Soccer Drenched In Jacksonville

There were not 26-0 for nothing. The third round of the 3-A soccer playoffs will be a game that the Gryphon players will not soon forget.

Traveling 100 miles to Jacksonville the boys soccer team found that the rains of now low pressure system Ida just arriving as they arrived in town. The entire game was played in a steady rain but what the soccer team found out was the most unrelenting steady rain came from the Cardinals who found the net for five goals and shut out the Gryphons 5-0.

One of the most successful seasons ends at 20-4-2.

This fall has been a tremendous sports year for Rocky Mount Sports. Volley ball went undefeated in conference play and advanced to the second round of the playoffs. Tennis tied for first and advanced to the third round. Soccer finished second and advanced to the third round. Both the boys and girls cross country team finished third and the girls advance to the state meet where they finished 16th.

Lindsey Thomas and Kate Gray finished 2nd in the state in doubles tennis. Addie Keeter and Caroline Nelson made it to the quarter finals in tennis doubles.

Terry Sanford high had to forfeit all their wins (9) this year for using an ineligible. They just Friday beat Jack Brett to win their conference. Jack Britt after the loss to Sanford was seeded number three in their conference. Terry Sanford was suppose to play cross town rival Pine Forest but Pine Forest has been awarded a victory for the first round and Jack Brett will stay as three seed.

The Principal at Terry Sanford was suspended last Wednesday after it was found that a players grades were changed to keep him eligible. If I can use my old noggin here and surmise, this sounds like a grade was changed at the end of school last year to keep the player eligible this year.

South Central versus Rocky Mount:

South Central is the # three seed from the Coastal Conference. Rocky Mount the # two seed from the Big East.

Playoff seedings The Gryphons are # eighth while the Falcons are the ninth seed.

South Central is 8-3 while Rocky Mount is 6-4.

South Central averaged 21 points per game, the Gryphons 21.5

South Central gave up 14.2 point per game while the Gryphons gave up 18.5.

Both teams played a team during the season that didn’t win a game. South Central played D H Conley who was 0-11. Rocky Mount played Northern Durham who was 0-11.

Rocky Mount played two teams that finished the year undefeated, Hertford County and SouthWest Edgecombe while The Falcons played Havelock who finished 10-1 and West Craven that finished 9-2.

The Falcons score over thirty points only twice. 48 against West Carteret and 62 against Conley. That is 45% of the points that they scored all year. Rocky Mount scored 30 against Northern Durham and 33 against Northampton East. That’s 30% of the points that the Gryphons scored all year.

The two games in which Rocky Mount played the undefeated teams Hertford County and Southwest Edgecombe they gave up 37% of the points scored on them all year.

Central played down against two 2-A schools. Greene Central and Farmville. Rocky Mount played Northampton East 1-A and SouthWest Edgecombe 2-A.

The Falcons and Gryphons both played Rose and Northern Nash. Both lost to Rose. Central lost 13-0 while the Gryphons lost 16-13. South Central beat Northern their third game of the year 13-7 while Rocky Mount took out Northern last Friday 15-12.

Looks like a low scoring evenly match game. The team that scores in the twenties will win. This is the way it should be when a eighth seed meets a ninth seed.

South Central is the team that knocked the 2008 baseball team out of the playoffs last year 4-1 at Rocky Mount.

Possible edge : Gryphons play at home. Final score is going to be something like 21-20.and that means it could go either way.

The winner will more than likely get South Johnston out of Four Oaks. They are the number one seeded team in the east and throw the ball all over the place.

What A Finish

The Rocky Mount Gryphon football team is seeded eighth in the upcoming playoffs that begin Friday. Unlike the past few years this year's Gryphon team is in the middle of the pack so to speak and will have to fight for every victory they can get.

These last two victories have been heart stopping finishes. Boy Isn't that the way all Northern-Rocky Mount games should end? Right to the end.

Friday night will not be easy. I compare this first round game to the 2003 matchup when we hosted Jack Brett. Brett won that year 24-17 and they also won the following week before being knocked out in round three.

Soccer will play Jacksonville in the third round at Jacksonville. They beat Eastern Wayne 3-0 Saturday. Jacksonville according to the Jacksonville paper is 26-0.

I watched the replay of the Northern-Rocky Mount game last night on WHIG. That last drive by Rocky Mount was awsome. I did not realize it while it was live but on the replay last night it looked as if Collins Cuthrell threw the ball backwards on the pass that was caught by Marquavis Alston and carried to the five yard line.

Four Northern players were tossed out of the game after the final touchdown. I have no idea who they were or don't even want to know. If they are juniors or sophomores they will have to sit out the first game of the season next year. If they are seniors and play basketball or any other sport they will have to sit out the next game they participate in.

Watched the Giants-Charger game yesterday. Jim Nance made the comment in the second quarter that Philip Rivers has score more points after fifty starts at quarterback than any other quarterback since Otto Graham in the 50's. The Chargers have averaged 28 points a game with Rivers under center.

Despite losing I like the way the Panthers are playing now. I really do think they have to make a change at quarterback next season.

Tomorrow I will break down South Central and take a look at the first round opponent

Playoff Brackets

Before we talk about seedings I think I need to explain how the seedings work to the Joe Friday fan. Each year the conferences are given a priority. The priority is different for every sport. Football the Big East may be ranked fourth on the priority list but first in soccer. That means when two teams with the same records meet in the playoffs the ties are broken on which conference has the top priority.

Rocky Mount has drawn the #eight seed and will have a home game against South Central. Rocky Mount is the is 6-4 while South Central is 8-3.

The only like opponents we have played are Rose and Northern Nash. South Central beat Northern in the fourth week of the season 13-7 while last Friday night we beat the Knights 15-12.

South Central lost at Rose 13-0 while Rose beat us 16-13. As you can see as a 8/9 seeding this is going to be a toss up game. The Fanstastic 50 has Rocky Mount rated as the 28th best team out of 96 in the 3-A ranks and South Central 31st.

Southern Nash is #11 seed visits Triton out of Dunn who is seeded sixth. SouthWest Edgecombe is the #two seed in 2-AA is facing West Stanley who is 5-5. Tarboro seeded sixth in the 2-A is seeded sixth and will host Croatan which has a record of 6-4. North Edgecombe is seeded #7 in 1-A is hosting Columbia in the opening round

Former Rocky Mount High School star Terrell Hudgins became the greatest receiver in college history today at Hudgins teamed up with team mate Scott Riddle on the opening play of the game and Riddle tossed Hudgins a 44 yard pass to break Jerry Rice's total yards receiving record in college history

Terrell finished with eight catches for 156 yards and with two regular season games to play is in reach of 5,000 yards for his career. He finish today with 4,815.

Soccer Advances: This afternoon the Rocky Mount high soccer team advanced to the third round of the state playoffs beat Washington 3-1.

Lee McAvoy score the Gryphons lone first half goal and at the half the number five seeded Washington Pam Pack was tied with the Gryphons.

Rocky Mount took the lead on a Justin Marsigili Shot that ricocheted to Tim Bishop and Bishop scored his third goal in the playoffs. Andrew Morales put the capper on the boards for the Gryphons to give them a two goal lead in the second half.

Unless another major upset occurs as the day goes on Rocky Mount will travel to Jacksonville Wednesday night and take on the Cardinals of Jacksonville who if they win today will be 25-0. This no doubt will be a major undertaking for the Gryphons.

The Aftermath

The last two weeks the Rocky Mount Gryphon football team has looked squarely into the eyes of defeat and grabbed victory.

Every game played you can look back and say, boy why did they run that or only if we had of done this.

Rocky Mount twice got inside the five yard line, once they fumbled and once the Knight's defense held.

Four minutes to play on a fourth down from the Rocky Mount twenty five yard line, it looked as if Northern was trying to get Rocky Mount to jump off sides like they had pulled off earlier in the game. Instead they try a quarterback sneak and Rocky Mount holds. Northern was six inches short of the first down. If they had of got the first down there the Gryphons may never get the ball back.

Maybe the play of the night happened in front of the Gryphon fans as Collins Cuthrell rolled out to pass only to be smothered by a Northern defender. From the press box it looked as if Collins was almost on the ground and flung the ball about five yards in front of him into the waiting arms of Marquavis Alston who motored for a Gryphon first down. The drive remained alive.

There is a least one more week of football in the first decade of the 21st century. Depending on how this team finishes the playoffs, it looks as if we will say this is the 8th best team this decade. This team might be down the list on best teams but they will be #1 in last second thrillers.

Collins Cuthrell touchdown with 2.3 seconds to play cut the heart right out of a gritty Northern Nash Football seeking to regain respect in the football community. Their defense gets my respect as they may have the best defense in the league.

Terrell Hudgins can capture the last of the major career stats in college football receiving today as Elon plays Western Carolina. Terrell needs 35 yards to become the all time leader in yards receiving. Earlier this year he broke college football's most catches and most 100 yard games in a career records.

Soccer is home this afternoon against Washington in the second round of the state playoffs. they will play on campus instead of the RMSC.

Bad News to report: Lauren Doughtie failed to qualify for the Futures tour shooting a 75 and 80 the last two rounds. She finished 32nd in a field of 276 players. If she does play this year on the Futures, she will have to qualify every Monday. All is not lost however, in three weeks she will return to Daytona Florida to go through another five day LPGA qualifying school. If she was to qualify for the LPGA tour, she would be in the big leagues of women's golf.

Later this evening when the brackets for football are released I'll let you know.

Another Miracle

Northern Nash at 2-8 was playing for second place in the brand new Big East. Rocky Mount was playing for a possible home game in the first round. Most of the game it seemed as Northern was going to do the impossible finish 3-8 and and finish second in the league.

Rocky Mount's victory over Southern Nash last week was the first late score victory of the decade. A week later Collins Cuthrell rolls out to the left on a fourth and 4 at the Northern's four yard line with seven seconds to play and when the clock stopped with 02.31 seconds Rocky Mount had essentially won on the last play 15-12.

I know all of you fans who jumped off the Rocky Mount band wagon and said Dickie Schock couldn't coach, I would like to remind you he has won two games in the past eight days when defeat was at hand. I have seen this team make adjustments the past two weeks that were good enough to win conference football games.

Northern took the opening kick off from the Rocky Mount forty seven yard line and pounded the Gryphons and took a 6-0 lead when Rashad Hedgepeth scoring from three yards out with 7.37 to play in the first quarter.

The Gryphon offense did better going backwards in the first quarter than forwards and with 8.31 to play in the half Northern found the end zone again when Tavis Richardson had a two yard run. Both two point plays the Gryphons stopped and for a while those two- two point conversion stops were the best plays that the Gryhons had . It was 12-0 Northern.

Finally with about four minutes to go in the half Rocky Mount finally found where the other side of the line of scrimmage was on drove for a touchdown with 1.15 to play in the half. Marquavis Alston added another touchdown to his all time list and Tim Bishop prove to kick the difference in the game when he made the score 12-7.

Rocky Mount who produced 200 yards of offense in the second half failed twice to score once on a fumble at the Northern Five yard line and once on a nine yard fourth down pass when the Gryphons need ten at the Northern five.

Rocky Mount stopped Northern and a fourth and one at about the twenty five yard line with four minutes to play and then unlike last week where one giant play won the game tonight Rocky Mount looked like a well oiled machine as they got 8, 5, 14 yards at a clipped until they reached the five yard line with 40 seconds to play. Three plays and basically nothing at the five brought On Cuthrell's heroics on a fourth down and only seven seconds to play. Being fourth down this was Rocky Mount's last play.

Cuthrell hit Diandre Harris with a two point conversion which gave the Gryphons the 15-12 win.

You have to hand it to Northern they did not play like a 2-9 team. Better days seem to be ahead for Northern next year as most of this years team is a junior squad.

Hunt claimed an undefeated conference slate beating Fike 49-0. Southern Nash got revenge from Nash Central for that non-conference defeat a bout a month ago winning 40-6.

I will blog with the pairings as soon as they are released around 6.00pm.

Now that Northern finished fourth in the league with only two wins there is a chance Northern may not make the playoffs and only three Big East teams get in. If Northern does get in they will probably be the number 16 seed and play the number one seed whoever that will be in 3-AA

I will also go the soccer match. Unfortunately I don't know what time the match is but I will have those results around six also.

I know that there are a lot of people that thought this Rocky Mount team this year was going to go undefeated but I said as far back at Christmas last year 8-2. I knew the blocking was not very good but I expected the blocking to start to come together around the fifth game of the season.. It took until about the eighth game before we began to block as a team. This team has shown improvement and with the way this team blocked the first six games a 6-4 record is very good. We were a bad blocking team after six games.

I would suspect we will be seeded about 7th or 8th in the 3-AA bracket which will get us a home game next week and then as long as we last we will be on the road. Support them next week better than you did tonight. My guess there was only 500 on the Gryphon side where on Northern's side, the stands were full pulling for a 2-9 team. That's loyalty!

Soccer, Home Saturday

The best that the soccer team could ask for they got. Washington the #5 seed from the Coastal conference beat Currituck 3-0 last night and that way eliminated a trip to CoinJock Saturday and a home soccer match instead.

The Gryphons will host Washington Saturday afternoon, probably at 3.00pm(the time has not been set yet) at the soccer field at the high school. If they manage a victory Saturday up next would be unbeaten Jacksonville who going into their match in the second round is 24-0.

How Important is Friday's Football game? A drawing was held this week between Northern,Southern and Rocky Mount in case their is a three way tie for second. If Northern beats the Gryphons and Southern beat Nash Central there will be a three way tie for second place. The conference needs to be able to tell the state by midnight Friday what the seeding from the conference are for the playoffs.

The drawing Northern Nash won so if a three way tie occurs they will get second. Southern will be third and the Gryphons will be fourth. The Gryphons can avoid the tie scenario by beating Northern and taking second out right.

Not only would Northern get second with a 3-8 record but it would insure them a playoff spot which is not guaranteed at 2-9. Second spot has a real good chance for a home game even though it is not guaranteed. It totally depends on how the second place teams are seeded amongst other number two seeds.

Sewing the seeds: Northern Nash has been down and out the past few years in football. However they are making strides. They are on a two game winning streak and this week if you have a child that goes to Northern you have received two messages from the Northern football team.

If anyone has a child within the Nash Rocky Mount school system you get telephone calls all the time when your child is absent or if something is going on at school like a PTO meeting. This week coach Mickey Crouch sent a telephone message to all homes within the Northern school district urging all fans to come out and support Northern Friday night against Rocky Mount. Those same Northern fans are receiving a call from linebacker Joe Young inviting fans to the game. This is a little thing, laying a foundation to return Northern to football prominence. This is only a start, but it is a good start to getting fan support back.

Finally the game: How long has it been that the Rocky Mount-Northern game has had so much riding on the last game of the season. The Gryphons can still win out right second place while Northern can insure themselves a playoff spot with a win. Which team will win their third in a row? I'll take the Gryphons 27-12. Southern will beat Nash Central 34-14. Hunt over Fike it just depends on how long Hunt plays the first team 40-6.

Air time on am 1390 is 7.00pm for the pregame show. Hope you are there but if not see you at 7.00pm Friday on the radio.

Soccer Survives Scare

They had to used a portable clock brought in from the Harrison Family YMCA. The PA system belonged to a music group. The Gryphons had played on the Rocky Mount Soccer complex field the same amount as C B Aycock and that was never. In the end none of that mattered only that the Gryphons found themselves in a struggle with Aycock who like the Gryphons had lost but three times all year. Tim Bishop scores two goals late in the game to lead Rocky Mount to a first round win over C B Aycock 2-1.

The first half saw both teams keep the other side in check and at the half the Gryphons had out shot the Golden Falcons only four shots to two. The second half started out the same but near the twenty five minute mark the Golden Falcons put the first kick of the night in net against Drew Gorham and took a 1-zip lead. Near the thirteen minute mark Matt Williams slipped a pass to Tim Bishop who found glory and tied the match at one all.

Williams found Tim Bishop again late in the match and Bishop put home the winning shot for the Gryphons. During the half I had commented to Will Williams Matt's Dad that Drew Nicks had substituted freely in the first half and Aycock did not take out one player. I have a feeling being a little fresher paid off for the Gryphons.

Rocky Mount will play the winner of Currituck and Washington. Currituck is the number one seed from the Northeast Coastal and sports a 13-1-2 record as they start the playoffs while Washington is the number five seed from the Coastal with ten wins and as many defeats and a single tie. As I write this tonight that score has not been posted on that game but if Currituck wins the Gryphons will have to trek to Coinjock Saturday for the second round. Should Washington pull off a major upset then the Gryphons would be home Saturday afternoon at the soccer field at the school.

Northern Nash lost last night to Jacksonville 5-0 and Fike also lost 5-1 to South Johnston. The Big East top seed Hunt had little trouble with West Carteret winning 5-0. The top two seeds in the Big East both live to play another day.

Somewhat surprising the JV's won their last game of the season beating Northern Nash 42-0. The clock ran continuously for most of the fourth quarter after Rocky Mount got the 40 point lead.

Cousin Lauren shot a 69 today to tie for the best round of the day and has moved into a tie for ninth in the Futures tour Qualifying tournament going on in Winter Haven Florida. She is now six shot out of the lead. 276 golfers started Monday. Ten failed to qualify for round three. Lauren's three rounds are 71-73-69. If she can hold right where she is for two more days she will requalify for the Futures golf Tour for her second year. The top eleven and ties qualify for the 2010 tour.

Now that there is no JV game Thursday night to go do the PA I guess I will stay home and watch game seven of the world series if there is one.