Big Night For Big East

Northern Nash made their second trip of the season to South Central. Way back in September they traveled there for a non-conference game. The Northern Defense did a good job while the offense did just enough to beat South Central 14-12.

This season the Knights offense has gotten better and better and the defense has stayed steady while the offense has grown and grown as the season has passed by. Clinching second place the Knights find themselves in the second round and facing a team that they have already beaten and again at South Central.

Tonight Northern has shown the folks in the Coastal conference that they are for real as they have gone to South Central and laid a whipping on the Falcons 37-10. Rashad Hedgepeth and T J Marshall both rush for over a 100 yards .

This victory sets up a rematch their third of the playoffs as they will meet up against #1 seed Big East Foe Hunt a team ironically the Knights have already been to this year. Tonight Hunt beat Coastal conference West Carteret 37-17.

Thanksgiving Friday the Knights meet the Warriors.

Roanoke Rapids spotted Tarboro a 35 point lead earlier this year when they met during the regular season and did all they could to give Tarboro a heart attack in that game before finally losing 42-35.

Tonight the Yellow Jackets tried the same trick spotting Tarboro a 21-0 lead at the half mainly because of three Jacket turn overs which Tarboro converted into 21 point.

RR score midway in the third quarter to cut the lead to 21-7 but Tarboro has proven over the past three years or so that they don't like losing at home. Tarboro adds two fourth quarter scores to take down the Jackets 35-14. The Yellow Jackets had five turnovers and the Vikings converted four of them into 28 points. The Jackets finish with two losses both administered by the Tarboro Vikings.

Tonight's victory #13 for the Vikes with zero losses heads to East Duplin Thanksgiving Friday night. East Duplin did host Rocky Mount the third game of the season and beat the Gryphons 14-0. Neither has play a common opponent so they will have to rely on film exchange to see each other.

Northampton West has come to North Edgecombe and ended the Warriors season 14-6. This is after the Warriors had won the regular season match 38-6. Other games of interest Northeastern beat Beddingfield 28-26 another shocker Bunn 26 Kinston 7.

Tarboro and Northern Nash advance to round three.

Another Bombshell From Chapel Hill

Baseball America reported yesterday that former Rocky Mount Gryphon and rising UNC sophomore center fielder for the Tar Heels Brian Goodwin has been suspended for the Spring semester 2011 for violating university policy. He will be eligible for the 2011/2012 academic year. UNC has stressed that this is in no way related with the on going football investigation in which UNC turned over their part of the investigation this week to the NCAA.

UNC and NC State both are taking part in two different basketball tournaments this weekend and both opened up with Hugh wins yesterday. Harrison Barnes played like the All American that he has been picked to be as a freshman scoring 19 points in the first 15 minutes of the game. The heels took care of Hofstra 107-63.

The Wolfpack is in Charleston SC and played ECU as Freshman Lorenzo Brown and Brian Harrow delivered as promising freshman. The most heralded freshman of them all C J Leslie tried to make superstar moves early and found himself on the bench for most of the game but Brown with 16 points and Harrow 11 points 10 assists and no turnovers were too much for the Pirates. Pack 85-ECU 65.

Tonight Tarboro and North Edgecombe are at home in the high school football playoffs while Northern Nash hits the road at South Central. It is possible that tonight will be the last home game any of our high school teams play as they try to survive and advance in the playoffs. Tarboro does have an outside chance of playing the eastern finals at home but that is still two weeks after tonight.

This Sunday night on the "Stretchlon Sports Show " we will have the seniors fro the Nash Central cross country team on live. This group finished in the top ten in the state four years in a row.

NFL weekend of football got off and running last night as the Bears beat the Dolphins 16-0. As a Charger fan that is a good win for the Chargers as they see another team ahead of them in the wild card race in the AFC fall. The Dolphins drop to 5-5 and if you are a Minnesota or Brett Farve fan Chicago winning last night was not good for you as the THE BEARS now are 7-3. The Vikes are behind both green Bay and Chicago by three games.

Too Much Football On TV

I was clicking around the sports dial last night and came up on the ESPN College Football game being played at Akron. I got to that channel just as they were coming out of commercial and had an overhead shot of the stadium. The must have been at least 125 people at that game.

If the local area people don't even care to go to the game why should we as a national audience want to watch that game for. I chuckled thinking to myself that 24 hour a day television is way too much for the networks coming up with anything worth watching. I wonder what team the other night was the live basketball game at 4.00am in the morning when ESPN was showing 24 hours of live basketball.

I did watch the last few minutes of the Baylor-U Conn women's game when U Conn winning streak almost came to an end. If they had of been playing at Baylor U-Conn would have lost by 20.

Tonight you can get a look at the Gryphon basketball teams as Westover High from Fayetteville on the door step of Fort Bragg will be here. The games start for real next week.

Round Two of Football playoffs:

Northern Nash @ South Central- This is the second week of Northern's replay of their regular season as they disposed of the Firebirds last week for the second time. Friday night they should know the way to South Central since they have already played there once this season and won. There is no perfect format for the playoffs but it sure seems that if you have already won against your playoff opponent at their place already in the same season then you would be seeded higher than them for this one game.

Both of these team have improved drastically as the season wore on. Northern does have one thing that I like about this team. Their backs love to punish the tackler and none of them fall backwards while a tackle is being made. That wears on a defense as the game goes on. Northern will make it to thanksgiving Friday taking down South Central 20-14.

Roanoke Rapids @ Tarboro- The game is already sold out. They played each other earlier in the season and Tarboro had to hold on for dear life as Roanoke Rapids threw the ball at will in the second half. Former Tarboro coach Russell Weinstein will not wait to half time this game and will come out chunking the ball from the get go. Running teams know how to stop the run and Tarboro is a running team. Roanoke Rapids 34- Tarboro 28

All three local games involve teams they have already played before. North Edgecombe whipped Northampton West earlier in the season big. They will do it again. North Edgecombe 26 Northampton West 6

Last week I was three and two in the first round. Both the Northern and Tarboro games could go either way so they are toss up games. I could easily miss two out of three this week. This has probably been the hardest season ever to get a grasp of how all the teams are playing from week to week.

Rocky Mount Sports Facilities

I am not only an announcer on the Stretchlon Sports Show but I am also the producer on shows in which I take part. Real television when the credits roll at the end of the show when it list who the stars are and those behind the scene the word producer will pass at some point in the scrolling. All a producer is the person who provides everything needed in a show. A chair to sit in in case there is no press box. The biggest part of any show is what will be on the show? The producer lines up the guest, the events. That's my part as producer what game will you see?

We did a live show last Sunday night which we featured the senior soccer players from Rocky Mount High who are the winningest class in school history. This Sunday we will have the Nash Central Cross Country team's seniors who four straight years finished in the top ten in the state four times.

Live shows are a celebration most of the time of teams that won State Championships. We had several shows on the little league state tournament held here in July. The Nash County Volley Ball Tournament held in August. We had planned to carry the Big East soccer Semifinals and Finals but rain killed that idea. We were caught short on taped shows when fall sports were done waiting for winter sports to kick in. Thus two live shows in a row.

Basketball is cranking up and you can expect the round ball on several times in the next three months. There is one sports that doesn't get a lot of play but because of the Harrison Family YMCA can be shown is swimming. The Rocky Mount YMCA is connected just enough to the sports complex that visitors think it is part of the complex. Swimming is treated just like cross country and the Big East has a weekly swim meet where all the conference members bring their teams to the same meet.

Swimming is hard to cover because the swimmers don't have a number and no team has a roster that you purchase as you walk in to see who is on the team. A race starts every team puts a swimmer in that race and off they go. As soon as that race ends another group get up to the starting line and off they go. There is no break for a commercial or a chance to go to the concession stand, if there were you would miss a race or two.

Most people pay attention to their light bill more than the facilities that we have in Rocky Mount. We have the use of a Olympic Size swimming pool. Baseball and softball has a facility hardly no one else in the state can match. I hear this past weekend there was a major little league tournament moved here when Charlotte canceled out as the site.

Even in swimming when a conference meet is held the city gets a few dollars from those that eat before they go home or buy gas to get back home. Who knows they just might stop and buy something at the mall before they leave. Once the Gryphons move to their new football home I think it would be wise for the city when it takes over the stadium to enlarge the visitors side. I could see the football Stadium hosting the Eastern Finals in football just like Greenville has hosted basketball for the past several years.

If there is one thing this city has been progressive in is sports. Why stop with what we have now let's become the sports capitol of North Carolina. I think you can already calls us the little league and softball capitol why stop there?

ACC Basketball Top Heavy

Wake Forest has already lost at home to a no- name, Georgia Tech lost last night to Kennesaw State. The world of college basketball is no more let's open up the season with a patsy and win 115-62. Those patsies are now good enough to hold their own against any team in the country.

Duke starts the season ranked #1 and the defending National Champions. They have the best coach in the country, sorry Carolina but Coach K is better than Roy. Duke seems to have added to their roster right where they needed to which should keep them in the top five all year even after they lose a conference game or two.

Carolina fans are expecting to be right back up in the national championship talk this season but their main problem last year was point guard. Have they improved in point guard play to win the close games that are coming? Opening night was a 14 point win but no blowout that Tar Heel fans wanted. They were out rebounded in the scrimmage game and again opening night.

Like Carolina, State didn't play a laugher opening night like they wanted. The past couple of years they have been awful at point guard but if they improved at all over last year it is the PG. The Wolfpack's biggest question will all these freshman get along with the upper classman and not be like a couple of years ago when there was tension in the locker room.

Virginia Tech didn't lose that much from last year and is picked top four in the league. They could easily be the team that wins the ACC.

It is funny that we in ACC country feel that we are the best in basketball and it has been that way from day one when Everett Case brought his style to Raleigh. As good as we thought it was we only won a national championship every now and then. The past ten national champions five have been owned by the ACC. The ACC is better than ever in college basketball. They are at least at the top of the league maybe not towards the bottom.

Marc McCadden former Northern Nash star was named to the all CIAA all Rookie team. The freshman at Chowan (UCLA) University of Chowan located near Ahoskie. Old joke from my days living there has had an outstanding year on the football field.

E-Mail Down

Last week I was without my e-mail for several days and not until Friday did I receive the news that Spencer Bell had won a Babe Ruth scholarship. You know we forget sometimes that because they hit a ball and run fast that is all they can do.

Spencer has been a part of a a Babe Ruth World Series, Legion State Finals played on two very good Gryphon baseball teams and was a part of Gryphon football team that played in Eastern Finals. He still had time to excel in the class room.

Spencer now a freshman for the Wolfpack has made us all proud of him both on the field of play and the young man he has become. Congratulations to the Bell family.

You know not all athletes that excelled on the field of play go on to the next level and play sports but prepare themselves for their future. I said this on this blog after the end of baseball season in 2009 that Dillon Cockrell was my favorite baseball player during his four years playing Gryphon baseball. Today he is excelling in the classroom at Carolina hoping to become a Doctor.

I heard from a birdie that the boys basketball team looked good Saturday during the jamboree held at RMHS.

From the NFL front does it seem to you that the New York Jets are no where near as good as their record. The defense is good but the offense just can't score. Teams that can't score 20 don't last long in the playoffs.

Now that Minnesota is 3-7 I think it is time for them to develop a quarterback for next year. They went down to Mississippi in August to beg Brett Farve to comeback because they didn't have a QB and with Farve playing like a 42 year old over the hill quarterback the Vikings had better look to next year.

What is it about the NFC East. The Giants have played three weeks like world beaters and they make Dallas look like Super Bowl champs yesterday. But, that is the way that division is every year. Everyone is so close in that division it is hard to dominate.

ACC Football- A Big Muddle

No one in the offices of the ACC could have asked for the schedule to work any better than how this seasons final weeks are working out. Who in the world at the beginning of the season saw Maryland and North Carolina State being any where close to the top?

Last night's last play win by Florida Start gives then a 5-2 conference record. The Terps and Pack are next at 4-2. Clemson loss last night gave them four losses and knock them out of any chance of winning the Atlantic Division.

This weekend Maryland and Florida State play each other. That should knock one or the other out but it doesn't. N C State plays Carolina and then they finish with Maryland. If either Maryland or State win both of their remaining games they will be the Atlantic division champs. There is still a chance for a three way tie.! If Maryland beats FSU, Carolina beats State and State beats Maryland there will be three teams with three losses.

Life is much simpler in the Coastal division. If Virginia Tech beats Miami Saturday they are the winners. Even if Miami wins Saturday over the Gobblers the Hokies can beat Virginia later and still win the Coastal.

Even though they are unbeaten in conference play Virginia Tech looks beatable by any of the three still with a chance to make it to Charlotte. I am sorry to say this but I just don't trust Tyrod Taylor to be my quarterback. He looks great on one play and over throws the next.

You know there is an forgotten team in our area. North Carolina Wesleyan, they finished off their season yesterday beating Averitt 28-13. They have tied for the conference championship but lost when they met Christopher Newport earlier this year. This is three of their four years playing football that they have either shared or won the conference crown. NCW has taken the fast track to winning football as they did not lose forty in a row like you would expect a fledgling program to do. The Bishops are certainly not fledgling.

Tonight on the "Stretchlon Sports show " we will be having a live show featuring the Rocky Mount Gryphon soccer team and the senior class. Were hoping to have the Nash Central soccer team but now hopefully next week.