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| P.J. Neely hauls in a touchdown catch to pull Davie close, but Davie ended up losing 37-20 to W. Forsyth. - Photo by Jim Barringer |
Five turnovers to your opponent’s zero is rarely a winning formula, and it definitely wasn’t in the first loss to West since ‘03. The War Eagles were their own worst enemy, fumbling the ball to West at the Davie 11 and at the West 2 and gift-wrapping two West scoring drives (both started at the Davie 11). Zach Illing, Davie’s savvy quarterback who had been unusually poised all year, proved everyone is human, throwing three interceptions, including two costly ones.
Davie coach Doug Illing bemoaned uncharacteristic mistakes that dug a hole in which Davie couldn’t escape.
“When you give them 11 yards to score two times, you give them confidence,” he said after Davie fell to 5-2 overall. West improved to 6-1. “Penalties and turnovers - that’s something we hadn’t been doing all year. That’s something we’ve been very proud of. You practice it and hope it’s not going to happen, but tonight it did.”
Davie came in ranked in a tie for fourth in the AP Poll, but experienced its worst margin of defeat since a 40-19 quarterfinal loss at Independence in ‘06. Illing had only thrown two interceptions in 133 attempts, and Davie had a knack for creating turnovers, not committing them. After six games it had three turnovers to opponents’ 14. And it had not scored fewer than 34 points all year.
In the end it was little consolation that the War Eagles won battles in first downs (21-19) and total yards (411-380).
“We’ve been good at not giving teams extra chances,” Illing said. “When you give them 11 yards to score, all of a sudden they think they’re big beasts and our feelings are hurt. And really, it’s not that way.”
The game started the way the War Eagles would have scripted it. West punted after five plays and Davie navigated 90 yards in 10 plays. James Mayfield was dragging defenders and Illing was completing beautifully thrown balls to Joe Watson and Jarrell Marshall, who tiptoed the sideline for a 20-yard score and 6-0 lead.
One critical moment came on the first play of Davie’s second possession. West leveled Illing as he looked to ... subscribe to the Davie County Enterprise Record, P.O. Box 99, Mocksville, N.C. 27028.