A look back at Davie fall sports
Published 9:52 am Wednesday, July 15, 2015
Year In Review: This is the first in a three-part series, looking back at the 2014-15 school year. First is a recap of the highlights from the fall season. Next week: The winter season.
• In the second varsity football game of the season, Ben Ellis shattered a record that had stood for 14 years, piling up 253 receiving yards in a 48-36 home loss to West Rowan. Three of his six catches went for touchdowns.
The old record for receiving yards: Thadd Johnson’s 197 in a 27-17 win over South Rowan in 1999.
Parker Correll went 14 of 25 for 300 yards, just the fifth 300-yard passing game in Davie’s 59-year history.
“No. 9 (Ellis) is the real deal,” West Rowan coach Scott Young said.
• Correll (15 of 24 for 201 yards and 118 rushing yards) accounted for five touchdowns (three rushing, two passing) in Davie’s 37-19 win at Lexington. Linebacker Christian Launius racked up 19 tackles.
• Whit Merrifield of Advance was named player of the year on the Triple-A Omaha Storm Chasers. What did he do for an encore? He homered three times in four playoff games.
In 76 regular-season games with Omaha, Merrifield hit .340 with 28 doubles, three triples, three homers, 29 RBIs and 57 runs. His 41 doubles between Double-A and Triple-A tied for sixth among all minor leaguers.
• Davie varsity football overcame an 11-point, fourth-quarter deficit and pulled out a heart-pounding 35-32 win over visiting North Rowan, which came in ranked No. 7 in 2-A.
Correll scored from 17 yards out with 1:11 to go to put Davie ahead. Then linebacker James Boyle intercepted a pass in the red zone with 16 seconds left to seal the deal in an epic shootout.
“That’s a 2-A school, but they play with 4-A talent,” Davie coach Devore Holman said.
Correll played a phenomenal game, rushing for a career-high 147 yards and passing for 221. Ellis was vital to Davie’s chances, making eight catches for 106 yards. Launius collected 13 tackles.
With North clinging to a lead, it boiled down to a dramatic Davie drive that started at its 26-yard line with 4:51 remaining. The War Eagles went 74 yards in 10 plays, all on the ground.
The play that qualified for Holman’s Film Files Hall of Fame came on third-and-1 from the North 17. Correll kept the ball over right side. Four Cavaliers latched onto him around the 5, and he moved the pile over the goal line.
“You’ve got to give it to the offensive line,” Correll said. “They blocked their tails off on that last drive. We jammed it down their throat.”
Boyle intercepted a deflected pass on a third-down play from the Davie 16, setting off a frenzied celebration.
• In the Statesville Invitational, junior Nick Simmons of Davie’s cross country team finished ninth out of 120 runners with a personal-best 17:08.
• In Davie varsity soccer, Josthin Servellon delivered two goals in a 3-2 win over visiting Reynolds. Davie overcame an injury to star Jorge Hernandez, who had scored eight of his team’s 12 goals.
• Correll threw for 200-plus yards for the sixth straight game and tossed a TD pass for the 12th consecutive game as Davie varsity football dispatched host Thomasville 31-13.
Ellis (five catches for 121 yards) surpassed 90 receiving yards for the fifth game in a row.
• A pair of 100-yard rushing games – 123 from Cade Carney and 101 from Correll – could not prevent a 58-31 varsity football loss at Reagan. Launius had 17 tackles, including two for losses. Boyle had 10 tackles, including three for losses, and caused a fumble.
• Freshman Kim Clemo of Davie jayvee volleyball had five aces and four kills in a 2-0 win over Bishop McGuinness.
“She is one of the best freshmen I have ever seen as trained outside hitter,” coach Amber Brandon said. “She has a fabulous presence on the court because of her knowledge of the game.”
Libero Hannah Dix produced five aces. “Hannah is one of the smartest players I have seen at the jayvee level,” Brandon said.
• Though it was little consolation during Davie varsity football’s 59-29 beatdown by North Davidson, Jonn Young hit one of the longest field goals in Davie history. His 47-yarder was three from the record and tied for the third-longest.
Correll threw for 274 yards and rushed for 82. Ellis had 140 yards on six catches.
In a blow to the football and wrestling teams, sophomore d-lineman Austin Freidt was sidelined for good with a broken foot. “I consider him one of our best defensive linemen,” Holman said. “He’s got a motor and it’s wide open.”
• Freshman Ty Dockery rushed for 127 yards in Davie JV football’s 26-14 loss at North Davidson. “He’s awesome to coach,” coach Jimmie Welch said. “He’s a great kid to be around.”
• In a Central Piedmont Conference golf meet at Maple Chase, Lindsay Stroupe birdied a par-4 and shot a 6-over 42 to tie for second place. She matched her best score of the season in relation to par.
• In the tennis CPC Tournament, doubles partners Ryan Shelton and Tatum Edwards earned a berth to the Midwest Regional by winning two of three matches.
After beating a pair from West Forsyth, they suffered a narrow 11-10 quarterfinal loss to Reagan. Shelton and Edwards took fifth by winning 10-8 over two Davie teammates.
• Kathy Hutchens (Class of 1977) and Cooter Arnold (Class of 2005) were inducted in the Davie Athletic Hall of Fame on Oct. 3.
Hutchens starred in softball and basketball at Davie, and she played volleyball and basketball at Catawba College.
Arnold rewrote the record book in football and also excelled in track. As a Davie senior, he earned all-state honors on offense (running back) and defense (cornerback). Then he played football at UNC.
“You hear coaches say: ‘I wish we had 100 more like that,’” Aileen Steelman said of Hutchens. “Kathy was one of those.”
“To watch the things this man did in high school was unbelievable,” Raeshon McNeil said of Arnold. “It’s easy to be amazed as a fan because you don’t see it everyday. But we saw it everyday in practice and we were still amazed at the things that he would do.”
• Despite playing with turf toe, Carney ran for a season-high 129 yards in a hard-fought 35-25 loss at unbeaten West Forsyth. Ellis (six catches for 111 yards) enjoyed his fifth 100-yard game.
• In the cross country CPC championship meet at Beeson Park in Kernersville, Simmons, a junior, reached his goal of making the all-CPC team and ended a five-year drought in the process. The top 14 made all-conference and Simmons claimed 14th.
He was running 15th late in the race, but he moved up one spot and became Davie’s first male all-CPC runner in six years.
“I was ranked 17th,” Simmons said. “My goal was to drop some places and get all-conference. When coach (David) Koontz told me I was in 15th, I decided I had not run all summer to get the first spot that wasn’t all-conference.”
Koontz was thrilled with Simmons’ determination. “Nick answered the call,” he said. “He ran his heart out.”
• The Davie jayvee defense did everything it could in a 6-3 loss to West Forsyth. Cornerback Angel Perez had an interception. Josh Smith played a strong game at the other corner. Linebackers Broc Barnette and Cody Hendrix and lineman Mason Wilson impressed as well.
“The defense played lights out,” Welch said. “Perez and Smith were the most impressive players to me.”
“Mason played well,” Tim Devericks said. “He is a little undersized for a d-lineman, but he gives it everything he has and does the things his coaches ask him to do.”
• By shining in the CPC golf tournament at Pudding Ridge, senior Stroupe and junior Meghan Donley qualified for the regional for the second time each.
Stroupe tied for seventh at 7-over 42. Donley (47) broke 50 for the fourth time.
• Davie’s jayvee soccer team never tasted victory, but at least it finished on a good note, tying Mt. Tabor 1-1 at home in the final game of the season.
It was scoreless until the waning moments. Tabor scored with two minutes left. Davie’s top scorer, Kevin Alas, answered in the final minute. He was responsible for six of the team’s 10 goals on the season.
“Everyone was going crazy,” coach Andrew Davis said.
• In varsity football’s 49-7 belting of visiting Reynolds, Ellis broke the mark for season receiving yards. Joe Watson (1,085 in 2010) was the record-holder.
Carney broke off the longest run of the century (91 yards) for Davie as he put up his third straight 100-yard game and the 20th of his career. He also surged to second on the career rushing list (3,591) despite missing five games in two years.
Correll threw three TDs, giving him two or more in a game for the 16th time. Cameron Coleman averaged 16 yards on four carries as Davie put up 45-plus points for the fifth time.
• In cross country, Simmons finished 28th out of 143 in the Midwest Regional at Beeson Park as he turned in a personal-best 16:36. “What a way to cap a tremendous junior year,” Koontz said.
Cade Spencer finished with a personal-record 18:12. Peyton Jones (19:12) had a breakout performance. Katelyn Hernandez led the Davie girls with a personal-best 21:34 as she was 61th out of 135.
• Davie jayvee football lost 14-0 at Reynolds and fell to 4-5, 1-4 even though the defense limited the opponent to 14 or fewer points for the sixth time in nine games.
Hendrix and Barnette added to their stellar seasons. Spencer Wilson earned praise for his play on the DL.
“Spencer did a good job of attacking the fullback all night,” Devericks said. “By far, I thought he was the best defensive lineman that we had tonight.”
• Correll ran for a game-high 125 yards, but Davie varsity football lost 45-24 at Mt. Tabor in the regular-season finale. Young converted a 47-yard field goal for the second time as he remained perfect on the season (six for six).
• In the final game of the season, the Davie jayvee defense held up its end of the bargain yet again in a 14-0 home loss to unbeaten Mt. Tabor. Davie’s defense gave up one score to Tabor, which finished 10-0.
“They had been beating people badly,” Holman said. “Our guys laid it out on the line. The pile made several tackles.”
Nose tackle Bailey Sloan provided a lift. “We watched Sloan again on film after the game, and he held his own and fought hard in there,” Holman said.
• In the first-ever meeting between the teams, Davie varsity football lost 37-22 at third-seeded Charlotte Catholic, the eventual state 4A runner-up, in the first round.
The loss wasted a sensational performance by junior Carney as Davie finished 6-6. With Cameron Duke, Will Myers, Gabe Gonnella, Dane Wallace and Luke Pratapas controlling the line of scrimmage, Carney churned 23 times for a season-high 170 yards.
Tre Redmond contributed three catches for 118 yards.
Correll moved to fifth in season completions (134), to fourth in passing yards (2,337) and to third in TD passes (21). Carney’s 43rd career TD put him in a tie for second, and he moved to second in career points (264).