Zack Dezern, seen here earlier this season, was selected as one of the OrthoCarolina Performance of the Week winners for the NCHSAA for the week of Sept. 2.
The Forbush and Starmount football teams closed out the non-conference portions of their respective schedules with home losses on Friday night.
Forbush dropped a 26-13 decision to undefeated Thomasville in East Bend while the Rams fell to Pine Lake Prep, 21-2, in Boonville.
Both teams will be idle this coming Friday. The Falcons will open up Foothills 2A Conference play at West Wilkes on Sept. 23 while Starmount begins Northwest 1A Conference the same evening at North Stokes. That game will be played at West Stokes High School due to the track construction at North Stokes.
Forbush vs. Thomasville
The Falcons (0-4) started off on the right foot with a rushing touchdown from Jesse Wooten to lead 6-0 before the Bulldogs battled back to take an 18-13 lead in the third quarter.
Forbush also turned the ball over twice in the loss.
Despite the defeat, the Falcons received a productive night from Regan Ramey, who also scored in the ball game. The senior also rushed for a season-high 131 yards on 21 carries and added six tackles on defense. Wooten finished with 26 yards on 15 carries; the seniors also finished with team-high nine tackles.
Collin Johns had a key performance on defense. In addition to a fumble recovery, the junior tied Wooten and Cristofur Martinez finished with nine tackles.
Austin Choplin, Nick Myers and Ethan Pipes finished with six tackles each.
Starmount vs. Pine Lake Prep
The Pride scored 21 unanswered points in the win to remain undefeated and improved to 3-0.
Starmount, which dropped to 2-2 in the defeat, led 2-0 after a bad snap to Pine Lake Prep’s punter, who fell on the ball in the end zone.
The Rams, which scored 124 combined points in their last two games, turned the ball over four times.
Zack Dezern led the Starmount offense with 82 yards on 16 carries while A.J. Pardue added three carries for 26 yards. Dezern also added two receptions for 19 yards.
Luke Kimmer finished 8-of-22 passing for 61 yards with two interceptions. Six different Rams caught at least one pass in the game; Pardue was the only other Ram, besides Dezern, to finish with two catches.
Nick Reid finished 10-of-21 passing for 147 yards and a touchdown to lead the Pride while Noah Murphy led the Pine Lake Prep rushing attack with 100 yards on 27 carries and a touchdown. Aidan Ziegler had five catches for 129 yards and one touchdown.
The Pride finished with nearly twice as many yards as the Rams, 332-162.
Dezern earns Performance of the Week honors
Earlier in the week, Dezern was selected as one of the OrthoCarolina Performance of the Week winners for the North Carolina High School Athletic Association for the week of Sept. 2.
The senior finished with 14 rushes for 273 yards and four touchdowns. He also tossed a 44-yard touchdown pass and had two receptions for 24 yards and a touchdown.
Each week, two athletes in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association are selected for the Performance of the Week Award, Powered by OrthoCarolina.
These athletes are nominated by coaches, media, and school administrators for their outstanding performances.
Weekly recipients of the performance of the week award powered by OrthoCarolina will be recognized on the North Carolina High School Athletic Association Website and their Social Media pages.