Sometimes You Can Learn A Lesson In Victory

The Gryphons coasted to a 35-0 halftime lead and found out the teams we are playing now are not going to lay down and die.

Luckily for the Gryphons the score wasn't 14-0 at the half but they had enough cushion to win.

Like most other games Eastern Alamance had no answer for the quick Gryphons and by the time that got use to our speed they were 35 behind.

The Gryphons scored on 5 of their 6 tries in the first half including a 70 yard drive in six plays to start the game.

L'var Silver left the game in the second quarter but not before he had obtained over a 100 yards rushing for the first time this year.

Jordan Ford had two touchdowns Marquavis Alston one and Nick Hahula all scored in the first half.

The Eagles lost their quarterback in the second quarter when the score was already 21-0 and their wide receiver Carter came in an did a respectable job of evading Gryphon defenders and passed for 176 yards mostly in the second half.

The second week in a row the Gryphon give up more than 300 yards but again most of them came trying to make the game respectable.

The Gryphons had four sacks lead by Nick Harrison who had three and Jermaine Fields with one.

Fields also had two batted down passes and Harrison one.

The Gryphons did not come away from this game in good health as L'Var Silver fullback, and Zack Williams starting cornerback neither played in the second half. Zack Williams being out and Hiawatha Bunn still nursing a bum knee the Gryphons played the entire game with second team cornerbacks in the game Hasheem Hatu and JV Johnathan Williams playing the entire game. The first unit was not in the game on the last score by EA to make the score 42-21

I am sure the second half will give coach Holt plenty to preach about next week since a team that may throw the ball 50 times is up next for the Gryphons.

Gryphons advance to the Eastern Finals again 42-21 over Eastern Alamance

In other Action

West Craven passed better than Southwest Edgecombe ran it and will make a trip to Rocky Mount next Friday as they whip SWE 42-27

Tarboro fell behind early but came back for a 28-12 Victory over Goldsboro.

Western action saw Southpoint beat Asheville 28-0 and West Rowan nipped Carver 20-16.

Next Friday night both Rocky Mount and Tarboro will host eastern finals

Tickets for the eastern 3-A finals will be on sale in the office at Rocky Mount high school starting Tuesday at $7 each. If you wait until the gate next Friday tickets will be $8.

I have to tell you this tonight the Gryphons were aided by Morgan Doughtie who was on the sidelines filling the water bottles. Morgan says she helped lead the Gryphons to victory.

Third Round Friday

To me this is the ultimate of high school football. Football on the Friday night after Thanksgiving

There are four teams left in the east and four in the west who all think they can still win it all.

I have been on vacation all week and was able to visit practice three times this week including Thursday morning. I think the Gryphons are ready.

It has become tradition to bring in a speaker and after practice Pete Weaver Gryphon football player 1977-1979 spoke to the team.

Pete who works for the Rocky Mount fire department he spoke to the team about choices in their lives and responsibility.

We have reached the point where a fluke play may turn the tide one way or the other, the four teams still a live in the east are a combined 48-3 on the season.

In the west West Rowan will be hosting Winston Salem Carver and Asheville will travel to South Point.

You can ask who do I think will win the west? My answer is I have no idea. All four teams still a live in the west have not played any common opponents at all with any one we can relate to.

South Points only loss all year was from a team in South Carolina. Dudley beat Carver the first game of the season and they haven't lost since. West Rowan lost to a 4-A school for their only loss and Asheville has lost three times this year.

If the Gryphons put forth the effort tonight they will host the eastern finals next Friday night.

Our pregame show starts at 6.45 and we will have a pregame interview with coach Holt near 7.00pm on am1390.

You have no excuses. The temperature at kickoff should be about 48 degrees. For November 28th that is as good as it is going to be.

Please come early and stay late and listen to the coach talk to the team at games end. They need your help and remember the team across the line of scrimmage has Alamance on their uniforms.

It may not be the direction on their uniform we wanted but we still must survive to advance.

Time To Be Thankful

The Gryphon boys basketball team is off to a 3-0 start to the 2008-09 season which to me is quite surprising considering four or five football players are missing.

The Thursday lineup of Thanksgiving football looks as if they are all duds.

The Tennessee Titans I would suspect will take out some punishment on Detroit after losing for the first time this past Sunday.

Dallas plays the Seattle Seahawks and I think even if they have a bad game, the Cowboys win.

Texas plays Texas A&M. Texas needs an impressive win over A&M for the poll voters to stay ahead of Oklahoma in the BCS standings. Look for Texas to lay 50 on A&M.

Finally, the NFL Network which stands for "Not Found Locally: has the Cardinals at the Eagles.
Looks like the Eagles have given up on Donavon McNabb, but who else do they have.

I hope everyone has a very wonderful Thanksgiving because we are have plenty to be thankful for:

The Gryphons have won 21 straight home games. They have a home game Friday night in the third round. Since you haven't been to the first two playoff games, here is your chance.

According to the latest weather forecast sunshine Friday.

We should all be thankful this year for the baseball championship.

We should all be thankful that a man named B.W. Holt found Rocky Mount six years ago and has given us the best six years in Rocky Mount history. (win-wise) 70-12.

Hopefully, the baseball team has just opened the flood gates for others to follow.

Football practice is at 9 o'clock Thursday morning. For those of you who can never get by to see them practice at 3 p.m., here is your chance. Show your thanks to them and your support for their efforts. I doubt it will last more than an hour.

This senior class, the ones who played two years of JVs and two years of Varsity football, are 46-1 in their four years. Show them your thanks.

This is the fifth Thanksgiving football practice for the Gryphons in a row. Be thankful that is not as easy to do as you think.

Have a most thankful day!

Could Be a Record

This kind of went unnoticed last Friday, but Webb had two rushers in the game to get at least 100 yards rushing.

Akeem Daniel, Webb's tailback has 106 yards on 20 attempts, while their quarterback Antwan Thorpe collected 156 on 18 carries.

Much like a home run hitter who hits two dingers, when they trail 13-0 their yards felt like it came at mop up time since the Gryphons had such a big lead.

We need to get the Gryphon encyclopedia to work, Charles Alston. Has there ever been a Rocky Mount game when two runners from each team collected over 100 yards rushing in one game?

Marquavis Alston had 196 and Jordon Ford picked up 156. Between them, they had four touchdown runs with the shortest being 35 yards and the longest 74 yards.

After both Warrior touchdowns, the Gryphons responded by scoring on their first offensive play a 74-yard run and a 71-yard jaunt. So long for any come back.

During our broadcast of the game there was a concern about the personal fouls that the Gryphons were getting four in all.

In Sunday's Rocky Mount Telegram, RM head coach B.W. Holt was quoted as saying the penalties were from blocking to the whistle which is what he wants. Such blocking is the main reason the Gryphons are able to break off such long runs.

It would be a different matter of the personal fouls were mouthing off penalties.

Four times during the game the Gryphons had first downs, but lost yardage but still managed to get either first downs or touchdowns after the four dead-ball penalties.

For those of you who like to watch practice, they are going to do so at 9 this morning (tentatively scheduled, since Wednesday is an optional teacher workday) and 9 Thanksgiving morning.

Wouldn't you know it that the forecast is for rain Friday. What else would you expect this year?

What ever happened to the drought?

Pregame starts at 6.45 p.m. Friday on AM 1390. This is what we call the playoff edition.

I can't make practice today, but I'll be there Thursday.

Focus

I stopped by practice for a few minutes on Monday to see for myself what the atmosphere was like.

Seemed like a very good practice. One thing when you have dominated everyone like we have for the most part is thinking you don't need to worry.

I didn't see any of that. It was a very spirited session.

There is no school on Wednesday so practice will start tentatively at 9.00am. That will be followed by a Thanksgiving practice on Thursday morning which will probably not last much more than and hour.

The Gryphons are still unscored on in the first quarter this year.

For the fourth year in a row, we will play an Alamance County school in the playoffs. So far we are 0-3.

The Gryphons have not lost at home since the 30-10 loss to Western Alamance in the 3-A Eastern Finals in 2005. That is now 21 straight home games.

The computer rankings are out and predictions are out for Friday night's games.

Tarboro is a nine-point favorite over Goldsboro.

West Craven is a six-point favorite over NEW 6 member SouthWest Edgecombe.

The Gryphons are 23-point favorites Friday over Eastern Alamance. A 23-point favorite in the third round. We were favored by 24 last week and 38 against Jacksonville.

I think the Gryphons had better take care of this easy bracket cause starting next week, it will tighten up big time.

Based on this week's ratings, the Gryphons will be favored by seven over West Craven and if they were to play SWE, they will carry a 12-point margin.

If Eastern Alamance were to upset the Gryphons, it would be 14-point underdogs at West Craven and a eight-point dog at home if they were to play SWE.

Of course, putting a number on a game is only a game in itself. It has no factor in winning and losing.

According to the computers, Independence would beat Rocky Mount by 12. A school with more than 2,700 students and a school with a little more than 1,200.

It sure would be fun to see how we'd stack up after we win in Winston-Salem. But a lot of snaps of the football are yet to unfold before then.

Third-Round Matchups

The Twin Counties still has three teams alive in the high school football playoffs Thanksgiving weekend for the first time ever - Tarboro, SouthWest Edgecombe and Rocky Mount.

Tarboro is having the best year it has had in 10 years (1998 squad reached 2-A state finals). This week they find itself going up against Goldsboro a team they waxed earlier in the year.

I find it hard to believe that Goldsboro took out Bunn by 20 points. Tarboro stands at 12-1 on the season a hard-fought 13-7 loss to SouthWest Edgecombe being their only blemish to their season.
I see Tarboro taking out Goldsboro for the second time this year may be a tad closer than before but a victory for Tarboro 28-6.

SouthWest Edgecome has played both West Craven and Rocky Mount already this year. In order for the Cougars to make it to the state championship game in Winston Salem, they may have to play both again.

After having seen the Cougar JV team this year since the playoffs have started, the Cougars have improved with the addition of the size of their line.

If I had my wish I would rather have to play West Craven in game four over SWE. I think styles of play the Gryphons match up real well with West Craven.

Southwest's first game of the year was with WC. However, it was West Craven's second game of the season and I think that was a major advantage for the Eagles and also playing at home.

This time I think SouthWest ends West Craven's season: 30-21.

Back in B W Holt's first season at Rocky Mount ,the Gryphons had a tough draw when they had to play Jack Britt in the first game.

The way the playoff system is devised who you play in your bracket is luck as far as who is in your bracket over missing someone who matches up well with you.

This year, the Gryphons got the good draw. They got Jacksonville, then a good Webb team, but not a complete team.

Eastern Alamance, this week's playoff opponent, lost by two touchdowns at home to Webb 34-20 and it also beat Northern Vance 13-7 at NV.

Like everyone except SWE this year, Eastern Alamance will be faced with having to score every time they get the ball to keep the game close.

I think they will slow the Gryphons down some, but the Gryphons will play another Friday as they will hang a 38-7 score on EA.

In the eastern 3-A playoffs, of the 12 games played so far, I am 11-1 on my picks as I missed the Hertford County game against Eastern Alamance.

I think the injury to the Hertford County quarterback in the first series of that game was big.

That is one factor that no one knows will happen. A key injury for any team can be devastating.

Barring injury, the Gryphons will play in December for the second year in a row.

Ramblings

I noticed during the first challenge during the State-Carolina game that the announcers talked during the whole waiting process.

Seems to me that would have been a good time to get some commercials out of the way. Instead about three plays later there was a TV time out.

How can a team that thinks they are good enough to win a national championship give up 65 points? Texas Tech cannot complain to anybody about what ever bowl game it gets now.

After Florida State's victory last night over Maryland, N.C. State can no long win the ACC's Altantic Division.

Stephan Virgil of Rocky Mount High Class of 2005 had a great fourth quarter for Virginia Tech last night - coming up with two interceptions.

Rumors are flying around Chapel Hill that Mack Brown is coming back to Carolina in two years as athletic director.

I think we should have a pep rally at Rocky Mount High school about 10 a.m. Thurday to salute the Gryphons on the practice field at the end of practice.

Our pregame show may start at 6.45 Friday night.

Wes is going to try to get a pregame interview with coach B.W. Holt. The further we go in the playoffs we will probably wind up with a one-hour pregame show if we make it to Winston-Salem.

There will be no more talk in the NFL about an undefeated team as the Titans fell at home to the Jets today.

I think the Titans have the best defense in the NFL, but for some reason they don't score enough points for me to feel good about them in the playoffs.

I don't know what has happened to Carolina's offense. The last three weeks their offense has been awful, but their defense has won the games.

Doesn't look like the defense can help today as they are down 17-0 in the second quarter as I write this.

This is the fifth year in a row the Gryphons have won at least 10 games. During this stretch, they are 61-9.

I realize that most folks stayed home Friday night using the excuse of the cold weather.

We don't have to look very far right here in our own county when Northern Nash was just in the championship game a few years ago.

Don't take winning for granted!

Support the Gryphons in hugh numbers against Eastern Alamance!