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By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

Mt. Tabor’s Zion Thompson, who pounded out 130 and 187 rushing yards against Davie in 2023, did not appear in the game until the seven-minute mark of the second quarter. Star receiver Snook Peterkin, a Virginia Tech commit, did not play at all.
The Spartans were not at full strength when they visited War Eagle Stadium on Friday, but they have plenty of talent. They still dismantled Davie 52-7.
While Tabor stayed in the hunt at 5-2 and 3-1 in the CPC, the War Eagles (2-5, 1-3) have been outscored 138-21 during a three-game losing streak.
Tabor didn’t waste any time jumping out to a commanding lead. On its third play from scrimmage, quarterback Lane Albright pulled the ball from his running back on a read-option play and sped 60 yards to the end zone. On the Spartans’ next possession, Albright threw it up and let his 6-4, 195-pound receiver jump over Davie’s defensive back. JaDon Blair, a Notre Dame commit, snatched the ball from a perfectly-positioned Landon King and gained 48 yards to set up Albright’s short plunge into the end zone.
Davie interrupted Tabor’s assault, if only briefly, when Davie’s Austin Heath recovered a fumble at the Davie 24. Braxton Bowling broke off a 41-yard scamper to the Tabor 25, Draeton Nance hit Leon Bradshaw for 19 yards, then connected with Ethan Driver for 9. Nance scored from the 1 to pull Davie within 12-7.
The Spartans, though, quickly resumed their dominance. One of their speedsters, Jaydon Mahfooth, dashed 61 yards to make it 20-7. Three minutes later, Albright and Blair hooked up for a 23-yard score. Less than four minutes after that, Blair caught a home-run ball, discarded a defender with a stiff-arm and juked two War Eagles inside the 10 to complete a 68-yard TD. Three minutes after that, the Tabor band was playing the fight song again as the halftime bulge reached 38-7.
Tabor can pick you apart through the air and on the ground. It would finish with 234 rushing yards and 601 total yards while converting 9 of 12 third downs. Albright went 23 of 30 for 367 yards and accounted for six TDs (four passing, two rushing). Blair, who had an interception on defense, averaged 36 yards on his four receptions.
Meanwhile, the War Eagles were mostly helpless. They went 1 for 8 on third-down conversions, suffered five turnovers and kept spinning their wheels in the second half.
Bowling finished with 71 yards on 11 carries. Eight of Nance’s 15 completions went to Driver, who picked up 91 yards.
The War Eagles are three-fourths through a horrifying stretch. They travel to Clemmons on Friday to take on heavily-favored West Forsyth (5-2, 3-1), which lost 27-17 to Tabor and is coming off a 27-0 win over Reagan, which handled Davie 31-14.
Notes: Tabor did not let up. It scored its eighth TD with 9:48 to go as Albright went 5 of 8 for 73 yards in the fourth quarter. … Davie has lost four straight in the series. … Davie’s Elijah Chaffin, the 6-4, 212-pound sophomore linebacker, racked up 24 tackles in the Reagan loss, giving him 84 stops through the first six games. That made him third in the state in that category and first in 4-A. … David Patton, who missed the last eight games last year and the first six this year, was finally able to return to the field against Tabor. Ten months after knee surgery, he handled the punting duties. Each of his first two kicks went 42 yards.