First round of the playoffs all eight local teams from the three county area all won going 8-0 for the first week. The second round the list was chopped in half as we send four teams to a Thanksgiving Day Practice and a Friday night third round. Three of the four will play on the home turf and at this time of year you need anything to help and when even teams tangle the home turf can be the turning point for victory.
North Edgecombe the 11th seed has the worse record still standing 7-5 so they are the only team dodging pot holes as they visit Southside 11-1 and the number two seed in Chocowinity. Round four matchup for the NE/Southside winner is the winner of the top seed Plymouth 11-2 hosting South Creek 9-3 the fourth seed
Tarboro 8-0 at home this year and they are always a hard out whoever the team is when the game is on Viking Turf. Tarboro is the two seed in 1AA and James Kenan number three 12-1. This will be a monster game. When ever two conference champions collide at this stage the luck of the year when one conference has the seedings priority over the other is huge. Awaiting for the winner the Wallace Rose Hill 12-1- East Carteret 11-2 winner. WRH is the top seed and will host round four if they win. The Tarboro-James Kenan winner can only host if East Carteret is a winner next week. All four teams left are conference champions.
SouthWest Edgecombe 12-1 the number two seed in 2-A will host Fairmont 11-2 the three seed. This is another matchup of conference champions. Next week the winner will be facing the Kinston 13-0 the top seed or Elizabeth City Northeastern 11-2 the fourth seed who is another conference champion. All four teams left alive in this bracket are a conference champion. The Cougars are familiar with Kinston but Northeastern is more familiar with Rocky Mount and Northern Nash who both had to make the long trips to Elizabeth City when they were conference members and Northern still plays the Eagles in non conference games.
Rocky Mount the two seed in 3-A 11-2 will host Morehead from Eden a ten seed with a 10-3 record. The Gryphons had better not think avoiding Havelock is an automatic ride into the fourth round. Morehead scored at will against the Havelock Rams. The winner will match up with the top seed Eastern Alamance 13-0 or Southern Guilford 11-2. Looking back this century in the high school playoffs it seems as if we do well against so called east of Raleigh teams but that I - 85 corridor has bitten us just about every time. The next two games if the Gryphons survive this week both games will feature I-85 teams.
I hope you Gryphon fans realize that having their top two teams alive the Mid East just might be the best 3-A league in football this year. The Gryphons are the only Big East team left so that should tell you Morehead will be no patsie as that Mid State number three team.
So all eight local teams won opening night of the playoffs. Half lost in round two. Will half lose again in round three or for that matter will all four win their games or will they all lose???
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Word I have gotten and research online is that Eden Morehead is small in roster, small in size but is very fast. Gather they have a balanced attack throwing the ball and running but key is speed at the wide receiver positions. They play a spread offense so the RMT D will be spread thin with one-on-one secondary coverage. This could present huge issues for RMT. I predict RMT QB will need to complete at 7-8 passes to keep the Eden Morehead D honest or else Eden will just stack the line of scrimmage. Eden Morehead looks like they have played some very tough conference opponents. This could be a high scoring game in the high 30's. Whoever has the ball last or which team can make that key stop just may be the winner. RMT will need all the fan support they can get. RMT will need to come out with fire and intensity from the start. To wait until the second quarter to start playing hard will be too late.
Bad play calling doomed us in 2008. I hope it doesn't doom us this year.
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