On a wet night for football, the defense was the difference between West Forsyth and Chestatee.

West Forsyth’s defense, led by Trevor Guthrie, forced four turnovers and turned that into 17 second-quarter points en route to a 41-7 win over the Chestatee War Eagles.

With West Forsyth leading by only 3 midway through the second quarter, the Chestatee offense was backed up deep in its own territory. A screen pass was picked off by Guthrie, who ran it the final 2 2 yards to put his team up 17-7.

"Last week, you wouldn’t have said that the defense set the tone," West Forsyth coach Frank Hepler said. "But I thought they were the difference tonight."

On the War Eagles’ next possession, Guthrie burst through the line and blocked a Chestatee punt, giving the Wolverine offense excellent field position. Senior running back Ben Emert scored on the next play from the 9 out to make the score 24-7 at the half.

Emert finished the night with 161 yards on 12 carries and four touchdowns.

Chestatee’s night started off strong with a successful first drive that included a 67-yard run by Ben Souther. Quarterback Lamar Brooks took it in from 3 yards out on the ninth play of the drive to put the War Eagles (4-5, 3-3 7B-AAA) up 7-0 early in the game.

Souther finished the game with 134 yards on 20 carries. The War Eagles continued to play hard and compete, but turnovers and miscues led to their undoing.

"We came out and jumped up 7-0 and I thought we had a good game plan." Coach Stan Luttrell said. "We made some critical mistakes in turning the ball over, threw an interception, and had some penalties that really hurt us.

"The penalties and turnovers early kind of snowballed early, but I don’t think that our guys stopped playing hard ... the game just got away from us."

West Forsyth (5-4, 3-2 Region 7B-AAA) put up 17 third-quarter points behind the running of Emert. On the second play of the third quarter, he broke free down the left sideline and into the end zone to put the game out of reach.