There was a party in Wallace Shelton Stadium Friday night, and Mount Airy’s defense brought the punch.

The Granite Bears capitalized on four first-half turnovers by West Columbus, turning all four into touchdowns on the way to a 39-14 second round playoff win.

Things started auspiciously for Mount Airy, who pushed the Vikings to 3rd and 27 on a near safety by Julius Coram on the first series of the game.

A roughing the kicker penalty in the end zone gave West Columbus new life, but on the very next play Mount Airy’s Demetrius Rucker scooped up a fumble at the two-yard line and walked in for a score.

Unfortunately for the Vikings, who made a more than four-hour trip from Cerro Gordo, “fumblitis” seemed to be contagious.

After West’s Cortell Nixon took the ensuing kickoff inside the Mount Airy 20-yard line, the Bears’ defense was there again to cause a ruckus.

This time it was Coram who laid a monster hit on a Vikings back to spring the ball free and Andy Temoney who pounced on the fumble near midfield.

Temoney then found his way to the end zone shortly after on a 26-yard touchdown run, his longest of the night.

On West Columbus’ ensuing possession, the Vikings found a hole, with fullback Steven Gachette gashing the Mount Airy defense for a 37-yard gain on first down.

But, like a broken record, the Bears forced another fumble, as senior Stephen Hart hoovered up the ball and returned it 45 yards to inside the West Columbus 20-yard line.

Again it was Temoney who capitalized on the turnover, spinning at the five-yard line and into the end zone for a 10-yard touchdown run to make it 20-0 Bears with just over a minute remaining in the first quarter.

On the Vikings next possession Mount Airy’s Justin Collier switched things up, intercepting a pass at his own 45-yard line and returning it to the Vikings 24.

And, if you couldn’t guess it, shortly after the turnover Temoney trucked a West Columbus defender at the goal line and picked up this third touchdown of the half, all but cementing the win in the process.

Temoney led a balanced offensive attack with 57 yards on 10 carries and three touchdowns. Wheeler added 52-yards rushing and 30-yards receiving and Ben Hinson was 7-for-9 passing for 75 yards.

The Bears held West Columbus to 42 yards on 27 carries and under 100 for the game.

West Columbus coach Dennis Bannick said plain and simple, any team who commits four turnovers in a half has its work cut out.

“It hurts against whoever you play,” he said. “We turned it over against a team that hadn’t won a game all year and got beat because we turned it over five times. If they (Mount Airy) turn it over five times, they are going to have a hard time winning. That’s football, but my kids were trying to make plays and unfortunately Mount Airy ended up with it.”

The Bears entered the locker room with a 36-0 lead and Mount Airy coach Kelly Holder said he thought his team was extra crisp in the all-important first half, particularly with the defense continually setting up the short field.

“We say that every week, defense helps your offense out a ton and it’s a whole lot easier to go 40 or 50 yards than it is 80,” he said. “The first half was really, really good. Like I told the kids, we were efficient and that’s what we need to be. If kids are open we hit them, if plays are there we need to block, we need to run, we need to see holes and do those things we know we can do penalty free.”

Bears’ defensive coordinator Chris Johnson said forcing and taking advantage of turnovers was a topic of conversation during the past week of preparation.

“We worked on that on Tuesday, recovering turnovers and then capitalizing off of them. ‘Scoop and score’ and getting out in front and finding somebody to block,” Johnson said. “Collier had the interception and obviously ‘D. Ruck’ had that first one (fumble recovery) and it was big and ‘Boo’ had one. That’s something that we worked on so it’s good to see it pay off.”

Hull added another 29-yard kick in the third quarter and the Bears let the second team do the most of the work in the second half.

West Columbus’ first score of the night came when the Vikings Chris Stephens returned a 51-yard field goal attempt 99 yards for a touchdown.

Stephens added a four-yard touchdown pass to Gary George with 3:43 left to play but it was nothing doing, as the Bears had nearly a half to celebrate.

After the game, West’s Brannick said he didn’t need to see the Bears play to know they were a good program, but that he was proud of his team’s performance after a tough offseason.

“I knew they were good before I even saw film,” he said. “They’ve got a good program going. Our boys’ first practice was Aug. 4. They were without a coach for the first three days because the coach left at the last minute. They said we wouldn’t win a ball game and we went to the second round, and that’s (Mount Airy) a great program. They are going to win state. If they don’t, something bad happened that night. They are well-coached and are a class act.”

Mount Airy moves on to the western regional semi-finals where it will meet Princeton, a 21-13 winner over Hobbton Friday.

In other scores from the 1A playoff bracket, No. 2 seeded Elkin defeated North Duplin 20-0, while No. 3 seeded Robbinsville rolled over South Stanly 46-7.

In the 1AA bracket, Albemarle squeaked by Murphy 35-28, and Hendersonville knocked off East Wilkes 22-12.

Contact Thomas Smith at tsmith@mtairynews.com or 719-1920.