If you listened to any of our football broadcast this season, especially after Thanksgiving, you know that I really feel that any team that plays the Friday after Thanksgiving is a special team. Rocky Mount's football teams have made it to December three of the past four seasons and have made it to Thanksgiving Friday five years in a row.
Under the guidance of B.W. Holt, Gryphon football has become a premier program in eastern North Carolina.
Here is a look back at this year's Gryphons:
It was a battle all year between giving up points or first downs. In 15 games. the Gryphons gave up 135 points - nine points per game while giving up just 127 total first downs.
It took the last game of the season for any team to devise a plan to score against the Gryphons in the first quarter. That score was the first time all year that the Gryphons trailed all year. It took all of one play to retie the game after that score.
The only other time this team trailed all season was with 34 seconds to play and those 34 seconds will last a lifetime.
This Rocky Mount team averaged 38.2 points per game during the regular season and in the playoffs, 37.7. I think that is consistent, regardless of the competition.
The offense covered 5,737 yards both on the ground and in the air. That's more than three and a quarter miles of offense with 11 people on the other side of the ball trying to stop you.
Fifty times this year Nick Hahula's kickoffs went in the end zone and the other team started at their own 20.
Nick only punted 26 times all year and his punts were returned only 21 yards.
The 35 points scored against Southern Wayne was the most ever score in a quarter.
The 197 points scored were the most points scored in one quarter by any Gryphon team ever. Giving up only seven all year in the first quarter meant that at the end of the first quarter the score was Gryphons 13, our opponents .5.
We had four different players throw passes during the season out of 150 attempts. Only six were intercepted. That is the all-time best record for 10 games, and of course, the Gryphons played 15.
Collins Cuthrell, who threw 134 times, set the individual record only tossing five INTs for the season breaking that record by five.
Marquavis Alston has set the career touchdown mark of 42. He also become the first runner in school history to have back-to-back 1,000-yard rushing seasons.
Keith Strickland has the all-time Rocky Mount record for yards receiving in a season, 1,141.
Jordan Ford's 99-yard opening kickoff return against Hunt was tied for the longest in school history.
Nick Hahula tied a record set by Darrius Dubose having worn a Gryphon uniform in a varsity football game 53 times.
Nick has a page full of records to numerous to mention, but I will anyway.
- Most field goals made in a career - 24
- Most points-after touchdowns made in a career - 205
- Most PATs attempted - 246
- Most field goals made in a season - 8
- Most FGs attempted in a season - 13
- Most kicking points made in a season - 96
- Most PATs made in a game - 9
- Most points in a career - 393
The most astounding stat of an endless list is he made 72 out of 76 extra points. That is 94 percent. Now remember this. In order to make an extra point, there has to be a good snap, a good catch made by the holder and good blocking by the line. Ninety-four percent made.
There is no doubt that this Gryphon team will go down in history as one of the better senior classes in Rocky Mount history.
I will be visiting grandkids in Raleigh for Christmas, so I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.
