5 takeaways: West Forsyth wins 56-20 against Reynolds – Winston-Salem Journal

Horton threw four touchdown passes and rushed for another, and Page ran for two touchdowns and caught a touchdown as West Forsyth cruised to a 56-20 win against Reynolds.

Horton had touchdown passes of 45, 10, 8, 56 yards, respectively, in the win.

Page finished with 157 rushing yards on 12 carries, with touchdown runs of 34 and 7 yards. He also had a 10-yard receiving touchdown in the first quarter as the Titans opened up a big lead.

West Forsyth (7-2, 5-1 Central Piedmont 4-A) won its fifth straight game to set up a matchup with undefeated East Forsyth (9-0, 6-0) in next week’s regular-season finale.

Reynolds fell to 4-5 (2-4) and will face Reagan next week with a shot at the NCHSAA 4-A playoffs still up for grabs.

The Titans led 33-0 at halftime and 40-0 in the third quarter before the Demons got on the scoreboard, eventually cutting the deficit to 40-20.

Here are 5 takeaways from the game

West Forsyth left little to chance, scoring touchdowns on six of its first seven possessions to take command. Those punts covered 68, 60, 70, 47, 39 and 48 yards. The only blemish came late in the second quarter on a punt that started at the Reynolds 21-yard line with 1:00 left in the half.

Paige did most of his damage in the first half when he ran for 134 of his 157 yards.

Horton completed 12 of 18 passes for 206 yards and four touchdowns, one of his best performances of the season. He also ran for 73 yards and a touchdown.

“His touch was really good tonight,” West Forsyth coach Kevin Wallace said. “It’s something we’ve been working on with him for the last few weeks. Some of these throws, there’s a specific distance we’re looking for, as well as the height of them. I think last week it started to click a little bit for him in terms of height and not just trying to set it up.”

Darell Paige is a rookie wide receiver who has been getting a lot more touches in recent weeks at running back.

Page has scored 11 touchdowns in the last five games, including four touchdowns (two rushing, two receiving) in last week’s 48-10 win over Davie County.

Friday’s win against Reynolds was his second 100-plus yard performance of the season.

Paige was the defenseman of choice against the Demons due to the illness of C.J. Blevins, who missed the game.

“He’s just explosive,” Wallace said. “He touches the ball and he can go. We give it to him and he can go the distance. He played well. He just needs to get more comfortable with things. We planned to use him sparingly there, but we’ve been doing it a little more lately, hoping that he and CJ could have done a little more in this case. But we knew (Thursday) that CJ wouldn’t be able to go and we went with Darell. He is still learning everything in the back.

Reynolds came alive in the second half and made things interesting as they cut the deficit to 40-20.

Quarterback Tommy Elrod and Mac Murphy again proved to be a successful pairing, with Murphy catching five passes for 57 yards and a touchdown (22 yards), the first score of the game for the Demons.

Murphy probably would have had at least five more receptions if not for a couple of pass interference penalties called on West Forsyth when Elrod threw it his way.

“I told them after the game tonight that we have to create havoc for the opponent right from the get-go,” Reynolds coach Joe Davidok said. “We just started playing in the second half and believing in what we were doing. At halftime, when you’re down like we are, it’s not butt-chewing. You go in and you tell them to just play our brand of football, take it one time and start working your way back into that game, bit by bit, and that’s what they did. We’re a tough band all around. There is no giving up. We have some of the best leadership I’ve ever been around from our seniors. We still have a shot at the playoffs. We’ve got to get this next one and I think we’re right there, I really do.”

Here’s how things stand heading into the final week of the regular season next week.

East Forsyth clinches the conference title outright with a win against West Forsyth.

If West Forsyth beats East Forsyth and Mount Tabor beats Parkland, there will be a three-way tie for first place and a coin toss to determine the conference’s No. 1 seed for the NCHSAA 4-A state playoffs. The top 32 teams in the RPI will make the 4-A West playoff field.

Reagan (5-4, 3-3) appears to have a solid playoff position based on its record and RPI. The Raiders are currently 16th in RPI in the 4-A West. Davie County (3-6, 2-4) is ranked No. 31 in the RPI and closes its regular season at home against Glenn.

Reynolds is on the outside looking in at No. 35 in the RPI and needs to beat Reagan to have a chance to secure a playoff spot.

Parkland (39th in RPI) will play at Mount Tabor (7-2, 5-1) and could sneak in if it can pull off the upset.

Glenn (2-7, 0-6) is No. 42 in the RPI and will need a lot of help.