Farmer Impresses In JV Win Over Reynolds
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Stephon Dalton continued his ascension, Chris Reynolds was effective running and passing and Jarrell Farmer dominated on defense as Davie’s jayvee football team blew past visiting Reynolds 35-22 last week.
A second win in a row lifted Davie to 5-4 overall and 3-2 in the Central Piedmont Conference. The final game is Nov. 7 at Mt. Tabor at 6 p.m.
The first quarter ended with Reynolds ahead 9-7. But Davie kicked into gear and outscored the Demons 21-6 to take a 28-15 lead into the locker room.
Dalton ran for 104 yards and three touchdowns on 20 carries. The freshman has enhanced his resume over the past three weeks, rushing for 73, 126 and 104 yards and averaging seven yards per carry during that span.
Forrest Barber is a solid runner, but he has been plagued by injuries. He picked up 36 yards on seven carries before exiting the Reynolds game with an ankle injury.
“He injured the same ankle in the first half,” coach Doug Smith said. “It’s the same one that was already hurt.”
While that’s unfortunate for Barber, there were no worries because of Dalton.
“He’s really stepped up and been a guy we can count on,” Smith said. “At the beginning of the year, he was Forrest’s backup. We’ve really got two starters there now.”
Reynolds returned to form after two off games passing and missing the previous game to attend the funeral of his grandfather.
Not only did he rush for 75 yards on eight attempts, he passed for 110. He was especially good through the air in the first half (six of 10, 94 yards).
“He came back looking like he did earlier in the season,” Smith said. “He ran the ball really well, too.”
Reynolds connected with Beau Byerly (two catches, 31 yards), Spencer Wilson (2-30), Cameron Thomas (1-34), Josh Smith (1-11) and Jordan McDaniel (seven-yard TD).
The War Eagles found the end zone on four of their first five possessions. “I don’t remember getting in a long third down in the first half,” he said.
Farmer, a defensive lineman, has become a star on defense. The sophomore spent some time on varsity before coming back down to jayvee.
“He was the one I thought we might lose (to varsity), but we got some guys back on varsity from injuries,” Smith said. “Reynolds’ coach told coach (Devore) Holman after the game: ‘Man, that No. 10 is good.’ A couple times he tackled the fullback and the quarterback. He stuck one, then pulled off and made the play on the quarterback after he kept it.”
Smith said Jack Little, Chris Evans, Caleb Wallace, Mitchell McGee and Dustin Bulatko have been steady on D.
“We’re tackling better,” he said. “They hit a couple big plays that got them short fields. But they didn’t really put together any long, sustained drives. And that triple option can be more effective on jayvee than varsity sometimes. But for the most part, we did a good job containing it. And when they went to their spread, they weren’t able to throw it to pick up chunks of yards.”
Injuries have created opportunities for guys like Hunter Akers and Matt Nesbit – and they’ve capitalized.
“Our defense again overcame several guys being out,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of guys who weren’t starters earlier in the year who are stepping up. Akers and Nesbit are playing full-time, where earlier in the year they were rotating in.”