WINSTON-SALEM – Right when Davie’s football team needed to right the ship, the bottom fell out in the first half.

In the Central Piedmont Conference opener at Reynolds on Friday, the first half was a disaster in an eventual 28-10 loss to the Demons. Scoring three touchdowns in a span of 5:56, they bolted to a 28-3 halftime lead and coasted from there.

Davie fell to 3-4 with its fourth loss in five games. The Demons, who stopped an eight-game losing streak to Davie, improved to 4-3. They’ve already matched their high for CPC wins between 2010-17.

One positive trend continued for the War Eagles, who scored first for the seventh time in seven games. Isaiah Cuthrell forced a fumble and Matt Hill recovered for Davie at the Reynolds 28. Skyler Schoppe nailed a 27-yard field goal to give Davie a 3-0 lead midway through the first quarter.

But Davie has played porous pass defense all season, and it was undone again by the opponent’s aerial attack. Twenty-one seconds after Schoppe’s FG, Charlie Mensh found a wide-open Tobias Johnson on a seam route, and the result was an 80-yard score. That set in motion four Reynolds TDs in four possessions.

“It was a momentum shift,” coach Tim Devericks said of the second 80-yard pass that Davie has allowed this year. “We had great kickoff coverage and had them pinned back. The long ball shifted the momentum of the whole half, and we were fighting an uphill battle the rest of the half.”

Reynolds rotated QBs and both had tremendous success. Caden Davis completed 23- and 28-yard passes before hitting Kenyar McPhatter in the end zone for a 10-yard score. At this point, Mensh and Davis were 4 for 4 for 141 yards – and the first quarter wasn’t over yet.

Then it was Mensh’s turn. He went to Johnson again, and the big guy beat double coverage for a 51-yard score.

“They’ve got speed,” Devericks said. “They were switching athletes in and out from receiver to DB to running back and switched quarterbacks. They did an excellent job.”

Tate Carney, a freshman who was the bulk of Davie’s offense, had seven carries for 42 yards in a series that stalled in Reynolds territory and ended with a punt.

On fourth-and-2 from its own 28, Reynolds coach Pat Crowley dialed up a fake punt. The upback, Nic Imes, made it work by gaining 8 yards. Davis converted a fourth-and-1 from the Davie 24 with a read-option run for 5 yards. After scoring on three TD passes, Reynolds showed it could burn Davie with the run, too, as Tavon Taylor went 19 yards to the end zone, barely getting touched on his first carry of the night. The 14-play, 80-yard drive extended the spread to 28-3 with 2:38 left in the half.

Davie’s woes were compounded by an injury to QB Nate Hampton, who left after four series. He joined two other starters who were in street clothes from the beginning (safety Hunter Meacham and receiver Evan Little). Also, running back Josh Robinson saw little action due to an injury that he’s been dealing with.   

To the Demons’ credit, they built a 21-3 lead before Hampton departed. In the first half, they gained 260 yards on 10 completions and had 308 total yards. By contrast, it was a listless half for the War Eagles, who had more punts (five) than first downs (four). They had 69 total yards. Three completions yielded 3 yards. Six of nine third downs were unsuccessful.

Crowley, Reynolds’ fourth-year coach, let off the gas in the second half. Five Reynolds possessions tallied 41 yards as it completed 1 of 4 passes for 17 yards.

The second-half bright spots for Davie: Hill shot through the middle to block a 25-yard field goal; Carney got loose outside for a 51-yard run; Jack Reynolds made an amazing diving catch for 28 yards from freshman QB Alex Summers, who made his varsity debut; and Carney scored from 6 yards out to cap a 26-carry, 152-yard night.

What made Carney’s 152 all the more impressive is Reynolds was jamming the run with Summers at QB. It’s his second 100-yard game – he had 132 in a 38-31 loss to West Rowan – and he broke a 51-yard run for the second time this year.

“Tate has a warrior mentality,” Devericks said. “He was upbeat, positive and kept encouraging his line. They knew we were going to run it, and our line did a good job of creating some holes for Tate.”

Summers, who has been tearing up JV competition, started 0 for 6 in his first taste of Friday night lights. The freshman had the guts to stand in there and complete four of his last six attempts for 64 yards.

“We have all the faith in the world in Alex,” Devericks said. “I thought he did a great job. He didn’t make any huge mistakes. The speed of the game might be faster, but he’ll adjust to it.”

Jack Reynolds’ 28-yard catch in the fourth quarter looked like something you see on Saturdays.

“Phenomenal,” Devericks said. “It was a great ball by Alex. I told him to give our guys a chance on the take route. Jack made another (big-time) catch at the end of the game (for 20 yards). He went up and made a great adjustment.”

Notes

• Robinson tried to play through injury but left after the fourth series. “Josh has been banged up for two weeks,” Devericks said. “He tried to go tonight, but that wasn’t the best for Josh’s future.”

• Schoppe is 2 for 2 on FG tries this season and 9 for 10 in his two-year varsity career.

• Davie managed to outscore Reynolds 7-0 in the second half. It could have been more, but Carney was ruled down inside the 1 when he appeared to score and that series ended with a turnover on downs.  “I couldn’t be more proud of how the guys battled in the second half,” Devericks said. “For high school kids, it would be easy for them to feel sorry for themselves at halftime. But they kept battling and won the second half.”

• Davie went 39 minutes between scores at Reynolds, and it won’t get any easier in the unforgiving CPC. West Forsyth visits Davie this Friday for homecoming, and West has won five of the past six meetings.

The Titans are 4-3, 0-1. Their seven results so far: won 26-7 over Lake Norman, lost 41-26 to Oscar Smith (Va.), lost 30-24 to Mt. Tabor, won 26-13 over High Point Central, won 41-27 over South Iredell, won 43-27 over Northwest Guilford and lost 16-10 to unbeaten East Forsyth.

West leads the all-time series with Davie 22-14.

Davie        3    0    0    7 – 10

Reynolds       14  14  0    0 – 28

First Quarter

D – Schoppe 27 FG, 6:01.

R – Johnson 80 pass from Mensh (Doherty kick), 5:40.

R – McPhatter 10 pass from Davis (Doherty kick), 2:20.

Second Quarter

R – Johnson 51 pass from Mensh (Doherty kick), 11:44.

R – Taylor 19 run (Doherty kick), 2:38.

Fourth Quarter

D – Carney 6 run (Schoppe kick), 2:52.

TEAM STATISTICS

D R

FD1113

Rushing 41-161 31-72

Passing 67 277

C-A-I 7-18-0 11-22-0

Punts 8-30 5-34

F-L 2-0 1-1

Penalties 3-25 5-40

3rd conv. 4-15 4-13

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Davie

RUSHING – Carney 26-152, Robinson 7-22, Hampton 1-6, Crenshaw 1-2, Cranfill 1-1, Summers 5-(-22)

PASSING – Summers 4-12-0-64, Hampton 3-6-0-3

RECEIVING – Reynolds 3-50, Cranfill 1-11, Crenshaw 1-5, Carney 1-2, Robinson 1-(-1)

Reynolds

RUSHING – Revel 7-48, Taylor 4-31, Imes 4-22, Davis 6-15, Bethea 2-8, Murphy 3-11, McPhatter 2-6, Mensh 5-(-38)

PASSING – Mensh 5-10-0-182, Davis 6-12-0-95

RECEIVING – Johnson 3-139, Revel 3-66, McPhatter 2-38, Murphy 2-30, Imes 1-4