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Titans fall to 0-3 and have a bye this week; open CPC play at Mount Tabor on Sept. 16

By Jay Spivey
For the Clemmons Courier

The scoreboard at Jerry Peoples Stadium Friday night showed that Weddington defeated West Forsyth 49-32 in a nonconference game.
And even though a loss is a loss, it felt different for winless West Forsyth (0-3), which led 24-21 midway through the third quarter.
“I told them first and foremost, we’ll never, never be satisfied with losing, ever,” Coach Adrian Snow said. “But on that, I was so proud of the effort. The effort was what we want, what we’re looking for. If we keep doing that, we’ll have a chance.”
Weddington (2-1) piled up 633 yards of offense behind quarterback Tyler Budge, who threw for 415 yards and three touchdowns and also had a rushing touchdown.
The Warriors had nine different players carry the ball and finished with 168 yards rushing on 37 carries.
The Titans had several highlights.
Linebacker Caleb David, who also took some snaps at quarterback, had a 4-yard touchdown run, a 1-yard touchdown run, a two-point conversion pass and an interception.
Quarterback Bert Rice of West threw for 163 yards and a touchdown and running back Caman Chaplin rushed for 100 yards and caught at 59-yard touchdown pass.
And Jordan Stephens returned a kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown in the second quarter.
“Weddington is a great team. People weren’t expecting us to have as many points as we had,” David said. “People weren’t expecting us to do what we did. So, I feel good about our individual performances on the team and how we played, but the outcome isn’t the outcome (we wanted). It’s unacceptable, but I think we played better.”
The Warriors led 14-13 early in the second quarter, but went on a five-play drive that ended after Zymill Patterson caught a 60-yard touchdown pass from Budge with 6:31 left to help push the lead to 21-13.
However, the Titans quickly responded. Rice hooked up with Chaplin on a 59-yard touchdown pass with 4:50 left in the second quarter to trim the lead to 21-19. Hayden McGaha caught the two-point conversion pass from Rice to knot the game at 21-21.
“I felt like our defense held on,” Snow said. “When we went for two right before halftime I did it more for the mental state than I did anything else because really you don’t chase points, but I wanted our kids to feel like, ‘We’re going to go in deadlocked 21-21 and we’re in this thing.’
“And our kids, they did. They played their tails off.”
West had two consecutive possessions early in the third quarter where it had excellent scoring opportunities, but came away only scoring three points. With 10:34 left in the third quarter, West Forsyth picked up a ball at the Weddington 39-yard line that was touched by a Weddington player on a punt. That drive stalled and West Forsyth had to punt. On the ensuing possession, Weddington turned the ball over on downs at the West Forsyth 42 with 7:01 left in the third quarter. West drove for seven plays, but settled for a 37-yard field goal by Alejandro Morillon with 5:29 left in the third quarter to give the Titans a 24-21 lead.
The Warriors quickly responded and went on a 10-play, 80-yard drive that ended after Ian McDermand caught a 35-yard touchdown pass from Budge with 1:33 left in the third quarter for a 28-24 lead.
On the ensuing possession, West Forsyth fumbled the snap and Weddington recovered at the West 37. Three plays later, Budge scored on an 8-yard run with 5 seconds left to help extend the lead to 35-24.
“We make stuff interesting,” Coach Andy Capone of Weddington said. “But I told them we’ve got to come out and play our best half of football in the second half all year. I still don’t think we’re there yet, but we had to settle down and realize we’re not playing great, but we were still in the game. Yeah, we made a few adjustments and we made sure that we were clicking all cylinders, we were doing the right things, and we weren’t making any mental mistakes to get us behind the 8-ball.”
After Budge’s touchdown run, Weddington pinned West Forsyth at the 3-yard line after the kickoff. The drive, which started with 1 second remaining in the third quarter went 11 plays and 97 yards, finishing with a 10-yard keeper by David with 8:37 in the fourth quarter to make it 35-30. Snow went for two and David threw a jump pass to McGaha for the two-point conversion to whittle the lead to 35-32.
“The touchdown, it was a mental thing for me,” David said. “The drive before that, we were on defense, I dropped a pick. It hurt me to my heart. So, I got emotional on the sideline. I started yelling at Coach Snow to give me the ball. He listened to me, and I appreciate that because I punched it in.
“And the jump pass, we ran it twice down there. I ran the ball the first time. We ran it twice (Friday), so we switched it up with the jump pass.”
The Warriors answered on the ensuing possession with a 58-yard touchdown run by Wesley McElveen with 7:12 left to help take a 42-32 lead.
After McElveen’s touchdown, the Warriors used a pooch kick on the kickoff. They recovered at the Titans’ 19 with 7:12 left.
“We thought it was going out-of-bounds,” Snow said. “And it’s like my golf shots. Sometimes it stays straight, sometimes it doesn’t.”
The Warriors capitalized and scored on a 9-yard touchdown pass to Patterson from Budge with 4:54 left to help extend the lead to 49-32.
“That’s huge,” Capone said. “Everybody that knows Coach Snow knows his team is going to play for 48 minutes. We gave up a few big plays in the pass game, so we didn’t want to give them anymore time. So, to be able to punch that one in gave us a little relaxation for the first time all season.”
Despite the loss, West Forsyth still has plenty to build on.
“I feel like our kids competed against a good football team,” Snow said.
West Forsyth is off this week, but it opens Central Piedmont 4-A play in two weeks at Mount Tabor (3-0). Even though West Forsyth is 0-3, each team gets to start conference play with a clean slate.
“At the end of the day, you’re 0-fer. Everybody’s 0-fer,” Snow said. “I think our kids have the right mindset, so we’ll be ready to go.”

Weddington: 7-14-14-14–49
W. Forsyth 7-14-3-8–32
W – Griffin Reimer 8 run (Everett Scott kick)
WF – Caleb David 4 run (Alejandro Morillon kick)
W – Nick Diamond 4 run (Scott kick)
WF – Jordan Stephens 92 kickoff return (pass failed)
W – Zymill Patterson 60 pass from Tyler Budge (Scott kick)
WF – Caman Chaplin 59 pass from Bert Rice (Hayden McGaha pass from Rice)
WF – Morillon 37 FG
W – Ian McDermand 35 pass from Budge (Scott kick)
W – Budge 8 run (Scott kick)
WF – David 1 run (McGaha pass from David)
W – Wesley McElveen 58 run (Scott kick)
W – Patterson 9 pass from Budge (Scott kick)
Records – Weddington 2-1, West Forsyth 0-3