Friday, October 24, 2008

Rainy Night in Nash County

One of the weaknesses of this year's Gryphon team coming into the season was backup play on the offensive line.

Tonight, with two starters on the sidelines, the Gryphons failed to run the ball in the first half getting only 18 yards on 16 running plays

BUT...

One the strengths this year has been the ability to pass the ball and despite not being able to run the ball in the first half, the Gryphons found the end zone twice by way of air mail.

Keith Strickland had over 100 yards receiving in the first half and caught two bombs from Collins Cuthrell. Strickland's touchdown catches were for 50 yards and 68 yards.

The defense gave up a score tonight, but only surrendered their average on the year: seven points.

You know two years ago when we played SWE on a Monday night and followed that with a trip to Southern Nash, we lost two games. Not this year as the Gryphons have taken solid control of the NEW 6 with a 3-0 conference mark.

We have now played nine games and the nicks and bruises are appearing and yet, the Gryphons took care of business 24-7 over the Firebirds.

Early Friday afternoon came and we heard that SouthWest had already postponed its game due to the expected rain.

I wish they would wait until it least started raining before calling a game. Later in the afternoon, the Fike-Northern Nash game became a casualty of the forecast.

It started raining at Southern right at the kickoff, but several people who were without umbrellas stood in the rain the whole game and were no worst for wear after the game.

Looking at the state doubles tennis tournament in Burlington today.

In the morning session in Burlington, the sister team of Kate and Caroline Gray won their match 7-6, 6-2 over a team from Burlington Williams and the duo of Lindsey Thomas and Addie Keeter moved on to the semifinals with a 6-0, 6-2 win.

The afternoon session brought an end to the tennis season as both teams were beaten. The Gray sisters lost their match in a hard fought affair 7-5, 6-4, while the Thomas/Keeter team were eliminated 6-1, 6-0.

Whenever you lose in the playoffs, that sudden end makes you walk off the field with a feeling that you did something wrong, but whenever you make it to the semifinals in any sport you have had a great season.

Congratulations to Kate, Caroline, Lindsey and Addie for a job well done.