Vikings Just Might Have Their Hands Full

Everyone in Tarboro was looking forward to a repeat game with the J A Holmes Aces or better known to everyone as the Edenton Aces.  Gomer would say it like this "Surprise Surprise"  Northeastern will be the team that Tarboro faces as they just might have a hand full.

Northeastern will come to Tarboro 11-2 having finished second to Edenton who they lost to during the regular season 28-21 but exacted revenge Friday beating Holmes 40-8.  So far this year the Eagles have scored 633 point  in their 13 games for a 48.6 scoring average.  Twice this year they have put at least sixty on the boards and twice over 70.  Sure looks like offensively they can match Tarboro point for point. Remember that playoff game in Edenton last year it took some Todd Gurley heroics in the fourth quarter to pull that one out in the last thirty seconds.

The Vikings on the other hand have average 42 points a game but they have given up about  16 per contest.  Between them they have played no one that we can look at to compare scores.  Tarboro played Nash Central and won while Hertford County played Nash Central and won and Northeastern beat HC.  That is about as close as you will get to like foes.

Hunt will also be at home Friday hosting Cleveland.  This will not be easy for the Warriors either as Cleveland dominated D H Conley last week while Hunt beat Cardinal Gibbons who's starting QB didn't play with an injury.

High school basketball is just around the corner  as the defending State 3-A champs open up in that Knightdale Tournament that they were in last year the Friday after Thanksgiving.  The Gryphons won that giving everyone notice about their potential last year.  The Lady Gryphons will also play there but if you remember their first game was against  Millbrook who was a loaded 4-A school and they were only able to finish in third place.

I guess everyone has seen about the quarterback for Davidson Country Day that passed for 817 yards in the Private school championship game Friday night.  Davidson beat Harrell's Academy 108-80.  Yes Carolina football somebody did play worse than you this past weekend.  I would have hated to be on the kickoff team for either team having to sprint down a make a tackle on a kickoff.  I would have been worn out just from that.

Football Playoffs Need Revamping

Next year will be the next revised conferences under the every four year NCHSAA  restructuring plan.  It is a good plan because the world we live in today schools  grow almost over night and if there is not some attempt  to keep like schools with the same size together you could find a school with 1,500 students playing in the same league as someone who has dropped below a 1,000 in about three years.

Looking at every playoff held this fall, Volleyball, soccer and tennis all played with only first or second place teams making the playoffs and every now and then a third place team to fill out the bracket.   If it works so well in these sports why then will that same format not work in football?

Rocky Mount's tennis team lost two games all season and yet they traveled to a #1 seed in the first round.  Football's first two rounds Tarboro has had to re win their own conference in which they went undefeated in and after two playoff games still are.  Was that really necessary???.  I don't even want to talk about Southern Nash the #2 in the Big East starting out at #1 in the Big East Hunt.

The all mighty dollar has consumed the NCHSAA just like it has consumed college sports and the NFL and don't try to get me started on the NHL. I would truly like the high school football schedule start as it did this year on the third Friday night in August and play 10 straight weeks.  Then four rounds of playoffs would have football over by the fourth week in November and leave December to basketball.

I understand that college football is not over until the fourth Saturday in November but not every team in North Carolina plays a home game the last week.  What's  wrong with playing a State Championship at ECU or Panther Stadium.  Every college football team in the country knows who, where and when they play for the next five years.

I could see  the 1-A  played in Grenville one year while the 2-A played at Appalachian State.  There are plenty of stadiums in North Carolina worthy to host state Championships. A remodeled Wallace Wade with the history of having a Rose Bowl  Having played there is not bad either.

I do want to see a better quality of playoffs and 2nd place teams having to play the 1st place team from your own conference is not quality playoffs.  No conference foe should have to play another until the third round or later.  Just remember this past basketball season two of the best girls teams met in the third round when Northern Nash met Rocky Mount for the sectional finals.  Both teams had to earn to get that far.  Can you imagine if that had been a first game in the sectional.

Jax Does It Again

Jacksonville has knocked a Big East team out of the soccer playoffs again this year as the Cardinals came to Southern Nash and dominate the Firebirds 6-1.  Southern was the last standing Nash County team still alive in any of the fall sports and now with only football left all Nash County teams can look toward winter sports.

Speaking of winter sports Rocky Mount hosted a basketball jamboree today with West Craven, Hunt, Hertford County, Bertie and Southern Wayne.  It started this morning at 9am and went well past dark 30.

Up next for the Hunt Warriors is Cleveland who last night manhandled D H Conley.  The game will be played at Hunt.

Tarboro thought they would get Edenton again this year in the third round but surprise surprise Northeastern walloped the Aces last night  and they will make the trek to Tarboro next Friday.

There is an old saying about going to a hockey match and a fight broke out.  Today if you went to Chapel Hill to see a football game a basketball game broke out.  Georgia Tech made too many three pointers for Carolina as they win a football game 68-50.  Larry Fedora wants to get as many offensive opportunities as possible.  There is only one problem with that idea, the faster they go on offense the quicker the defense gets back on the field. 

N C State showed up from the first snap today against Wake Forest and becomes Bowl eligible.  I am hearing the Music City Bowl in Nashville might be the after Christmas trip for the Pack this year.

Virginia made last weeks win over State stick as they beat Miami in another slow down basketball game 41-40.  Duke is still alive for the ACC Championship game with Miami's loss.

There just might be a BCS Championship game without a Southeastern Conference team as Alabama goes down at home to Texas A&M  29-24.  Bama at one time trailed 20 to nothing.  Just goes to prove you had better be ready to play when you get off the bus.

Vikings Flex Muscle

You kind of got the feeling that Kinston knew that they needed to try every trick in the book in order to stay with the Tarboro Vikings and they tried it tonight.  Two onside kicks a fake punt and nothing seemed to work so the end result is Tarboro 48 and Kinston 14.

This marks the second straight week that the Tarboro Vikings have had to play a conference foe and for the second straight week no problem.  This is the 17th straight high school playoff victory for Tarboro.  The Vikings good news is the only good news from Edgecombe County.

North Edgecombe never could get going and could never stop the 8th seeded Princeton team as Princton rolls on to the third round of the high school playoffs with their second playoff win and only fourth of the season.  Princeton dominated the Warriors 43-14.

Things were not much better for the Cougars of SouthWest Edgecombe as Bunn jumped out to a 14-0 first quarter lead and the Cougars could never catch up as Bunn moves on with a 31-14 win over SWE.  With the loss comes to the end of a coaching career of one of the all time legend coaches in the Twin Counties as 2 time state champion coach Raymond Cobb has decided to hang up his whistle after tonight.

After the POD debacle where two of the top teams in the Big East met in round one it was up to Hunt to carry the Big East banner and they did what they had to do in beating Cardinal Gibbons 25-20 at Gibbons.  Trailing 14-13 Hunt scored twice in the third quarter  and held CG in the fourth.  Up next for Hunt Cleveland who took D H Conley to the woodshed.

Saturday the new Rocky Mount High School will be full of basketballs at RM holds a boys basketball jamboree.  The Gryphons will be on the court at 9am-noon and at 5pm but action will go on all day at RMHS.


Tonight N C State, Carolina and Duke all win their college basketball openers.  State won 97-59.  Carolina 75-59 and Duke was a 74-55 winner.  Wake won it's opener so all of the Big Four of the ACC win opening night.

Football's Second Round

The Tarboro Vikings have won 16 straight playoff games and any time you get to the point when you can add to a streak there is always the possibility that the streak will end.  Case in point the Vikings will be at home against the only team this season that really late in the game still had a chance to beat the Vikings.  Those other Vikings from Kinston will try to score  28 points like the first time they played Tarboro but will try to hold Tarboro to less than the 34 they got last time.  I doubt Kinston can do either score 28 this time around or hold Tarboro to less than 34.  The first time they met this year was in Kinston but Friday night it is in Tarboro.  I need to research the last time Tarboro lost a home game to a 2-A team.  Tarboro 34 Kinston 20.  A B Whitley's back surgery from what I hear went well and  should be able to listen to the game on the radio  Friday night.

Any time a  team plays Cardinal Gibbons you know you are going up against a school that has every thing that every other school would like to have.  Hunt's second round playoff game if you plan on going you had better get there early because N C State basketball opens it basketball  season across the street Friday night at PNC Arena.  That area around Edwards Mill Road will be bumper to bumper around 7pm.

As this season has unfolded I honestly think that for the first time during Randy Rapers coaching career at Hunt they just may have his best team ever and would lead you to think this team can win the State Title.  These two met in the playoffs last year with Hunt winning and I believe this year's Warrior team is better than last year I'll take Hunt 28-20 over CG.

Bunn will be hosting SouthWest Edgecombe  and I don't know why but I think the Cougars are going to win.  This just might be the best game of the night for any our our local teams or conference teams still left in the playoffs.   I think SWE's schedule has prepared them to get at least to round three.  Cougars 35 Bunn 32

Talk about falling in your lap but North Edgecombe could not sit down at a table  and plan a playoff any better than what has been presented to them.  3-8 Princton comes to Leggett and the Warriors had better be appreciative of the gifts handed them  North Edgecombe 34 Princton 18

Tax Payers Say No

There is always  a professionals  sports team looking  to ask the city in which they are in to help pay for stadiums or for repairs.  Yesterday the City Of Wilmington voted down a request to built a minor league stadium on the Cape Fear River by a 70% to 30% vote.

Professional teams  like to use as hostage the threat to leave a city if the local govenments don't finance their  building.  There are rumors floating about that Jerry Richardon would like to do about $30 million dollars worth of improvements to B Of A Stadium in Charlotte.  Remember LA is looking possibly two team to go there and you just might hear rumblings in Charlotte.

Last year Carolina and Michigan played the so called first game of the college basketball season on the Air Craft Carrier Carl Vinson.  This year's game is to be played on the Museum AirCraft carrier Midway which is stationed in San Diego harbour.  The forecast is for rain Friday  night in San Diego and the game has been moved to Sunday.  Syracuse had to change their travel plans in order to shift the game.  The game is suppose to be played inside an arena  in San Diego if rain did occur but not enough tickets were sold in San Diego to see San Diego State and Syracuse play.  I suspect this will be the last year of this event.

Last month Carolina held their fall baseball  series and former Gryphon Hobbs Johnson kept right on pitching like he finished the season last year.  He went seven innings allowed two runs .  Sure does look like when Carolina plays this year  the Friday pitcher will be Kent Emanuel, Saturday Benton Moss and Sunday Hobbs Johnson.  Not many high schools can say they have two starting weekend pitchers on many college rosters.

Finally under WHERE is he now?  I went on the Modest Junior College basketball web page and found TaShawn Mabry is on the roster again this year.  Mabry who sat out last year after blowing out his achilles after the 11th game in 2010 is back in California.

BIG AND BAD

We like to think around here that the ACC is the biggest and baddest when it comes to basketball.  There is some truth in that statement when the ACC has won five national titles this century.  Likewise the SEC says the are the best in football and winning like 19 National Championships in a row or what ever it is just might make them the best in football.

There is a hole in the SEC dyke this year however as the biggest and baddest can't explain why new comer Texas A&M is 4-2 in the league and I heard a prediction on the radio today that said A&M would beat Alabama this Saturday.  A&M is second behind Alabama in the West division.  If the SEC was so big  and bad how come A&M is not 0-6.  Even in the East division Missouri  the other Big 12 defector is fifth out of seven.  They are a lot closer to where the Big and Bad conference new comer should be if the SEC is all that big and bad.

I haven't talked about Tarboro's Todd Gurley lately and since I'm talking about big and bad this would be a good time to bring Gurley up.  So far this year for the 8-1 Georgia Bulldogs Gurley has carried 138 times for 857 yards which works out to a very neat 6.2 yards per carry.  Early in the season he was sharing the carries with the other super freshman from North Carolina Keith Marshall but Gurley has taken more snaps lately while Marshall has had 82 totes.  Gurley is becoming the man for the Bulldogs and he has also scored 10 times this season.

Sunday night while working with buddy Wes Bradshaw on WHIG-TV he brought up Brian Goodwin's yearly totals playing in his first full year in the minors between A ans AA ball.  He hit 280 slammed 14 home runs and drove in 52.  In fall ball this year he hit another three home runs and hit 268.  If he keeps this up he might see the inside of the baseball stadium in Washington D C by the end of the year next season.

Just got word that Tarboro defensive coordinator A B Whitley will undergo back surgery on Wednesday.  This have been a tough fall for A B.  He had to have an old high school injury fixed earlier this fall and while recuperating from that has hurt his back.   He has tried his best to be on the sidelines with the Vikings until the season was over but obviously that won't happen for him after tomorrow..  We will be praying for him

I hope each and every one of you did you civic duty today on at least like me during the early voting period and voted for the candidates that you think can run our town, county , state and federal government the best.  You lose the right to fuss  about how it is going if you didn't!