Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

South Davie steamrolled North Davie 44-6 on Sept. 10. Playing out of its defensive mind in the second meeting, North upset South 6-0 in the season finale on Oct. 8.
That really happened, even if it felt like a dream for the visiting Wildcats, who beat South for the first time since 2021.
“It was an Orange Bowl classic,” North coach Beau Byerly said. “It was ugly, but it was a dogfight. It was one of those games that makes you really enjoy coaching. That was high intensity from the kickoff.”
While the Tigers finished 5-3, North (5-3) put up its first winning season since going 4-0 in the spring of 2021.
Making the 44-point swing from the first meeting all the more remarkable, the Wildcats pulled off the win despite an early injury to running back Nathan Smith. But Smith did give the North fans a thrill before getting carried off the field. On the third play from scrimmage, he went 40 yards to inside the South 20, breaking his leg at the end of the play. A penalty for a horse-collar tackle moved the ball to the South 4.
“We started out in the I-formation because I wanted to switch it up, and our big guy took one 40 yards,” Byerly said.
Two plays later, quarterback Levi Morales scored on a read-option keeper. Little did anyone know that would be the only touchdown .
“I don’t think (Morales) read much of anything,” Byerly said. “I think he just took it and took off.”
Without Smith, the North offense was punchless. But the defense stood tall and secured the Wildcats’ longest winning streak (four) in four seasons.
“We couldn’t get any power on anything and could not get a push,” Byerly said. “Without the big man, we could no do the I-formation, so we went back to our spread. We did not have much success. Our line had zero push for a while, but we were able to move the ball well enough to get them out of really good field position.
“The defense decided to show up and kept us ahead the whole time. They may have been in the red zone once. Penalties killed them.”
South’s defense got nasty after the game’s first possession. But the Tigers’ offense was undone by multiple factors, including the loss of quarterback William Sandoval in the second quarter.
“That hurt them, but our defense really came to play,” Byerly said. “We switched up what we were doing on defense and put everybody in man. They had to change up their game when their quarterback (went out). He can throw it well. They had some success running the ball.”
It was like North defensive backs Morales, Easton Stanley, Sawyer Hall, Wade Ridenhour, Christopher Gonzalez and Jeremiah Hernandez were trying to out-do each other with big plays. “We had really spectacular play from our DBs,” Byerly said.
But plenty of people deserve defensive credit. Hall (two fumble recoveries) played like a man possessed. Hernandez had an interception. Linebacker Peyton Jordan was immense again. Mason Sheppard, Glen Greene, Mayson Powell and Jackson Jennings did the job up front as North stopped a four-game losing streak in the series.
“Sawyer ripped a ball out of a running back’s arms,” Byerly said. “He was in a cluster and ripped it out and we saw him running with it. Sawyer probably made 10 tackles, too.
“Peyton probably had between eight and 10 tackles. He was able to cause a pretty big disruption on the line.”