Jeff Linville | The Mount Airy News
Mount Airy’s Garrett VanHoy flips upside down, but holds on to his interception on the first play from scrimmage.
Jeff Linville | The Mount Airy News
Surry Central’s Colby Chilton scrambles for a 51-yard touchdown to tie the score in the first quarter.
Mount Airy pulled away from Surry Central with three second-half touchdowns for a 35-7 win on homecoming night.
After Mount Airy went up 21-7 in the second half, the Golden Eagles reached the Bears’ red zone three times, but the defense held each time.
Then the Bears iced the game with two touchdowns in the last seven minutes.
The home team won the coin toss, but Mount Airy chose to kick away.
On the first play from scrimmage, Eagles quarterback Colby Chilton rolled out to the right and threw a pass toward the sideline.
The pass was short, and Garrett VanHoy jumped up to snatch the ball away, falling to the ground at the 37-yard line.
Two rushes later, the Bears had a first down at the 19-yard line.
Quarterback Austin Taylor hit Darius Gwyn for a quick screen pass that Gwyn ran down to the 5-yard line.
Then the Bears ran a fake fullback dive so well that the sideline referee was fooled. As Taylor was fighting for yardage at the goal line, the official blew the play dead at the 5-yard line.
The officiating crew ruled that the down would be replayed. Davontae Dobson then carried the ball five yards into the end zone. With a Mitchell Brown kick, the score was 7-0 with less than three minutes gone from the game.
Surry Central came back with a strong running attack. Raymond Salazar did most of the damage in picking up two first downs and moving the ball into Bear territory.
A block in the back penalty had the Eagles facing second-and-24 at the 49-yard line. Chilton started to roll out left for a throw, but then cut back against the grain and raced through the defense and fought through two tacklers for a 51-yard TD run. With a Ranferi Ramirez extra point, the Eagles tied the score 7-7 with 5:02 left in the first quarter.
Mount Airy picked up three first downs on the next drive before stalling out in Eagle territory.
Surry Central got the ball back at the 31-yard line, but a holding penalty put the team in a hole. The Eagles went three-and-out and punted back to the Bears with the ball rolling to the Mount Airy 48-yard line with eight minutes until halftime.
The Bears gave Central a healthy dose of running back Zaqwan Dobson on that drive.
A late takedown out of bounds on receiver Darius Gwyn turned a short pass play into another first down.
From the 22-yard line, Zaqwan Dobson pounded the ball between the tackles behind fullback Andrew Jones until he scored a 1-yard TD with 4:09 left in the half to make it 14-7.
Three drives ended in punts before the halftime whistle.
After a lengthy halftime for the homecoming court, the Bears received the ball first.
Davontae Dobson picked up 21 yards on a run to midfield. Chris McNeil made a 7-yard catch, then Jones had an 8-yard grab for a first down at the 25.
From the 22, Taylor hit Gwyn with a pass, and the receiver took the ball to the 1-yard line.
From there, Zaqwan Dobson punched across another score for a 21-7 lead with 7:21 in the third quarter.
The Eagles took the next kickoff and steadily marched down the field with nice runs by Chilton and Jared Dimmette.
They earned four first downs to reach the Bear 15-yard line. The defense stopped the drive there, and Ramirez tried a 30-yard field goal, but the ball was wide right.
The Bears gave the Eagles another chance right away when Jones fumbled at the 29-yard line.
At the start of the fourth quarter, the Eagles went for it on fourth-and-8 from the 13-yard line, but the pass was knocked down by Taylor.
The Bears moved down the field and finished the drive with a 25-yard run by Davontae Dobson with 6:43 left for a 28-7 lead.
E.J. Helton carried the workload on the next drive and scored from two yards out with 2:24 left.
Surry Central finished with 31 rushes for 134 yards (4.3 yards per carry). Chilton was 3-9 passing for 21 yards, for a total yardage of 155.
The Bears (5-1, 2-0) had 44 rushes for 274 yards, easily their best effort of the season.
Taylor had 63 yards on 11 carries, and Davontae Dobson carried 11 times for 90 yards. Zaqwan Dobson had 10 carries for 46 yards, and E.J. Helton rushed eight times for 64 yards.
Austin Taylor completed 10-12 passes for 101 yards, giving the Bears 375 total yards.
Lineman Benji Hicks was back on the field after suffering a bruised sternum last week at West Stokes.
Commenting the Bears’ rushing attack, he said, “I’ve got to thank all the linemen up front. We all work together.”
While scoring 35 points is nice, he said the offense will have to be even better if the team wants to make a deep run in the playoffs.
Mount Airy linebackers coach Mitch Martin said the Eagles’ offense is difficult to handle.
He said the scout team was instrumental in practice this week, getting the players ready for all the different plays Central can run.
As for his defense’s performance, Martin said, “We were pretty tough in the red zone.”
The coach complimented linebacker Mason Timmerman.
Mason has good instincts and wants to make every tackle, he said. And, the senior practices just as hard as he plays. That hard work makes everyone else work harder, too.
The Bears travel to North Stokes next week, while the Eagles return home to face West Stokes.
Reach Jeff Linville at 719-1920 or jlinville@mtairynews.com.
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