South football loses at Summit

Published 8:29 am Thursday, October 21, 2021

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By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

As if beating Summit wasn’t going to be difficult enough, South Davie’s football team made a ton of mistakes in the second half and watched Summit score 14 unanswered points to take a 20-8 decision over the visiting Tigers on Oct. 13.
Summit scored on its first possession to grab a 6-0 lead, but South immediately answered as Jamarius Pelote scored on a run. Jayce Bentley’s two-point run lifted South to an 8-6 lead.
That was the score when the third quarter began, when Summit attempted an onside kick. South recovered and began to march toward the end zone. But then came a fumble that handed the ball to Summit.
“We were driving it with no problem,” offensive coordinator Germain Mayfield said. Summit capitalized. A miraculous catch keyed its scoring drive, which resulted in a 12-8 lead.
“They hit a big play on third or fourth down,” Mayfield said. “Their receiver juggled it. It hit off Jayce’s hands, it hit Jamarius’ hands and it hit the receiver’s hands four or five times. And he wound up pulling it in for a first down. Their receiver made two of these catches.”
Summit tried another onside kick. This time it jumped on the ball. Then came a series of self-inflicted wounds from South’s defense. On third-and-12, South was flagged for a horse collar tackle. On third-and-15, it was flagged for a face mask. South was penalized for another face mask. Summit turned the free yards into a TD that put the game away.
“We had five penalties on that one drive,” Mayfield said. “They got the ball at the 50 and the penalties added up to 46 yards.”
It was the second straight frustrating loss for the Tigers, 1-5 with a three-game losing streak. The week before, they lost 12-6 at Starmount. “We’re just snakebit,” Mayfield said. “We dropped a pick-6. We’re playing a lot better than we were.”
Mayfield said Pelote and Bentley “both had excellent games running the ball.”
Notes: North Davie won 22-16 at Forbush on Oct. 13 to stop a two-game slide. The Wildcats improved to 2-3, with both wins over Forbush. … Unbeaten Ellis (6-0) did not play last week.