If Davie had let this game get away, there might have been furniture destroyed at the War Eagles’ brand-new school.
Davie dominated the first half, 21-0, and appeared capable of naming the score in last night’s Central Piedmont Conference opener against visiting Reynolds.
But the feisty Demons made things interesting, throwing two touchdown passes and then recovering a fumble at the Davie 28. With 2:01 left in the third quarter, the Demons were in prime position to draw even closer.
Davie turned potential chaos into an orderly dismantling of the Demons, pulling away 41-13. While Reynolds fell to 5-2 overall, Davie (4-3) extended its winning streak over the Demons to eight.
Davie scored three TDs in three minutes to pull back out to a commanding lead. Linebacker Matthew King’s fumble recovery at the Reynolds 38 set the avalanche in motion.
Moments later, quarterback Josh Hall rolled right and found a Mason Wilson standing all alone in the end zone, resulting in an 18-yard score. Two plays later, safety Broc Barnette intercepted a pass over the middle and returned it 23 yards for a score. Three plays later, Cody Hendrix got a pick-six of his own, stepping in front a screen pass and returning it 14 yards. Just like that, it went from 21-13 to 41-13.
Hall delivered a resounding bounce back from his six-INT outing in a loss to A.L. Brown in Davie’s last game on Sept. 22. He engineered the first-half dominance with 12-of-21 passing for 194 yards, including TD hookups with Peyton Hampton (20 yards), Cooper Wall (41 yards) and Mason Wilson (32 yards).
Successful trickery got Reynolds off the canvas on its second possession of the third quarter. It ran a reverse to receiver Tobias Johnson, who found Will Crowley for 55 yards. On third down from the Davie 15, QB Charlie Mensh threw a 15-yard TD to cut Davie’s lead to 21-6.
Mensh went deep on Reynolds’ next series, connecting with Mekhi Dunlap for a 43-yard TD that made it 21-13. On Davie’s next play from scrimmage, a botched QB-running back exchange resulted in the fumble that set Reynolds up at the Davie 28.
That’s when Davie rediscovered its mojo and restored order.
Hall cooled off with a 3-for-14 stretch and finished 14 of 29 for 217 yards. His four TD passes fell one short of Chris Reynolds’ school record. He produced the 13th four-TD game in Davie’s 62-year history. Also, he did not commit a turnover.
Wilson (five catches, 118 yards) and Wall (five catches, 64 yards) were his favorite targets.
Some stats were deceiving. Reynolds outgained Davie 320-282 and matched Davie in first downs (12-12). But Davie won the turnover battle 1-5 and watched Reynolds commit 14 penalties for 146 yards.
In Davie’s winning streak over Reynolds, all eight have been decided by 25 or more points.