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By GENE MOTLEY

Special to the RC News-Herald

WINDSOR – The last time Bertie High School celebrated a football victory this large, most of the players on this year’s team were either still in diapers or hadn’t been born yet.

The Falcons totally dominated both sides of the ball in a 52-7 home win over North Edgecombe at Roy Bond, Sr. Stadium here Friday night in the first round of the NCHSAA 1A Football playoffs.

Defensively, they held the Warriors to minus 33 yards of offense in the first half (only plus 8 yards for the whole game); while their offense racked up 254 all-purpose yards of their own in a win that was nearly a shutout.

“Yeah, it’s always great when your offense performs well,” said first-year coach Ronald Pou. “We look forward to trying to do the same thing next week.”

Next week Bertie will face a ‘rematch’ of sorts when they travel to Robbins in the Carolina Sandhills to face North Moore. The same school that eliminated the Falcons from the 1A playoffs last year, 58-20.

But that’s getting ahead of ourselves. They want to savor this one for a while.

Tayvien Ward had a hand in just about all of Bertie’s scoring. He passed for four touchdowns, ran for another, and had one more score on a 22-yard fumble return. Zy’mere Dempsey was on the receiving end of two of those scoring catches while Rahmeek Outlaw and Daivontae Faison grabbed one each.

In addition to Ward’s score on the ground, Zyquez Privott also ran one in.

Bertie won the opening coin toss, but deferred. The Warriors then went four-and-out, turning the ball over on downs on their own 31 yard line.

Bertie didn’t waste any time. On the first play from scrimmage, Ward rolled out to his right finding Dempsey in the back of the end zone as the 6’3” senior leapt to make the grab over two defenders. Micah Long ran in the two-point conversion and Bertie was on the board, 8-0, 9:14 into the first quarter.

Next Warrior drive began with a sack by Long and an 11-yard loss. Faison followed up on the very next snap as his sack knocked Edgecombe back 17 more yards to their own nine-yard line. After a one-yard gain, the Warriors punted, but it only went 15 yards, setting the Falcons up at the Edgecombe 25.

Three plays only netted Bertie six yards, but on fourth down, Ward made a mad 18-yard scramble down to the shadow of the goal at the one-yard line before running it in on the next snap for the Falcons’ second score. The conversion run failed, and it was 14-0, Bertie.

North Edgecombe’s second three-and-out resulted in another short punt, setting Bertie up at the Warrior 31. Following a four-yard loss, Ward completed a pair of passes: a 31-yarder to Anthony Speight, then a four-yarder to Dempsey for the pair’s second scoring hook-up of the night and a 22-0 Falcon advantage.

On the ensuing kick-off, Privott forced a fumble which Ward scooped up and raced 22 yards for the fourth Bertie score that eventually upped the margin to 30-0, and there were still over two minutes left in the quarter.

Thanks to a penalty-filled possession, North Edgecombe advanced their farthest of the night: to their own 41 yard line. But the drive stalled and the Warriors were again forced to punt. However, for the first time on the night, Bertie was starting in it’s own territory at the 32.

Ward then took a sack and a nine-yard loss as the quarter ended with the Falcons on their own 23.

The second stanza opened with Ward finding Ro Perry out of the backfield for a 32-yard gain. Four plays later, Privott was scampering to paydirt and a 38-0 Bertie lead.

After getting another turnover on downs, the Falcons’ next executed one more one-play possession: Ward passing to Faison on a 21-yard reception. With less than three minutes gone in the second quarter it was 46-0, Bertie.

Afterward, by coaches agreement, the clock began to run constantly, except for time-outs. Five plays by both teams took it down to under a minute where the Falcons closed out the scoring with Ward’s final pass of the night: 23 yards to Outlaw for a 52-0 halftime lead as time expired.

Bertie might have had a shutout, but the Warriors’ second half kickoff was muffed by the Falcons and North Edgecombe recovered near midfield. Aided by a 15-yard penalty, the Warriors moved the ball to the 31 yard line where a pass from Zyquarious Cherry to Jaekwon Davis erased the goose-egg and eliminated Bertie’s chance of keeping the visitors off the scoreboard.

Thanks to a pair of time-outs, the entire second half only took a half-hour of game time as their was no more scoring and Bertie had it’s biggest win in 17 years.

“It was 2007,” recalled assistant coach Calvin Moore. “We spoiled Homecoming at Northeastern, winning it 53-7. “That was the year we went to the Eastern semi-final and lost to eventual state champ Western Alamance.”

To advance that far this year will begin Friday night at North Moore.

“I think the guys have a point to prove and they’ve prepared mentally and physically to revisit that situation and come out with a big win,” concluded Pou.