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Starmount, West Davidson will square off in Class 2-A
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Published: November 20, 2008
Coaches Scott Johnson of Starmount and Dale Barnes of West Davidson didn't need to do much scouting for the second round of the NCHSAA 2-A playoffs. Their teams will meet Friday in Boonville -- the third meeting between the teams in the past two seasons.
Also Friday in Class 2-A West games, Lexington (8-4) will play at top-seeded South Columbus (11-1) and Wilkes Central (7-5) will play at Burnsville Mountain Heritage (10-2). In a Class 2-AA East game, West Stokes, 9-3 after the first playoff win in school history, will play at Pittsboro Northwood (10-2).
Starmount and West Davidson met Sept. 12, and Starmount won 28-24 in a game that ended with West at the Starmount 15. The victory was payback for West's 41-13 win in the 2007 regular season.
"To tell you the truth, if you throw both teams in a pile they are a whole lot the same," Coach Dale Barnes of West said. "They run, we run. We do play-action pass, and so do they. They use motion as deception, and we use formations as deception. It's really two similar football teams lining up to play each other."
The game will match the ball-control efforts of West, with quarterback James McCandies and running back Alex Grubb, against Starmount's big-play offense and running back Rashaun Gaither. Both teams are 9-3.
Gaither made his presence felt in this year's regular-season meeting, breaking two long touchdown runs and intercepting two of McCandies' passes. Gaither is coming off a signature performance in last week's 49-28 win over Maiden -- 254 yards and six touchdowns rushing.
"He has great vision and does a good job of running in the open field," Barnes said of Gaither. "We have to get some contact before he gets past the line."
Starmount's Johnson compared West's style of play to Thomasville's.
"They don't hurt themselves at all on offense, they play good defense and have solid special teams and try not to turn the ball over," Johnson said. "It's the Allen Brown school of thinking, I guess.
"What we have to do is keep the ball and stay on the field, keep our offense out there, and we would like to have more possessions with some turnovers. Normally they don't turn the ball over. I don't know how many they have had, but when you watch them on film, it isn't many."
The game gives West the opportunity for two firsts.
"We have two things that can occur this week," Barnes said. "We can set a school record for wins with 10, and we can move to the third round of the state playoffs for the first time ever.
"And those will be huge for our kids and our community."
West Stokes (9-3) will not have an easy game at Pittsboro Northwood, the two-time Mid-State 2-A champion, but Coach Jimmy Upchurch said that he and the Wildcats are excited about a new opponent.
West's 35-14 over McMichael last week was a rematch from the regular season.
"We are happy about going on the road," Upchurch said. "We survived last week. We just look forward to playing somebody we haven't played before. Win or lose, we will play a team I have never played, and the kids are excited about it. We are thrilled."
West threw a big, new wrinkle at McMichael last week when Upchurch gave Austin Fleming, a 6-4, 218-pound freshman, his first start at quarterback, and moved former quarterback Matt Bennett to running back. Both rushed for more than 100 yards, and running back James Hickman had more than 200 yards of offense.
Upchurch said he made the switch because he thought that Fleming -- who was dominant on the junior varsity this season -- was ready. It also gave Bennett a chance to run more.
"This kid, in my opinion, will be a major Division I player," Upchurch said of Fleming. "He runs well, he throws well, and he knows the game of football. He is so relaxed, so poised. He doesn't get rattled, and he is never intimidated or scared. I have never seen a kid like this."
Upchurch said that Northwood has a talented offense, with a playmaking running back in Ridge Smith and a bruising runner in Demetrius Johnson, who is 6-3, 205. Upchurch said that the teams are similar.
"They have athletes with good size, and we are very evenly matched," Upchurch said. "I think it will be who plays the best that night. We have talked all year long about going through uncharted waters and how we would respond. It's so cold outside, so I wonder how we will they respond when its 30 degrees out and we go out to practice.
"It's going to be cold Friday, and it will be interesting how we do respond."
Wilkes Central rolled up more than 500 yards of offense at West Bladen last week and probably will need big games from Andy Benesh and Leo Guevara to get past Mountain Heritage, which features running back Jesse Ballew (2,033 yards, 22 touchdowns).
■ Mason Linker can be reached at 727-7324 or at mlinker@wsjournal.com.
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