During the first three years of the NEW 6 Conference, the winner of the Rocky Mount-SouthWest Edgecombe football game has been the conference champion.
When the conference was formed almost four years ago, no one expected either SouthWest or Rocky Mount to dominate the league.
Raymond Cobb was just arriving in Pinetops from cross-county rival North Edgecombe and generally speaking, Cougar football had been average at best for the previous 10 years.
B.W. Holt had just shocked the Big East 4-A Conference by winning its last football championship, but the wave of super power football was just taking hold.
So scheduling the Cougars and Gryphons in the first game of the season in conference play made sense.
Historically speaking ,Fike and Rocky Mount are traditional rivals from out of the past and with the other three county schools as bitter rivals, it made sense that the team from down N.C. 43 play Rocky Mount in the first game.
But who knew that Cobb could transform the Cougars overnight into a beast in football?
In 2005 in Rocky Mount, the Gryphons came away with a 24-7 victory. They meet again in the playoffs and if I remember correctly, the Cougars showed their first signs of not cowering down to the Gryphons as RM won 21-7.
2006 brought an overflow crowd to Pinetops as SouthWest gave the Gryphons their first league loss, 21-16. The Cougars would make it all the way to the third round undefeated and lose to Eastern Alamance in overtime ,while Rocky Mount was fallling to Western Alamance 41-37 that same night.
Last year was a classic, as if to say that 2006 was not as Brian Goodwin had to save the day for the Gryphons with a forced fumble late in the game to save a 15-12 Gryphon win.
Since Holt has been in Rocky Mount, he has averaged nearly 40 points per game, but against Raymond Cobb only 19 points per game.
So what is Cobb's secret ???
Ball Control!!!
Cobb, at both North Edgecombe and now at SouthWest, runs the football. If we saw one thing against Northern Vance is they kept the ball away from us and it almost worked.
It also helps that during his Cougar tenure that SouthWest has been very good on defense.
If Rocky Mount can be ahead 14-0 or 21-0 like they have in most of their games, the Cougars will not be able to chew up the clock by four yards and a pile of mud like Cobb loves to do.
The Achilles heel for SouthWest is because they are a running team, they don't pass and when they have to pass they are not great at it.
Being behind and I think in their case we have to have more than a 14 point lead to make them start passing.
You see Cobb has gotten two state championships under his belt and five visits to the championship game by ramming the ball down your throat. He doesn't even know how to teach a quarterback how to throw the ball, only how to hand off to the running back.(Only joshing, Raymond)
So the conference decided to rotate the games played to eliminate RM and SouthWest from having to play the first game and what has this change done? It has created the best game in the conference season now the second week instead of the first.
I really think that if Rocky Mount scores 21 or more it will win. History tells us that the Gryphons will have to fight tooth and nail to get it.
The first three years of this conference, the winner of this game has gone undefeated during the regular season. Each will carry a blemish into this game next Friday night.
Odds are that the winner will be the conference CHAMPION.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Slugfest
The opening night of NEW 6 Conference football has come and gone and the Gryphons did what they were suppose to do.
The boys in blue and gold were 40-point favorites and they covered the spread with a 49-0 chewing up of Northern Nash.
Every weekend ,Charles Alston looks at the game film and double checks the stats to make sure he gave the right carry to the right number and tackles to the correct player.
Unless he has made a major miss in the press box, the Knights of Northern Nash do not have as many yards in the total stats for the season than when they started tonight.
The "D" Block held Northern running game to five yards. Where the "D" really laid it on Northern was every time it went back to pass, it was losing yards. In high school stats ,until the quarterback let's go of the ball ,regardless on his intent to throw the ball, it is counted as a rushing attempt.
As if five yards wasn't bad enough, when Northern did get a chance to try a pass, it failed to find a white shirt to catch it and for the night zero yards passing.
I am thinking back from memory, but the Gryphons only had the ball nine times tonight and scored seven times.
Twice, we started on our side of the 50-yard line and scored both times. We never punted all night. In fact, twice when we failed to score we went for it on a fourth and ten on their side of the field and put it in the hands of the defense to keep them on their side of the 50 and they did.
Northern started on our side twice and once gave it up on its own 32. The other time it failed on a fourth down play.
In the past, this has been a great rivalry ,but tonight it was a pushing and shoving match which distracted greatly from the game. I remember at least six unsportsman ike conduct penalties call on both sides.
I think there should be a rule instead of calling it an off-setting penalty the players involved get in the penalty box like hockey and think about what a stupid thing you have just done for 10 minutes.
You know, if a player gets tossed out of a game, he cannot play the next week. But if they sit in the penalty box as long as they never get tossed out let them play next week.
Everyone that attended the game got to see a very special halftime with the baseball team and track star Jacobi Jenkins receiving rings for their championships in the spring.
WHIG-TV was there and as its game of the week can be see it Saturday at 9.30 am and after the Stretchlon Sports Show Sunday night at around 10 p.m.
By the way, the Stretchlon Sports Show Sunday featuresthe Rocky Mount soccer match against Southern Nash in which was the first soccer game that I actually did the play-by-play
I vote that the Gryphons wear the gold jerseys for every game for the rest of the season.
In the two games since the gold jerseys were unveiled, the Gryphons have won two games and out scored their competition 112-6.
No one has found any points on Rocky Mount all year in the first quarter and the Gryphons have out scored everyone 121-0 in the first quarter.
Collins Cuthrell was 8-for-14 passing and he missed on a 60- yard pass that he let go from our 43-yard line and was over thrown in the end zone. The ball was actually in the air 60 yards in the wind. His other two misses were dropped by our receiver right in their numbers and hands.
Since tonight was the first night of conference action, here is what happened elsewhere.
Nash Central beat Southern Nash 24-13 at the Dawg Pound. Nash Central has not lost on the field since its opening game with Tarboro.
In the game that had all eyes looking toward Pinetops, Southwest Edgecombe scored with 23 seconds to play and beat Wilson Fike 21-14.
Next Friday nigh,t the Gryphons travel to SouthWest in what some may find to be a ultra big football game.
I will close with this fact.... since the NEW 6 conference began play, working on four years now, the Gryphons are are 14-2 in conference play. One of those two losses happened at SouthWest two years ago.
The boys in blue and gold were 40-point favorites and they covered the spread with a 49-0 chewing up of Northern Nash.
Every weekend ,Charles Alston looks at the game film and double checks the stats to make sure he gave the right carry to the right number and tackles to the correct player.
Unless he has made a major miss in the press box, the Knights of Northern Nash do not have as many yards in the total stats for the season than when they started tonight.
The "D" Block held Northern running game to five yards. Where the "D" really laid it on Northern was every time it went back to pass, it was losing yards. In high school stats ,until the quarterback let's go of the ball ,regardless on his intent to throw the ball, it is counted as a rushing attempt.
As if five yards wasn't bad enough, when Northern did get a chance to try a pass, it failed to find a white shirt to catch it and for the night zero yards passing.
I am thinking back from memory, but the Gryphons only had the ball nine times tonight and scored seven times.
Twice, we started on our side of the 50-yard line and scored both times. We never punted all night. In fact, twice when we failed to score we went for it on a fourth and ten on their side of the field and put it in the hands of the defense to keep them on their side of the 50 and they did.
Northern started on our side twice and once gave it up on its own 32. The other time it failed on a fourth down play.
In the past, this has been a great rivalry ,but tonight it was a pushing and shoving match which distracted greatly from the game. I remember at least six unsportsman ike conduct penalties call on both sides.
I think there should be a rule instead of calling it an off-setting penalty the players involved get in the penalty box like hockey and think about what a stupid thing you have just done for 10 minutes.
You know, if a player gets tossed out of a game, he cannot play the next week. But if they sit in the penalty box as long as they never get tossed out let them play next week.
Everyone that attended the game got to see a very special halftime with the baseball team and track star Jacobi Jenkins receiving rings for their championships in the spring.
WHIG-TV was there and as its game of the week can be see it Saturday at 9.30 am and after the Stretchlon Sports Show Sunday night at around 10 p.m.
By the way, the Stretchlon Sports Show Sunday featuresthe Rocky Mount soccer match against Southern Nash in which was the first soccer game that I actually did the play-by-play
I vote that the Gryphons wear the gold jerseys for every game for the rest of the season.
In the two games since the gold jerseys were unveiled, the Gryphons have won two games and out scored their competition 112-6.
No one has found any points on Rocky Mount all year in the first quarter and the Gryphons have out scored everyone 121-0 in the first quarter.
Collins Cuthrell was 8-for-14 passing and he missed on a 60- yard pass that he let go from our 43-yard line and was over thrown in the end zone. The ball was actually in the air 60 yards in the wind. His other two misses were dropped by our receiver right in their numbers and hands.
Since tonight was the first night of conference action, here is what happened elsewhere.
Nash Central beat Southern Nash 24-13 at the Dawg Pound. Nash Central has not lost on the field since its opening game with Tarboro.
In the game that had all eyes looking toward Pinetops, Southwest Edgecombe scored with 23 seconds to play and beat Wilson Fike 21-14.
Next Friday nigh,t the Gryphons travel to SouthWest in what some may find to be a ultra big football game.
I will close with this fact.... since the NEW 6 conference began play, working on four years now, the Gryphons are are 14-2 in conference play. One of those two losses happened at SouthWest two years ago.
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