By Mike London

mike.london@salisburypost.com

TYRO — North Rowan trailed West Davidson on the road in middle of the second quarter, but the Cavaliers stayed calm and confident and roared back to beat the Green Dragons 34-9 on Friday.

West Davidson (4-4, 1-3) gave an inspired effort on homecoming at Charles Elmore Field, but North’s senior quarterback Jeremiah Alford rushed for three touchdowns and led the Cavaliers to another victory in the 1A/2A Central Carolina Conference.

North (6-2, 4-0) has won five games in a row and is still unbeaten in the CCC, with two large games left against Lexington and Salisbury. The Hornets won a showdown with Lexington on Friday and also are still perfect in the CCC.

“We beat a good West Davidson team,” North head coach Josh Sophia said. “West Davidson is big and they’re young, so they could be even tougher next year. I’m glad we had two weeks to prepare for them. That helped us.”

North was coming off its open week, but there wasn’t a lot of rust. North put together a 97-yard march to take a 6-0 lead. The Cavaliers faced a fourth-and-1 at the West Davidson 20, but Alford powered for 10 yards on a sneak. He got the touchdown himself on a spinning, 3-yard carry with 2:48 left in the first quarter.

“We had a couple of  nice, long drives where we kept the ball a long time,” Sophia said. “Our offensive line had a good night. West Davidson has a very good defensive end (sophomore Isaiah Leonard) that we were really concerned about. He’s a player.”

West Davidson came right back with a 47-yard touchdown pass less than 30 seconds after the Cavaliers scored. North blocked the PAT to keep the score at 6-all.

Early in the second quarter, the Cavaliers stopped West Davidson inside the North 5, but the Green Dragons were able to convert on a short field-goal try to take a 9-6 lead.

West Davidson had momentum at that point and the crowd was pumped up, but Alford and Emari Russell then combined for what may have been the biggest play of the game, a 60-yard completion from the North 35 to West Davidson 5. Jo Jo Tarver got the touchdown from there, putting North ahead to stay at 13-9 with 5:10 left in the second quarter.

North was able to score again less than a minute before halftime to push the lead to 20-9. That was a huge touchdown. Alford got it. He was looking to throw, but he put the ball in the end zone himself, breaking containment, turning the right edge and getting to the pylon for a 10-yard scoring run.

In the second half, North’s defense threw a shutout. After the defenses ruled the third quarter, Alford and KJ Oglesby got rushing touchdowns in the fourth quarter.

“That was the best defense we’ve played, especially against the run, in quite a while,” Sophia said. “Offensively, we kept it on the ground for the most part, but we weren’t as run-heavy as the stat sheet looks like. Jeremiah had only a couple of designed runs. He wound up scrambling for yards on a lot of plays where he was looking to throw. When he takes off, he’s tough to tackle.”

Alford was 9 of 15 passing for 113 yards. Russell had five catches for 94 yards.

Alford carried 12 times for 100 yards. Tarver carried 18 times for 91 yards, while Oglesby had 86 yards on eight carries. So they combined for 277 rushing yards.

“We’re happy with a solid road win and glad to be contending for a conference championship at this point in the season,” Sophia said. “We’ve got a really tough game coming up — Lexington is one of the toughest places to play — but we like the effort we’re getting and we’re pleased with where we are.”