Beal, East Forsyth Roll in 58-15 Victory Over Northwest Guilford – Wyatt Smith Reporting

Kernersville, N.C.– The East Forsyth Eagles came into Friday night’s matchup with the Northwest Guilford Vikings looking for their 15th consecutive Piedmont Triad 4-A conference win. The Eagles, led by Wake Forest-commit Christian Beal’s six touchdowns and a stellar performance by quarterback Brandon Bullins, clinched the regular season Piedmont Triad 4-A conference title with a 58-15 win over the Vikings.

Northwest’s problems started from the get-go. The Eagles elected to pooch kick on the opening kickoff of the game. Northwest called for a fair catch, let the ball bounce, and East Forsyth recovered, giving the Eagles possession on their own 27 yard line. It took Christian Beal three plays to cover the 27 yards needed for the Eagles’ first score. With less than a minute gone off the clock, the Eagles led 7-0.

Beal and the Eagles were just getting started on a night where they would completely dominate the hapless Northwest Vikings. With momentum on their side, the Eagles also scored on their second and third possessions, both crowned by Christian Beal touchdown runs.

While the Vikings were struggling in all aspects of the game, fumbling a total of four times–one, a turnover— and were down 21-0, East Forsyth—which didn’t have to punt all night and scored on every red-zone trip—was hitting on all cylinders going into the second quarter.

East Forsyth added to their lead early in the second quarter on a 26-yard field goal by Cameron Lischke.

Beal added his fourth touchdown with 6:47 remaining in the first quarter, the next possession after Lischke’s field goal.

Trouble continued for Northwest in the second, as midway through the quarter, Vikings’ quarterback Jacob Leonard was sidelined with what appeared to be an upper-body injury. With Leonard out of the game, Northwest coach Jared Rolfes handed the reigns to Thomas Hennigan to run the offense.

With Hennigan running the show, the Vikings finally got on the board with 2:22 remaining in the first half when Kyle Finnie scored from two yards out.

Any momentum that came from Northwest’s first touchdown was swooped away by the Eagles as they scored with 55.2 seconds remaining in the first half to go up by a score of 38-7 at halftime.

“(East Forsyth) isn’t as good as we made them look and we’re not as bad as we played tonight,” Northwest head coach Jared Rolfes said.

Northwest’s Leonard re-entered the game in the third quarter, but threw seven incomplete passes in a row.

Rolfes assured that Leonard’s injury wasn’t serious.

“(Leonard) is fine,” Rolfes said of his junior quarterback. “He bounced back and seems like he is going to be okay.”

Northwest’s offensive line struggled to contain the Eagles’ mighty defense for both Hennigan and Leonard, giving them little time to pass. They Vikings managed only 85 total passing yards on the night.

Tre’ Turner had a 14-yard touchdown reception from Leonard at the beginning of the third quarter, but by then, the game was far out of reach. Turner’s touchdown was the last time the Vikings found the end zone.

Christian Beal’s career-high sixth and final touchdown of the night came in the third quarter with 8:16 to go and initiated a running clock. Beal finished the night with 20 rushes for 92 yards and six touchdowns.

East quarterback Brandon Bullins also had a very strong outing on Friday night, only throwing two incomplete passes, and finishing 14-16 for 264 yards. Both Bullins and Beal were given most of the second half off, with their team leading by a landslide.

Sedrick Sligh and Nick Childs both had over 100 yards receiving and Childs had a touchdown reception, the last score of the night for either team.

Northwest struggled to do anything to intimidate the Eagles as East Forsyth won by a commanding 58-15.

“We’ve been preaching to our kids that we have to come out fast against a good team like this,” East Forsyth head coach Todd Willert said. “I’ve challenged our special teams publicly and they answered the bell tonight.

“Our defense, once again, played lights out and our offense came out and made the big plays,” he added.

Of the amazing performance of Beal: “I’ve coached him for four years. I’ve run out of things to say about Christian, but he is a very special player. Wake Forest is truly blessed.”

Beal was generous to his teammates.

“Everyone played great,” he said. “It really helps going into the playoffs Conference Champions and knowing we can win big games.

“(Scoring six touchdowns) is a great feeling. Having everyone congratulating me is so exciting,” he said of his personal achievement.

Northwest Guilford finished the 2016 regular season (7-4, 3-2). East Forsyth finishes (10-1, 5-0), and is Piedmont Triad 4-A Champions, and is just about guaranteed home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.

Northwest Guilford will be awaiting November the 12th to find out what their seed in the playoffs will be. Both teams are off next Friday night, November 11th, as the teams in the eastern part of the state make up games that were postponed because of flooding from Hurricane Matthew.


SCORING PLAYS:

EF: Christian Beal 8 run (Cameron Lischke kick)

EF: Beal 4 run (Lischke kick)

EF: Beal 3 run (Lischke kick)

EF: Lischke 26 Field Goal

EF: Beal 5 run (Lischke kick)

NWG: Kyle Finnie 2 run (Cody Creed kick)

EF: Beal 1 run (Lischke kick)

EF: Beal 5 run (Lischke kick)

EF: DJ Holland 29 run (kick failed)

NWG: Tre’ Turner 14 pass from Jacob Leonard (Cody Miller pass from Leonard)

EF: Nick Childs 29 pass from AJ Hall (Lischke kick)


East Forsyth Stats:

Christian Beal: 20 rush 92yds, 6TD

Brandon Bullins: 14-16 264 yds

Sedrick Sligh: 5rec 108yds

Nick Childs: 5rec 102yds, TD

Cameron Lischke: 26yd FG, (7-8) PAT

DJ Holland: 5 rush 54yds, TD


Northwest Guilford Stats:

Jacob Leonard: 10-20 85yds, INT

Thomas Hennigan: 11 rush 33yds, 5rec 48yds

Tre’ Turner: 3rec 36yds, TD

Zach Tyler: 10 rush 62yds

Kyle Finnie: 5 rush 17yds, TD

4 thoughts on “Beal, East Forsyth Roll in 58-15 Victory Over Northwest Guilford – Wyatt Smith Reporting

  1. I get that Hennigan and Turner are stud wide receivers, but NW needs to abandon the passing game if they can’t get them the ball. The only success they had last night on offense was when they ran behind the right side of the line, particularly that monster Ashley kid. And while Coach Rolfes comment about EF might be right, you still need to give credit to the team that pumped you 58-15. Come on coach, you’re better than that.

  2. In my opinion, East’s defense, especially their secondary, played a huge factor in the Vikings’ lack of success in their passing game. If you notice, half of Leonard’s completions were to Hennigan but he only had 48 yards receiving. Obviously, another factor was Jacob Leonard leaving the game early in the second quarter, forcing Hennigan to abandon his WR position to assume QB duties until Leonard returned. Hennigan does a great job at QB, but not being able to throw to one of the most dynamic receivers in the area really hurts. It seemed East was busting through the O-line and applying tenacious pressure on the Viking QB’s. I agree with you that if they were having trouble passing then they should look to the ground game.
    The problem with running the ball last night is that they, (EF), is that they were getting past NW’s o-line and not allowing them to gain many yards rushing, either.
    Like I said, if something isn’t working, it’s a good idea to look at other ways to move the ball. In last night’s game it was hard for Northwest to get anything started. My point is, East Forsyth’s defense is second/third with Dudley at no. 1 defensively, and you could argue Page for no. 2.
    Hopefully Northwest will recover during the off-week, and be playing much better then they did last night.

  3. What game were you at coach? East Forsyth physically dominated your team 3 years in a row now. East took their starters out in the 4th or it would have been 70 points or more. East Forsyth has beaten your team in 3 years 152-48. You may not think that equals being better but to everyone else that is a beat down!

  4. I was there last night and boy does the East Forsyth defense fly around like NW use to play under Coach Woodruff. One thing you could always count on watching NW football a few years back is all 11 guys would get to the ball no matter how outmatched they were by other teams. This NW team looks like playing defense is a punishment. Coach Beal has done an amazing job with that East Forsyth defense. They use to be good he has made that squad excellent. High energy and they all fly to the ball and man do they lay the wood!

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