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By Jay Spivey

For the Clemmons Courier

CLEMMONS – There was a full moon Friday night at Jerry Peoples Stadium for the NCHSAA Class 4-A football playoffs first-round game between No. 19 Waxhaw Cuthbertson and No. 14 West Forsyth. 

And with the perception of a full moon, strange things seem to happen. It wasn’t necessarily that, but West Forsyth’s defense held in the fourth quarter to edge Cuthbertson 10-3. 

The win sets up a rematch next week in Kernersville in the second round against No. 3 East Forsyth (11-0), which defeated No. 30 Matthews Butler (4-7) 35-32 in its first-round game this past Friday. West Forsyth played at East Forsyth on Nov. 1 and East Forsyth won 48-42. Both teams had last week off. 

“It hurts us that we missed some deep balls early that really would’ve stretched it early on,” Coach Kevin Wallace of West Forsyth said. “But it’s just that rust of coming off of two weeks. So, we’ve got to get better at some of that stuff to get back to how we were executing before.  

“They’re (Cuthbertson) a tough team. They are. Upfront – they’ve got some big boys up front, too, and they gave us a run for our money upfront.” 

Both the Cavaliers (7-4) and the Titans were offensively challenged, but the Titans did just enough to prevail. The Titans finished with 199 yards rushing on 40 carries, led by 125 yards on 12 carries by quarterback Riley Horton. The Cavaliers finished with 129 yards rushing on 31 carries, and finished with 143 total yards. The Titans finished with 269 total yards.  

“We hadn’t given up many points all year. You know, their defensive front was as good as we thought they were,” said Coach Duke Howell of Cuthbertson, who is the father of Sam Howell, the former quarterback at North Carolina and now in the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks. “So, we knew it’d be a low-scoring game.” 

Neither team did anything offensively in the first quarter. However, with 7:22 left in the second quarter West Forsyth took possession at the Cuthbertson 38. With third-and-7 on the Cuthbertson 12-yard line, Darell Paige was stopped for a 6-yard loss on a reverse. Kosta Dupuy came out and made a 35-yard field goal with 4:55 left in the second quarter to give West Forsyth a 3-0 lead.  

“We knew it was going to be a close-scoring game, so we wanted to get points early,” Wallace said. “It was good to get on the board. I wish we would’ve scored there. That would’ve been big, but it worked out in the end.” 

The lead didn’t last long. On the ensuing possession, the Cavaliers went on an eight-play drive and scored after Cristian Harthan, who has committed to N.C. State as a preferred walk-on, nailed a 39-yard field goal to knot the game at 3-3 with 37 seconds left in the second quarter.  

“I was angry because I thought we were starting to do stuff, and that was like my – what I harped to the team all week – of do what got you here,” Wallace said. “You know, how we do jumping jacks. Do that because that’s what got us here. How we practice. Do that because that’s what got us here. 

“And we went into the first half, and at times we started to do our own thing again. And that’s what we got on them about, and I think we refocused in the second half, came and out and played well.” 

The Titans retained possession with 4:58 left in the first quarter. With first down at the Titans’ 17, Horton burst for a 77-yard run, which set up first-and-goal at the Cavaliers’ 5. Three plays later, Horton threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Hunter Cruise to help extend the lead to 10-0 with 1:45 left in the third quarter.  

“We needed to score. We gave up the long run to the quarterback and put us in a bad spot,” Howell said. “You know, we figured it’d be a one-score game.” 

Just after Cruise scored Cuthbertson went on a 12-play drive, but with fourth-and-2 from the West Forsyth 19 running back Mason Iovino was stopped short of the first down, which turned the ball over on downs with 8:22 left in the fourth quarter. 

“A touchdown obviously took the field goal out of play,” Howell said. “So, we thought we had momentum. We was going to try and take a shot right there.” 

West Forsyth retained possession, but Horton threw a ball that was tipped and intercepted by Mason Inman of Cuthbertson at the West Forsyth 24 with 7:39 left.  

Horton finished 8-of-15 passing with one touchdown, one interception and 70 yards. 

“That was not a highlight of our night,” Wallace said. “…Looking back on it we probably just needed to hand the ball off and go. We just had some of our quick, RPO (run-pass option) tags on it, and we just didn’t execute it.” 

With the ball on the Titans’ 24, the Cavaliers were once again stopped on downs with 6:04 left. 

“We came out and stopped them right after that interception, which was huge,” Wallace said. “You know, but that drive before, we bent a little bit. They went on a long-play drive. I would say it was probably close to 12 to 15 plays. You know, a couple penalties called. They continued to drive and our kids continued fighting back and they stopped them on that fourth down.” 

With 6:04 left in regulation, West Forsyth took over at its own 30 and went on a 13-play drive.  

“We have several kids, three or four I’ll say, that go both ways,” Howell said. “Plays a lot of snaps. Eventually, they were going to wear us down a bit, you know. Fresh bodies. It’s kind of what we saw on film is what we got.” 

With 1 minute remaining, and West Forsyth with the ball at the Cuthbertson 16, Wallace called timeout and sent Dupuy out to attempt a 33-yard field goal. However, Cuthbertson was called for illegal participation.  

“I’ll take that easy,” Wallace said. “Now, we can take a knee and get out.” 

Horton took two knees and ran out the clock. Now, it will have a week to prepare to play East Forsyth. 

“We played well. We still made some mistakes we’ll correct, but at this point in the year it’s just, find a way, survive, move on, no matter whether you win by 1 or 40.” Wallace said. “You know, a win’s a win.” 

Cuthbertson;0;3;0;0;–;3 

1. Forsyth;0;3;7;0;–;10

WF – Kosta Dupuy 35 FG 

C – Cristian Harthan 39 FG  

WF – Hunter Cruise 6 pass from Riley Horton (Dupuy kick) 

Records – Cuthbertson 7-4, West Forsyth 8-3