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By Brian Pitts

Enterprise Record

Ty Miller is going to put up a bunch of big numbers for Davie’s JV football team. You knew that already.

Everything was awesome for Davie in a 49-0 blasting of West Rowan in the season opener at War Eagle Stadium on Aug. 26 – especially the second-year starter at quarterback.

At halftime, at which time Davie was breezing 37-0, Miller had 90 rushing yards on nine carries and 79 passing yards on 5 of 7 attempts. The sophomore did not play in the second half.

“I promise you this, we won’t see a quarterback better than Ty Miller. No chance,” defensive coordinator Blaine Nicholson said. “He’s a bad man. We were having to beg him to get down and run out of bounds because he wants to run over people.”

“I love watching him play,” head coach Perry Long said.

Miller has weapons around him. On third-and-16, freshman receiver Braddock Coleman got behind the defense on a seam route, resulting in a 37-yard touchdown.

On Davie’s second offensive series, Evan York caught 12- and 13-yard passes on consecutive plays to set up Archer Richardson’s short TD run.

On third-and-7, Miller didn’t see anyone open so he simply tucked the ball and picked up 16 yards to the West 3. Richardson finished the short scoring drive.

Skylar Whittington took over on Davie’s next possession, running for 14, 11 and 8 yards to push the margin to 37-0.

In the second half, Richardson churned for 11, 14, 8 and 11 yards on consecutive plays. Then backup QB Leon Bradshaw juked defenders during a 12-yard TD run to cap the scoring.

Richardson only needed 12 carries to amass 117 rushing yards, and Whittington contributed 70 yards on 14 attempts.

Davie piled up 12 first downs and posted 34-plus points for the sixth straight game behind a starting offensive line of sophomores Kevin Lazuro, Cole Thomas and Jared Alexander and freshmen Jackson Powers and Cooper Williams.

“Archer is downhill,” Long said. “He’s a power runner. Braddock is tough. Evan will catch whatever you throw at him. It’s like he’s got that Stickum on his hands.”

The game looked like a continuation of the 5-0 spring, when Davie outscored opponents 46-10 on average, because the defense was wreaking havoc when the offense wasn’t scoring at will.

Ian Boger and MJ Jacobs stopped a third-and-1 run early on. On the next play, Landon Barber and a host of friends forced a turnover on downs.

Zander Richardson, Archer’s older brother, had back-to-back tackles behind the line of scrimmage. Jacobs and Dane Porter teamed up for a tackle for loss one play before the snap sailed over the West punter’s head. The punter had to retreat to the end zone, he lost the handle and Conner Hood recovered for a special teams TD.

“I think Eli (Branham) punched the ball out,” Nicholson said. “Conner is going to be a pretty good player for us. He didn’t get tested too much (with the pass), but we’ll see what he’s about later on down the road.”

Trey’von Doulin and Barber had tackles for loss before Landon Waller scored on a 28-yard pick-6. Later on, Waller was involved in a 7-yard sack.

“We had great pressure off the edge from Trey’von, and Waller was playing his responsibility and made a great break on the ball,” Nicholson said of the interception. “He’s a very good athlete. He’s a bigger guy and can run really fast.”

Nicholson gushed about a defensive line that helped hold the Falcons to 22 rushing yards on 27 attempts.

“We had two guys on the interior (freshmen Grayson Cayton and Barber) that they couldn’t budge too well, and the edge guys (Boger, Jacobs, Porter and Doulin) were messing up some of their tackles and H-backs,” Nicholson said. “So we were able to control the line of scrimmage. The guys we rotated in – Billy Krause, Carter Dillard and Noah Myers – they couldn’t do much with those guys either.”

West had six passing yards and one first down because of guys like Zack Banks, a linebacker, and Z. Richardson and Branham. The latter two are defensive backs.

“Zack was flying around,” Nicholson said. “Zander made a couple of really good fold-in plays, where the defensive line made it bounce and he was able to rally and make the tackle. Eli made about the first six tackles, so he’s a pretty solid high safety.”

Notes: Jacobs recovered a fumble. … Davie built on the momentum from the spring. In fact, it has won 13 of 15 games dating to 2019. “This bunch is scrappy,” Long said. “We’ve got some stuff to work on before we get to the CPC, but I’m happy with them.”