Last season was a tale of two teams for West Johnston. They began the season 8-0 and were ranked in the top 10 in the area. They also had an explosive running game and a proficient passing game that allowed them to beat Garner for the first time in West Johnston’s history. However, in the latter part of the season West struggled, dropping their last four games, and limped into the playoffs. West was knocked out in the first round of the state tournament. The last five games aside, West had a great season under new head coach Bennett Jones and had a lot to build on for the upcoming season.

“We lost 23 seniors off last year's team, so there are a lot of positions that are going to have new faces,” remarked Jones of this year’s squad. Running backs CJ Frederick and Dashon Ray return to lead the offense along with OT Daniel Poole. Frederick was a big part of the offense last year, finishing among the top running backs in the area statistically. As the new season rolls around West will be mixing new faces with its leaders in hope to return to the playoffs.

The first home game of the year was an endowment game for West against an old familiar foe, Overhills. The two teams were once in the same conference and experienced new school growing pains at the same time. An endowment game is an extra game allowed by the state. It is beneficial for the teams so they can get extra practice before the conference schedule. “With the current playoff format, playing an endowment game gives you the chance to drop a non-conference loss for playoff seeding purposes, so that is a benefit,” Jones added of the endowment game benefits.

The game started off slowly for both teams as West had the only points on the board with a field goal from Gustavo Gonzalez. “Gustavo Gonzalez had a great game kicking. He had a 39 yd Field Goal, made 4 out of 5 PATs, and was excellent on kickoffs,” Jones said of his kicker.

It didn’t take Fredericks long to find the endzone in the 2nd quarter. At the 10 minute point CJ broke out and scored his first rushing touchdown of the season. The touchdown brought the score to 10-0 in West’s favor.

The Wildcat Defense was also ready to get started. Amir Justice nabbed his first interception on the ensuing Overhills drive. The turnover allowed West to display two of its new senior players. Chris Ferguson connected with Tyrone Davis for both player’s first touchdown of the new season. Davis, who plays TE and DL, dragged three Overhills’ defenders into the endzone with him as he scored. Ferguson and Davis should add a great boost to the offense this season.

Overhills answered the score with a touchdown of their own, but they missed the point after attempt to bring the score to 16-6. However, Fredrick wasn’t going to be patient. No more than a minute later CJ broke out for a 47 yard rush and landed in the endzone for his second score of the game. At the half, the score was 23-6 in favor of West Johnston.

In the second half West was given a scare as Frederick went down and needed help to get off the field after a 70 yard kick return. The heat seemed to be the only thing able to slow down CJ. The injury was determined to be a cramp which is common in the early season due to the weather and the lack of games played.

Dashon Ray and Cameron Umphrey took over the bulk of the rushing in the second half. Less than five minutes into the half Ray got in the endzone putting West on top 30-6.

On Overhills’ next drive Justice found his second interception of the game. West converted quickly on a run from Ray. Ray’s score would put the Cats ahead 37-6.

Overhills would get in the endzone one more time before the whistle blew. The final score was 37-13 with West Johnston getting the win. Frederick finished with 8 rushes for 70 yards while Ray had 4 rushes for 10 yards. Cameron Umphrey also carried the ball 4 times for 45 yards. Ferguson completed 6 of 10 passes for 78 yards and had 1 touchdown.

Coach Jones was pleased with his team’s performance for the most part. “I was very pleased with our defense. They limited Overhills to under 150 total yards and created 4 turnovers, including 3 INTs (2 by Amir Justice and 1 by Dustin Powers). They also had 6 sacks, led by Ryan Langston who had 3.

Offensively, we were explosive at times, but made too many mistakes. We will have to clean that up before next week's game.”

Friday’s game will be the annual Honey Bowl, West Johnston versus South Johnston. The Honey Bowl was dubbed after the two school’s principals, Barry and Brookie Honeycutt. The rivalry game starts Friday at 7:30 at Wildcat field.