West Forsyth needed a fourth-quarter comeback to take down Dacula for a 15-9 victory Friday in a non-region game at home.

After three quarters, the Falcons led the Wolverines, 9-0, but just seven seconds into the fourth quarter Wolverines quarterback Zach Burns hit Ben Bresnahan for a 23-yard touchdown to make it a one score game.

West got the ball back a few minutes later and began marching down the field. They were stopped on a third down in Dacula territory, but were then rewarded with a defensive penalty, giving them a new set of downs and more time to finish their comeback.

Then Burns found a hole from the 16-yard line and took off for what ended up being the game-winning touchdown.

“I’m pretty proud of them right now,” West Forsyth head coach Shawn Cahill said. “We came in and we challenged them at halftime that we were not going to make any excuses. I said you can do one of two things: you can lay down or you can come out and fight; and they came out and they fought.”

It was a rough start in the first half, but Burns said they were ready and that they have plenty to work on for next week.

“In the first half, they were bringing a lot of pressure, and Hillgrove did that to us too,” Burns said. “We put a lot of stuff in this week to use their pressure against them in the second half, [and it worked]. [But we need to] stop shooting ourselves in the foot in the first half. We were in third and a mile too many times. It’s tough to call plays like that, and it is easy to play defense like that.”

Burns finished the game going 8 of 15 passing for 78 yards and two touchdowns and his game-winning rushing touchdown. Wolverines running back Saxby Waxer ran for 73 yards on 20 carries and brought in four passes for 26 yards. Bresnahan finished the game with three catches for 41 yards and touchdown.

Despite the win, coach Cahill knows there is plenty of work to be done to get where they want to be.

“We had some physical things and a lot of penalties,” Cahill said. “A lot of penalties that we can control. We can take care of that. We have to be able to run the ball a little better in the first half. [But] our kids fought like crazy, and we came out with a win. All you have to do is be better than the team you are playing each night.”

Dacula’s quarterback Shayne Buckingham led the Falcons’ offense by completing 5 of 17 passes for 52 yards and a touchdown along with several positive rushing plays. Defensively, they were led by Jalen Perry, who had two interceptions in the first half.