Dutch Fork’s Stephen Davis Jr. out for season

Dutch Fork four-star recruit Stephen Davis Jr. will miss the rest of the season after tearing his ACL and MCL on Friday night against Dorman.

Davis Jr. said he will have surgery in about three weeks once the swelling goes down.

“It stinks,” Davis Jr. said Monday as he watched practice on crutches.

Davis Jr. suffered the injury in the first half of the 38-35 come-from-behind win over the Cavaliers. He broke into the open before a Dorman player, who came from the other side of field, chased him down to make the tackle.

Stephen Davis Sr., who had his own share of knee injuries during his career at Auburn and then in the NFL with the Carolina Panthers and Washington Redskins, took exception to the hit on his son during Facebook post early Saturday morning.

“Now I know some people is going to be like Stephen tripping and mad his son got hurt but naw I know this stuff happens I have had my share of injuries but for someone to do it intently is not right and to brag and be happy about it is low class,” Davis posted.

Knotts said Davis Sr. was acting like a typical dad would in the situation, but he also didn’t think it was a clean hit on his star player.

“I like to see good clean football. We don’t allow our players to tackle like that and I’m going to leave it at that,” Knotts said. “It also happened again with No. 6 Austin Connor. Someone just needs to talk to that kid and that’s not how you play football. You don’t take knees out.”

The injury comes a week after Davis was moved from safety to running back on a full-time basis. He rushed for 203 yards, six touchdowns and caught a 50-yard pass in the win over Boiling Springs.

“It was a special night,” Knotts said of Davis’ game against Boiling Springs. “The run he got hurt on, it was an awesome run. I feel for him. He still has a great future ahead of him. We are going to miss him.”

For the year, Davis has 220 yards rushing and six catches for 150 yards. Clayton Jones will take Davis’ spot as the team’s primary ball carrier.

Davis’ teammates said they are going to rally around him for the rest of the season.

“It is real sad. We have been classmates since elementary school,” Dutch Fork quarterback Cole Douglas said. “I told him to get well soon and the end of the day we are brothers.”

Davis was committed to Auburn until earlier this month and visited South Carolina for the Kentucky game Sept. 12. His top five consists of USC, Clemson, Auburn, Georgia and Florida State.

This story was originally published September 21, 2015 at 7:42 PM.