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By Brian Pitts

Davie Enterprise Record

In the aftermath of a 56-13 loss at Reagan on Sept. 27, few observers of the Davie JV football team would have predicted that would be Davie’s last loss.

But that was indeed the case. The War Eagles squeezed past Mt. Tabor (20-18) and West Forsyth (35-28) before traveling to Glenn on Oct. 27 for the season finale. It was a dominating 35-14 performance that gave Davie gratifying records of 6-3 overall and 4-2 in the Central Piedmont Conference.

“I told them: ‘Let’s go out here and have fun and finish out season on a high note,’” coach Perry Long said. “And they did that. I’m proud of those guys.”

“My goodness, we were looking at some guys from Glenn and saying: ‘We don’t have anybody who looks like that,’” defensive coordinator Blaine Nicholson said. “But that shows you it’s a team game.”

The War Eagles took Glenn totally apart in the first half. They got the ball first and marched 70 yards in 12 plays. After Archer Richardson’s 18-yard run, Jamarius Pelote converted a third-and-7 with a 9-yard pass to David Patton. Glenn’s defensive line jumped offside before a fourth-and-3 play, moving the chains. On fourth-and-1, Richardson picked up 5. On the next play, Pelote flicked a pass in the right flat to Richardson, who scored on a 14-yard reception. Receiver Leon Bradshaw’s block erased the only defender who had a chance to stop Richardson.

On the first play from scrimmage for Glenn’s offense, it lost 4 yards as defensive end Christian Boswell made the tackle. The long snapper bounced his snap to the punter, an 11-yard loss that gave Davie possession at the Glenn 21. Richardson took care of 16 of those 21 yards to put Davie ahead 14-0.

Davie was just getting started. On third-and-4, Glenn ran a quarterback draw. Cornerback CJ Moore knocked the ball loose and Boswell recovered the fumble at the Davie 38.

This series was all Richardson, who plowed for 6 and 11 yards before breaking off a 45-yard TD. On the scoring play, right tackle John Holcomb and right guard Jakob Alexander pulled to the left. Richardson followed the big boys, then cut right, busted through an arm tackle at the Glenn 25 and sailed home.

The lead was 21-0 in the last minute of the first quarter. Incredibly, Davie already had all the points it would need.

Then Patton got in on the fun. His squib kick had serious English on it, the ball backing up as if struck by a pitching wedge. It wasn’t touched until Davie’s Josiah Johnson recovered it at the Glenn 38.

“He kicked it right over the first line,” Long said. “He puts it right where you’ve got a chance to get it. He’s done that twice this year. He chipped it with some backspin on it.”

The offense resumed torturing the Bobcats. On fourth-and-6, Bradshaw caught a screen pass and gained 14 yards. On fourth-and-5, Pelote found no one open, took off and weaved untouched through the defense for a 15-yard TD that made the halftime margin 28-0.

Glenn would not come close to digging itself out of that hole.

After running for 144 yards the previous game against West Forsyth, Richardson impressed again with 20 carries for 169 yards and two TDs.

“He churned it,” Long said. “They were holding on to him and he was still dragging them. He was running downhill.”

Six of Pelote’s 10 completions went to his main man Bradshaw, who turned short catches into 51 yards. Ethan Driver had two receptions for 61 yards. Richardson and Patton had one catch each.

The emphatic win saw one of Davie’s finest defensive efforts.

“We were flying to the ball,” Nicholson said. “To hold them to 14 points was good considering how many athletes they have. They had two receivers over 6-foot tall.”

Freshmen Colson Sink and Coston Colamarino had interceptions. Nicholson gave a defensive line that included Xavier Parker, Billy Krause, Nathaniel Jordan, Lane Griffin, Carter Dillard and Gio Alcacio two thumbs up.

“The defensive line really carried us this season,” he said. “We got (Parker, a 6-3, 315-pound freshman) back (against West Forsyth after missing several games with an injury), and he’s hard to block for one person. He’s a monster. We were expecting big things from him this year (before the injury).”

But the 6-3 record was built on more than the d-line. The linebacker corps included Luke Wayne, Bubby Byington and Joe Wilds.

“Luke and Bubby played big minutes as freshmen and had a lot of great development since the beginning of the season,” Nicholson said. “Luke has made a lot of strides.”

When Wayne got injured against Glenn, Davie plugged in Wilds.

“We moved (Wilds) from linebacker to offensive line,” Nicholson said. “He played linebacker for the first time (against Glenn)  and got an end-of-game sack. He was relentless.”

The secondary should be a major strength next season as all but one were freshmen this season. Cornerbacks were Colamarino and Moore, with Josh Jones and Kadden Cole rotating in. Two of the safeties were Sink and Elliot Gould, with Jakob Cable and Eean Rosensteel playing reserve roles.

“(Sink and Gould) are going to be really good players for us down the road,” Nicholson said.