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By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

After hobbling through the roughest patch in program history, Davie’s football team trailed for less than three minutes, unleashed a month’s worth of frustrations and got a much-needed win at Parkland on Oct. 25.
“I don’t think we can put into words how hungry we were,” coach Tim Devericks said after Davie won 38-22 after getting outscored by 155 points by East Forsyth, Reagan, Mt. Tabor and West Forsyth. “We faced a tough stretch and you learn things through that stretch. And they kept learning and kept fighting and kept battling, and little things along the way have helped us improve.”
The first big play was something that came entirely out of nowhere. Davie had fourth-and-3 at the Parkland 34, and Devericks sent out the punt team. But instead of David Patton trying a coffin-corner kick, the snap went to upman Elijah Chaffin, the sophomore linebacker and No. 1 tackler who had not carried the ball in his Davie career. He made a couple jukes and thundered 25 yards to the Parkland 9. Four plays later, Davie had a first-quarter lead.
“It’s been in our pocket a long time,” Devericks said. “We had not had an opportune time to run it. We practice it every week and coach Nic (Blaine Nicholson) is always in my ear about it. It was executed real well.”
Moments after Chaffin’s unexpected run, kicker Max McCall sustained a pretty improbable streak. He banged through a career-long 41-yard field goal, beating his previous best by a yard, to make him 5 for 5 in his two years at Davie, including 4-4 as a senior.
“The consistency with which he strikes the ball has gotten better,” Devericks said. “When he was first kicking, he would boom one and then he would miss two or three. He has improved his consistency tremendously.”
But the Mustangs are not the doormat they used to be. Although they are 3-6 overall and 1-5 in the CPC, they hung with West Forsyth in 22-19 defeat, and West throttled Davie 48-10 on Oct. 18. Their backup quarterback, who was playing presumably due to an injury to the starter, completed a 29-yard pass and Parkland scored on a 6-yard run to take a 7-3 lead with 2:35 left in the first.
But freshman Dahrien Boston’s turnovers – he went 15 of 26 for 196 yards while filling in for junior Ethan Bailey, but threw three interceptions – made it fairly easy for Davie (3-6, 2-4 CPC) to surge to a comfortable lead and cruise to its seventh straight win in the series.
Patton’s terrific 41-yard punt pinned Parkland at its own 11 and Colson Sink’s INT set up Davie at the Parkland 20.
“(Sink) was trying to reroute that guy,” Devericks said. “The guy squatted behind him. He turned his head and made a really good play.”
Less than a minute after Sink’s pick, quarterback Draeton Nance fired into a tight window and freshman Landon Hughes made the biggest catch of his young career, a 17-yarder in the end zone with Mustangs on both sides of him.
“I don’t know if the ball should have gone there, but hey, (Hughes) went up and got it in front of those guys,” Devericks said.
Davie was ready to punt on fourth-and-9 from the Parkland 38 with the 10-7 lead, but Parkland’s DL jumped before the snap and Devericks sent his offense back on the field for a fourth-and-4. Nance connected with the always-reliable Ethan Driver on an out-route for a pickup of seven. Then Nance pump faked to Driver underneath and looked deep. His cousin, Landon Waller, was running free and the 23-yard score bumped Davie’s lead to 17-7.
“It was something that we had been setting up,” Devericks said. “We were getting good yardage on the screens and Landon has done a great job all year with those plays and working his tail off with blocking. And it was great to see him rewarded. (Nance) did a good job of setting it up, just giving a slight shoulder hesitation to get the DB moving.”
The Mustangs had a chance to close the gap right before halftime, but a pinball interception protected the 10-point lead. Boston’s pass from the Davie 7 deflected off two War Eagles and Chaffin swooped in to make the pick near the goal line with 40 seconds left in the half.
“It went off of Landon King’s hands and then it went off of Connor Hood‘s hands,” Devericks said. “Elijah was running to the ball and it just fell right in his pocket.”
The War Eagles opened the second half with their hair on fire. Nance tossed a bubble screen to Dallas Simms, who weaved for 13 yards. Running back Braxton Bowling, a strong sophomore, took it from there. He flattened a defender on a 22-yard run. On the next play, he bounced outside for a 30-yard TD that made it 24-7.
Later in the third, Bowling finished a 16-yard run with at least five Mustangs on his back. He went for a season-high 115 yards on 21 carries.
“He kept his legs going all night,” Devericks said. “The offensive line at times was really clicking on all cylinders and giving him good holes to burst through.”
The Mustangs drove 80 yards in seven plays to close the gap to 24-14, but Davie never allowed them any real hope because of a huge sack, Patton’s clutch punts and Nance’s three-TD effort.
Parkland was in Davie territory with a chance to make it a one-score game when Chaffin and Jack Boger blitzed on a second-and-6 play. Both applied substantial pressure on Boston and Dylan Miller came in and lowered the boom and caused a fumble. Parkland recovered the fumble but lost 20 yards and turned it over on downs at midfield.
“They were moving the ball a little bit and we dialed up a pressure,” Devericks said.
Another Patton punt pinned Parkland at its 10, and the Mustangs were circling the drain when Boston threw incomplete on fourth-and-14 from their 19.
Davie, which only managed 31 points during the four-game losing streak, scored the backbreaker a minute later. Nance rolled left, wrong-footed the defense and turned right. Running back Jamarius Pelote was wide open for a 5-yard TD that made it 31-14 with only 4:41 remaining.
Nance completed 20 passes, including six to Driver, five to Simms, four to Hughes and three to Waller.
The Mustangs were unraveling in the fourth and they fumbled from their own 4. Davie recovered at the Parkland 1 and Bowling plunged into the end zone to widen the margin to 38-14. Parkland drove 80 yards and capped the scoring with a 1:32 left.
Notes: Davie won comfortably despite having less first downs (18-17), fewer total yards (337-264) and going 2 of 12 on third downs. A big factor was the turnover battle; Davie had one to Parkland’s four. Gavin Reese had the other INT. … This is the final week of the regular season. Davie will host Glenn on Friday night at 7 on Senior Night. The Bobcats (2-7, 0-6) are winless in the CPC, including a 14-9 loss to Parkland.