West Florence runs wild against Darlington
By Drake Horton
Contributing Writer
Florence – This past Friday’s game against the West Florence Knights was nothing short of a complete disaster for the Darlington Falcons.
Playing on the road at Memorial Stadium in Florence, the Falcons fell to 0-2 on the year, losing to West Florence by the lopsided score of 52-21.
In a game with built up anticipation, it did not take Darlington long to find itself in a hole, going down 28-0 by the end of the first quarter.
Behind the running of quarterback Cooper Wallace and running back Ailym Ford, West Florence set the tempo on the first drive in the first quarter, with Ford running in from 17 yards on out on just the third play from scrimmage to put the Knights up a quick 7-0.
After a Darlington punt on its first offensive possession of the game, the Knights went right back to work, marching right down the field, with Wallace finishing out the drive with a five-yard rushing touchdown to put West Florence up 14-0.
Unfortunately for Darlington, this was just the beginning.
Following Wallace’s touchdown that put the Knights up by 14, Darlington fumbled on the first play of its next drive when an errant snap bounced off of Malike Cooper, who was moving in motion.
Starting on the Falcons 15-yard line, Ford scored from 15 yards out on the first play of the drive, increasing West Florence’s lead to 21.
Down and dejected, the first quarter just kept getting worse for Darlington.
Down by three touchdowns and coming off a turnover on their previous offensive possession, the Falcons offense really needed to get something going. Instead, Cooper fumbled on a first down gaining reception just 43 seconds later setting up the Knights on Darlington’s 32-yard line.
“When you play a good football team you can’t turn the football over,” Darlington head coach John Jones said. “We had five turnovers tonight, three in the first half.”
On the ensuing drive West Florence finally attempted its first pass of the game and it was dialed up at just the right time as Wallace connected with Sharrod Simmon for a 15-yard touchdown reception.
Down 28-0 things looked bleak for Darlington, but it was at this moment the Falcons seemed to really find life.
With the second quarter just starting, the Falcons were sitting on the Knights’ 36-yard line facing a fourth and five, when Silas Barr hit Cooper in stride for a touchdown to finally get the goose egg off the scoreboard for Darlington.
Following the touchdown West Florence finally faced a little adversity of its own, turning the ball over on the first play of the drive.
Taking over on West Florence’s 36-yard line, the Falcons had a chance to cut what was once a four touchdown deficit to just two, but two dropped touchdown receptions and an interception by Wallace, who also plays defensive back ended the threat.
“That was huge, you make it 28-14 and our guys fought back from that deficit last week and you can plug that and keep that in the back of their mind and they understand those types of things and those situations,” Jones said, referring to last week’s game and the importance of what that touchdown would have meant.
West Florence ran its lead back to four touchdowns following the interception when Ford found a hole on the right side, scoring from 80 yards out.
Down by 28 again, Darlington switched out Barr for Brian Robinson at quarterback and the results were more than good; they were great. On the next two offensive drives, Robinson connected with Jordan English for a 45-yard touchdown on a screen and another 45-yard touchdown to Cooper on a deep route down the sideline.
The problem, however, was the Falcons’ defense. While the offense was scoring the defense was continuously giving up points as Wallace busted off a 58-yard touchdown run and Michael Hayes connected on a 40-yard field goal as time expired before the half.
West Florence actually had two chances to score a touchdown instead of kicking the field goal, but a holding penalty and a dropped touchdown catch forced the Knights to settle for the field goal.
Up 45-21 at the half, West Florence added one more score, a 24-yard touchdown run by Ford on the Knights first offensive possession of the second half to cap off all the scoring for the rest of the game for both teams.
Darlington now has to refocus and regroup as it gets ready to take on the Lamar Silver Foxes at home this Friday. The Falcons are looking to earn their first win of the year while Silver Foxes look to improve to 3-0 on the year.