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By Brian Pitts

Enterprise Record

With four minutes left in the first half, Davie’s varsity football team was out of sync, the home crowd was restless and visiting Reynolds held an eight-point lead in Friday’s Central Piedmont Conference opener.

The War Eagles eventually got around to blowing past Reynolds, 32-17. Their 23-0 run to end the game began exactly when receiver Ethan Driver made his first catch of the night. Once he got going, there was no stopping Davie.

Driver continued his tear with 11 catches for 130 yards – his ninth 100-yard effort in 15 tries – and there really isn’t a whole lot more we can say about the junior.

“He’s the type of player, when he has the ball in his hands, it could be special,” coach Tim Devericks said.

Davie’s second win in a row evened its overall record at 2-2. A two-game slide dropped the Demons to 2-2.

The first quarter wasn’t pretty for either side. On the game’s fourth play from scrimmage, from the Reynolds 17, CJ Moore blocked a Reynolds punt. The ball ricocheted into the end zone and Dylan Miller tackled a Demon for a safety and a 2-0 lead.

Two minutes later, with Davie set to kick it away, the snap sailed over punter Connor Dixson’s head. Davie lost 30 yards and Reynolds took possession at the Davie 25. Reynolds’ Josh Norris would drill a 41-yard field goal to give Reynolds a baseball-like lead of 3-2.

But on the ensuing kickoff, Gavin Reese electrified the home team by taking it 85 yards to the house. Davie had a 9-3 lead.

“It’s unfortunate the injury he got and he missed a game (at North Davidson),” Devericks said. “He’s healthy and looking to make plays when he’s got the ball in his hands.”

Davie outside linebacker Austin Heath stuffed Reynolds quarterback Tommy Elrod for no gain on a fourth-and-1 run from the Davie 34, but four plays later, Reynolds blocked a Dixson punt. Three plays after that, Davie partially blocked Norris’ 42-yard FG attempt to keep Davie’s lead at 9-3.

Davie’s worrisome start continued in the second quarter. Elrod hit Mac Murphy for a 36-yard TD. Davie’s offense lost yardage on three straight plays. Reynolds took the 17-9 lead on a 9-yard pass from Elrod to Joe Crawley. And Davie lost a fumble with 4:48 remaining in the second.

At this point, Davie’s offense looked a little disjointed. The War Eagles had minus-23 yards on 19 plays, Driver had not made a catch, they had one first down, and they had four straight three-and-outs.

“We had to battle in the first half,” Devericks said. “I was super proud of the way we played (after falling behind 17-9).”

Reynolds went for it on fourth-and-5 from the Davie 35, and cornerback Landon King broke up a pass to give his team the ball.

The game began to turn on a third-and-9 play. QB Draeton Nance found the reliable Driver over the middle for 16 yards. That was the spark for a 13-play, 65-yard drive. On third-and-5, Nance and Driver hooked up for 11. On second-and-goal from the 11, Nance managed to fire a pass to the end zone even though a defender was trying to yank him down. Dallas Simms pulled in the TD catch even though a defender was draped on him.

On the drive, Nance went 6 of 6 for 57 yards, including four completions to Driver.

“I just went up and tried to go get it, just doing my thing,” Simms said. “It was awesome.”

“Unreal,” Devericks said. “Dallas battled for the ball.”

Devericks kept the offense on the field and went for two and the tie. It looked like a sandlot play. With running back Jamarius Pelote about to go down under an avalanche of Demons, he alertly pitched the ball backward to Nance, who walked in to deadlock things at 17 with 18 seconds left in the half.

“Jay and Drae must have some code word or something,” Devericks said. “It was pretty awesome.”

“I was screaming his name: ‘Jay! Jay! Jay! Jay!’” Nance said.

“I heard Draeton calling my name,” Pelote said. “I looked up and saw him. We really needed that – whatever worked to get us in the end zone.”

The War Eagles used that momentum to mount the 23 unanswered points. They moved 74 yards to take a 23-17 lead, a seven-play drive that included completions to Driver and Noah Dulin and Braxton Bowling’s 5-yard score. Corban O’Neil (batted pass), Reese (pass breakup on third down) and the defense forced a quick punt. When Nance threw a bubble screen to Driver on fourth-and-2 from the Reynolds 33, Driver split two defenders near the line of scrimmage and was gone as Davie pushed the lead to 29-17.

“(Receiver) Landon Waller was blocking extremely well for Ethan on some of those screens,” Devericks pointed out.

After sputtering out of the gate, Nance, one game after throwing for a single-game record of 450 yards in his varsity debut, finished a stellar 23 of 33 for 230 yards and two TDs. The numbers are more impressive when you consider Davie netted 278 yards.

“He’s a freshman and he was down on himself,” Devericks said. “We told him: ‘Hey, keep your head up and go play the next play.’”

Davie’s fourth straight scoring possession came later in the third when senior Max McCall converted a 40-yard field goal – Davie’s longest in three years – to close the scoring. Interestingly enough, McCall is 3 for 3 on FGs in his two-year varsity career, including 2 for 2 in 2024.

“I thought those were a big three points in the game,” Devericks said. “We’re trying to build Max’s confidence and he proved he could do it tonight.”

After being a non-factor in the first half, Bowling pounded out 63 second-half yards on 16 physical carries.

“It was a tough 71 (for the game),” Devericks said. “He was churning the ball tonight.”

Meanwhile, after allowing 73 rushing yards and 11 completions in the first half, the defense held Reynolds to 10 rushing yards and five completions in the second half. The Demons’ second-half possessions: punt, punt, interception, interception.

“I think our defensive line really stepped up and linebackers were filling,” sophomore linebacker Elijah Chaffin said. “It was kind of iffy (early on), but we were able to fill the hole and were able to do really good in the second half.”

“We were a little bit upfield in the first half, and we changed our angles,” Devericks said, citing d-linemen Braylon Arnold, Marcus Fortune, Grayson Cayton and Gio Alcacio. “On the edges, you had Austin Heath and Corban O’Neil. Connor Dixson made some plays. (Safeties) Elliott Gould and Connor Hood made some good tackles. (Outside linebacker) J’siere Arnold made some big hits, too.”

Hood had both interceptions in a span of five minutes in the fourth quarter.

“He was smiling,” Devericks said. “Those (defensive backs) always work hard. When something doesn’t go right, everybody sees it.”

The cherry on top was a 19-yard pass from Nance to his step-brother Waller on a third-and-18 play in the final series of the game.

“Drae did a really good job there of stepping up in the pocket,” Devericks said.

Notes: Davie’s offensive line started with Ryan Williams, David Hicks, Ryder Strickland, Colt Ratliff and Xavier Parker. When Williams left with an injury, Eli Waddell took over at right tackle, Parker moved to left guard and Hicks slid over to left tackle. Cole Anders saw time at both guard spots. “Once they figured it out and were communicating, things clicked,” Devericks said. … This was the closest Reynolds game during the War Eagles’ six-game winning streak in the series. They won the previous five meetings by 29, 19, 45, 24 and 44 points. Davie has won 14 of 15 to take a 28-14 advantage in the all-time series. … The War Eagles will be the underdog in their next four games. This Friday they face a state elitist, East Forsyth, in Kernersville at 7 p.m. East’s four wins: 44-0, 56-12, 49-14, 69-21. It’s a rough matchup. Mooresville beat Davie 66-20. Reagan beat Mooresville 34-28. East beat Reagan 69-21 last week.