Soccer Smashes Hunt

I get the feeling that coach Drew Nick thinks he has a dynamite soccer team on his hands. They are so good that they take for granted sometimes and fail to play to the level that coach Nick thinks they should be playing at.

Case in point opening game of the season, the home opener the Gryphons playing non-conference Roanoke Rapids should be an easy Gryphon victory but instead a 3-2 lost to the Yellow Jackets. One week later in the return match at Roanoke Rapids the now wide awake Gryphons beat RR 5-0.

Just a couple of weeks ago playing Hunt at home leading by one at the half the Gryphons play a sour second half and lose by one in fact they don't even score in the second half. Then last week unhappy with the team attitude coach Nick benched the starters in the first half of a conference game and let the second team play the entire first half.

If motivation is an issue for this team they had plenty of it tonight as the return match at Hunt is dominated by the Gryphons and they win 4-0. This puts the Gryphons and the Warriors in a tie with one loss a piece with now less than two weeks to go in the regular season.

Seeding means so much in the playoffs. It is possible to get at least a couple of home games or more if you keep winning as the #1 seed but it is possible that the second round game the #2 seed may have to hit the road.

At this writing I have not heard who won between Northern and Southern in Volleyball in the opening round of the Big East tournament today. Rocky Mount plays the winner at 5.00pm Tuesday at Hunt High School.

WRAL.com is reporting tonight that 600 people attended a candle light vigil and prayer service for Colt Brake the injured Rocky Mount Academy football player who suffered a spinal cord injury Friday night in their football game . I wish I had of been one of those 600.

Talking with Coach Mike Gainey in the pressbox in Thursday Night's JV football game that TaShawn Mabry has found a home in a junior college in California. I had heard rumors to the effect that he was at the same JR. College as BOBO Sharpe but coach Gainey said the school was in the same area but not that school.

They failed to give him the money he wanted so off to Chicago went Southern Nash's Julius Peppers and he got some revenge yesterday as Peppers was directly responsible for causing a fumble that was picked up and Chicago returned for a td. Chicago won 23-6 against the happless Panthers who just don't have a play maker at quarterback that can help take pressure off two of the best runners in football.