more than 200 on the ground.

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South Stanly 27, South Rowan 19

NORWOOD — The most critical play of the night involved a wild turn of events on a single snap in the second quarter.

South’s Jason Brown made a terrific interception with an over-the-shoulder grab and followed the pick with a scintillating runback. But Brown had the ball swiped from him by an alert North Stanly back who went for the ball rather than the tackle, jerked it away, and then had an unimpeded journey of 55 yards to the South Rowan end zone.

So a South Rowan interception became a South Stanly touchdown in a matter of seconds. It was a huge swing.

Down 27-7 at one point, South Rowan nearly came all the way back, but South Stanly was able to make a critical march at the end to run out the clock.

Brooks Overcash threw three TD passes for South Rowan, two to Jadon Moore and one to Dalton Young.

Moore had the best night for the Raiders with four catches for 136 yards.

Zion Jackson’s interception helped the Raiders get going after a sluggish start.

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Forest Hills 41, North Rowan 13

MARSHVILLE — Jeremiah Alford accounted for both of North’s touchdowns.

The junior QB had a scoring run in the second half of 4 yards and threw a 67-yard TD pass to Amir Alexander.

But Forest Hills held Jaemias Morrow to 48 yards on 13 carries, and North completed only two passes.

Brady Hibbard had two TD passes for the Yellow Jackets (2-0). Jaiden Brown had in interception for the Cavaliers.

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NW Cabarrus 30, A.L. Brown 19

KANNAPOLIS — Alex Walker threw for 236 yards and three TDs to lead the Trojans to a big non-conference victory at Memorial Stadium.

Porter Branham had two TD catches.

Northwest (2-0) turned the game around with a 20-0 edge in the third quarter after the Wonders led at halftime.

CJ Gray threw TD passes to Gerard Evans and Xavier Chambers for the Wonders, and Mekhi Herron had a rushing TD.