Gryphon's Pitch Shutout

It was not pretty, but who said wins had to be beautiful. Who ever looks at the score across the state tomorrow will just think Rocky Mount is rolling again.

Rocky Mount took their opening two drives of the game and scored and from that point on coasted to a 33-0 victory over the Rams of Northampton East.

What fight the Rams might have given the Gryphons went away early as the starting quarterback for went down on a sack early in the second quarter and with him went any resemblance to an offense.

The Gryphon defense held the Rams to 51 total yards. 24 rushing and 27 passing. Marquavis Alston got 91 yards for the Gryphons and along the way broke the all time rushing record held by Demetric Marshall of 2,830. At nights end Alston stood at 2,900.

After last weeks effort Jamor Parker earned a start at fullback and had 81 yards on nine carries. Jordan Ford added another 57 yards as the Gryphons got 263 yards rushing on the evening.

Collins Cuthrell was only 2-7 passing on the night and for Gryphon fans he was under pressure every time he went back to pass. Cuthrell did throw a 36 yard td pass to Damien Bynum who ran the Last 25 yards weaving in and out behind his blockers on the way to the end zone.

Defensive captain Carter Varnell went down with a knee injury late in the first quarter but even without Varnell the Gryphon defense pitch the shutout. His injury is not believed to be serious.

Pass blocking is a major concern after two games and the punting game. So far Collins Cuthrell has punted four times for a 27.5 average. The Gryphons cured their extra point problems from last week as Wood Riddick made all three extra points when there was a good snap.

Carter Varnell started snapping tonight but he was backing up the injured Spencer Bell and by the second quarter the Gryphons were down to #3 snapper Hank Chambliss. The good news is, I just don't know how many teams have three long snappers so we are showing good depth there.

Next week's opponent Hertford County made the ride from Ahoskie to Nash Central and the Bears ride back home was a joyous one as they ripped the Bulldogs 47-13. The Gryphons head to Hertford County next Friday night and the Bears will be sporting a 3-0 and you know they will feel that have their chance to beat Rocky Mount for the first time ever.

Don't know whether you heard this or not but last night the jv's lost on a field goal with five seconds to play 9-6 to Broughton's jv's.

Bottom line tonight is Rocky Mount is 2-0 but the schedule picks up our next three games at Hertford County, home to Southwest Edgecombe and home to Rose.

A few years ago while on the game of the week trail. Wilson County changed Friday night football of Labor Day weekend to Thursday and I really liked it.

There are obvious reasons, a possible three day weekend and if you are leaving town do it after work on Friday. I liked the idea then and I still do now. I hope in the future that all Labor Day weekend games are moved to Thursday.

Tonight Northampton East pays a visit to Rocky Mount. If they had their druthers Rocky Mount would rather play a more quality opponent. Give the Rams credit; they will play Rocky Mount when they know they are probably going to get drubbed when others won’t answer the phone when Rocky Mount calls.

This one should be over by the half so expect everyone to get playing time tonight. We will get a chance to see how Dickie Schock thinks of this year’s team.

If you see many starters in the second half then I don’t think he is satisfied with the way the team is developing. If after the first drive in the second half the starters are gone then he feels they are doing a good job and likes where they are looking at the season ahead.

Of course if Northampton makes a game of it then we will all know this team is not developing very well.

It will be interesting to see how the extra point game is with new kicker Wood Riddick. Last week the two point conversions weren’t as good as a good junior high team.

Don’t forget because this is a Thursday night game and school still in session Friday, kickoff is set for 7.00pm

Hunt Host Holly Springs: I would suspect this game will not be a run-a-way like the first two games have been for Hunt, but Hunt should win rather easily.

We will begin our pre game coverage of gryphon football at 6.30 on am 1390. I hope you go to the game. If you do carry a walkman radio with you. There are always things happening that we can find out what happened and let everyone on the radio know about it.

Rocky Mount 51 Northampton East 6

If we can score 30 on Northern Durham and not make an extra point then fifty tonight should be easy.