WS Chronicle

photo above: Photo by Craig T. Greenlee Tacarris Wilson (7) and Lyndon Harmon of East Forsyth team up to sack Reagan quarterback Aaron Dorer.

East Forsyth tops Reagan 38-25

BY CRAIG T. GREENLEE

FOR THE CHRONICLE

Monday night football – junior varsity style – saved its best for last when East Forsyth went on the road to play Reagan 10 days ago. Even though the Eagles were on cruise control most of the time, they had to go into scramble mode in the closing minutes to claim a 38-25 victory.

With much help from big-play specialists Jaelon Maxie, Nick Childs and Jordan Barrett, the Eagles had the game well in hand with a 32-12 lead midway through the third quarter. At that point, Coach Ronnie Horton sat his starters and allowed East Forsyth’s back-ups to see some game action.

“Regardless of who’s in the game, we have to maintain focus for all four quarters,” said Horton. “That’s an area we’re constantly working on. We’ll get better at it as the season moves along. We had some low moments there. But we finished well and did what we had to do.”

The Raiders closed the gap late in the third when they recovered a fumbled punt return near midfield. Five plays later, Ryan Ayers hit Dwayne Sawyers on a 33-yard touchdown pass.

But that was only for starters. With less than five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the Raiders defense sent all three of their linebackers on an all-out blitz. Grant Carter got there first and slammed quarterback Brandon Bullins to the turf. The ball popped loose and Carter snatched the ball off the bounce and darted to the end zone for a 62-yard touchdown.

After that sequence of events, the mood turned tense on the Eagles sideline. Their 20-point lead was long gone. And now, Reagan was only seven points away (32-25) from tying the game and possibly forcing overtime.

The Raiders attempted an on-sides kick, but failed to recover and East Forsyth took over near midfield. On the next play, Maxie took the handoff, slipped two tackles, then raced down the right sideline on a game-clinching 47-yard touchdown run. It was his third score of the night.

The Eagles, who led 26-12 at the half, added an exclamation point to the victory when D.J. Hodge intercepted a Raiders pass on the last play of the game.

Maxie produced some crowd-pleasing runs, the most memorable came in the third quarter from 38 yards out. He started out toward the left sideline, but made a sharp cut near the hash-mark. He sidestepped one defender, did a spin-move to escape another tackler and outran the rest of the defense to score standing up.

The Eagles didn’t have to rely solely on Maxie’s input. Childs and Barrett proved to be difficult to contain as pass receivers and on kick returns. Childs stunned the Raiders with an 85-yard punt return for a touchdown in the first half.

Carter, who played running back, quarterback and linebacker, provided the bulk the offensive fireworks for Reagan. Aside from his fumble recovery for six points, Carter scored on a short run and he caught a screen pass, which he turned into a 43-yard touchdown.

East Forsyth and Reagan were originally scheduled to play on Sept. 3 (Thursday). The game, however, was postponed because of thunderstorms and rescheduled for the following Monday. As a result, both teams had to double up on that week with a second game, which was played three days later on Sept. 17. The Eagles hosted Greensboro Grimsley and the Raiders squared traveled to play Greensboro Page.