Round Two Matchup

The number one seeded Trojans of South Johnston Versus the number eight seeded Gryphons of Rocky Mount.

One of the things that everyone forgets during the seeding process for high school football, is that the teams are seeded based on a priority system with each conference getting priority over the others on a rotating basis from year to year. This year it is South Johnston's conferences turn to be the top prioritized conference. That means their number one seed is the top seed in the tournament.

The Trojans are now 11-1 on the year while the Gryphons are 7-4.

South Johnston's offense is averaging 32.5 point per game. The Gryphons are at only 22 point sper game.

The Trojan defense has giving up only 10.5 points while the Gryphons are allowing 18.0 per game.

If you go by paper this is a mismatch in favor of the Trojans.

Let's dig into the paperwork and see what we might find.

The Trojans have only played through twelve games only two teams with winning records, while the Gryphons a little tougher with five. The Trojans have played C B Aycock who they beat 28-21 and Triton who the Trojans beat 21-14. Rocky Mount on the other have played Hertford County who drilled the Gryphons 41-21. SouthWest Edgecombe beat us 28-14. Hunt was a winner over the Gryphons 28-14. They pulled off wins over Southern Nash and South Central who are 8-3 and now 8-4.

The over all record of all the Trojan opponents is 42-93 while the Gryphons opposition has a winning record at 66-64.

South Johnston has scored 57 points against Southern Lee, 52 against Eastern Wayne, 84 against North Lenoir and 42 against Southern Wayne. That is a total of 235 point against four teams with a combined 5-39 record.

The Gryphons in their game against Hertford county gave up 41, 28 to Southwest Edgecombe and 28 to Hunt. That's 97 points against three teams with a combined record of 30-3.

Drew Pasteur's Fantastic 50 is only making South Johnston a one point favorite in this game.

If any team wins on any Friday night they first have to believe they can win. Even though South Johnston is a number one seed the Gryphons will load the buses up on Friday afternoon knowing they have a chance to win this game.

The winner will meet the Douglas Byrd who upset Westover on Friday nightor West Brunswick. Byrd is a number twelve seed who beat a number five seed. However the game was shifted from Westover to Byrd because of playing conditions at Westover. West Brunswick is the host of this game is the number four seed.

If Byrd wins and the Gryphons upset South Johnston the game would be played in Rocky Mount. If West Brunswick wins the SJ/RM winner travels to Shallotte.

Boy wouldn't it be something to play on Thanksgiving Friday. The Gryphons have a great chance in this one.

Directions to South Johnston High: Take I-95 south until exit 87. Turn right off exit. Go about half mile until stoplight at 301, turn left school is six miles on right.