Those Unimpressive Gryphons

TICKET INFORMATION:

Tickets are on sale in the office of Rocky Mount High School for the 3A  championship football game in which the Rocky Mount High Gryphons will be playing  the Red Raiders of South Point  at 7:30 in Kenan Stadium on the campus of the University of North Carolina.  Bought in advance tickets are nine dollars while waiting to buying your ticket at the Kenan Stadium gates will be ten dollars.

The Gryphon Booster Club is booking buses for fans who don't want to fight the Friday night traffic to get to Chapdl Hill.  The bus cost is 25 dollars per seat. Book as soon as possible.  Today would be great.

Rocky Mount is the visiting team and all fans should enter through gate 3 which can be accessed from Stadium drive.  Once near the stadium  Stadium drive is a left turn off Highway 54.  Good luck with parking!.

All of the messages boards throughout the playoff  everyone has thought that Rocky Mount was fast but that wasn't enough to win the next game.   After every game  in these playoffs fans and players from those that have gone down to defeat to the Gryphons are impressed with the tenacity of the defense.  The Rocky Mount D doesn't look like much in the first  quarter but by games end after the defense has swarmed all over you and knocked the day lights out of you for four quarters  they realize boy they are good.

A big question mark for the Gryphons will be the availability of Sherrod Green who was helped off the field with about 3 minutes left. This team has had limited injuries all season but this could be a big one on the most important night.

Against Eastern Alamance the swarming defense caused the the Eagles quarterback to make throws which had no chance except two were returned by the Gryphons for touchdowns.  The Gryphons got off the bus in Mebane ready to play.  They will need to do the same in Chapel Hill.  They do not need to fall behind and have to try to keep and option team at bay from that point on.

Through 15 games the   Gryphons have rushed for  4200 yards on the season or about 280 per game.  Has anybody noticed that the rushing average had gone up during the four playoff games compared to the season ending average of 238 per game.  Forest  Bell has a quarterback rating over 100  while compiling just over 1500 yards passing or about 100 yards per game.  So far in these playoff games the passing game has opened up the defense to allow the Gryphon offense run almost at will.

This game is in no way a game where we will do to South Point what we did in the first half to Eastern Alamance.  Remember the Gryphon D gave up yardage but came up with many defensive plays when it had too like the goal line stand before the half.

Most of the teams that play control football  like we have faced with teams that relied  on short passes or teams like SouthWest Edgecombe who love to get four yards  a play running.  It is really difficult for any team to take 14 plays on a drive against a very good defense with out making a mistake  a fumble or penalty.  This week we will not be playing a team that wants to keep it away from you.  They want you to have to make decisions on who to tackle.  And if you miss they will put six on the board.