Blown Call Not A Killer

I don't care what kind of sport you play every once in a while(seems like all the time but it's not) referees,or umps make bad calls. Thursday night the Wolfpack got the short end of the stick on an 83 yard touchdown run on a call by a ref that admitted he was blocked off. My only question would be why would you call something you didn't see and TV proved out that you didn't. The bottom line is this if it were not for the TV replay we would not know whether the call was right or not. Replay is meant to get it right when there is a chance that you got it wrong. Many times after the replay has been run 15 times depending on the angle they still can't decide one way or the other. In the case of out of bounds or not why don't officials use their caps or bean bags like they do in fumbles and throw a cap where you think he might have gone out of bounds and let the play run it's course and then look at the replay. Once that whistle sounds the play is dead right or wrong. There have been many plays where the refs couldn't decide whether it was a fumble or not and the play runs it's course and afterwards it is reviewed. I would have a hard time trying to be a referee with everything I do under scrunity. I think the judgement business in front of 60,000 fans always siding against your call is not easy to do especially have you have made a major blunder in the third quarter. You hear coaches say this all the time that there are four or five plays that make the difference in winning and losing. That blown call was only one play but just a few plays later the Pack fumbles and a few plays later a touchdown. The call occurred in the third quarter it was not the last play of the game. Hold on to the ball and they are still in the game even if they have to punt. It's still 13-7 in the third quarter. Sitting at home I was jumping up and down for a touchdown and quickly slumber back down when the announcement was made. Good thing is,, there is another game next week.

Sweet Revenge

Tonight I was at RMA as I joined Wes Bradshaw and Edward Green for the high school game of the week. Word of God is coming off two straight years in the 2-a private school championship but this team is clearly a young squad with no seniors on the team. RMA took advantage of second year coach B w Holt growing knowledge of 8 man football concepts and a stone wall defense as RMA runs past WOG 57-6. WOG only score came on a 102 yard int returned for a touchdown on the last play of the first half with RMA driving to score already leading 28-0. Chris Jenkins was a man among boys as as he had two first quarter scores of 52 and 33 yards. Doesn't matter how down WOG might be this is a big win for RMA as they avenge two losses last year to WOG including a first round playoff loss. Rocky mount went to the spread offense against SouthWest Edgecombe after both teams had the ball just once in the first quarter with ball control offenses. The Gryphons score twice in the second quarter and added another in the third quarter to lead 21-0. SWE found. A soft Gryphon secondary and with less than two minutes to go SWE is trying an onside kick trailing 24-22. the Gryphons recovered the onside kick and managed to run the clock down to SWE NLT had one play from their own 35 to end the game. Northern Nash won it's home opener tonight 28-13 over Southern Vance. Beddingfield broke a 7-7 first half tie and scored three times to beat winless Nash Central 28-7. Fike pitches a shut out on Smithfield Selma 38-0. Hunt's second long trip to northeastern North Carolina and they come home with a 33-25 win over Currituck. North Edgecombe whips Weldon 28-6. aNd Tarboro dumps Roanoke Rapids 56-19. After tonight the big East teams have one more week of non conference and a week off before the conference play starts and at this point every team looks to have a chance for the playoffs except Nash Central who continues to struggle to score"

Full Moon Was Out

THe full moon was at full tilt and the PACK had Clemsom right where they wanted them , until a ref rules Brian Underwood step out of bounds on a play that would have given the Pack the lead in third quarter. Big Mo went right straight to the Tigers even after ESPN ran 15 replays and could never find where Underwood stepped out. Even while game was close never thought Pack was going to win. If Clemson is good enough to win national championship I like what I saw in the Pack. Last week I was a plain lousy going 3-3 making predictions. Makes me 14-4 so far on this season. North Carolina gave up 68 points last year at home to Georgia Tech. If Tech only gets half that will still be enough to handle the Heels Tech 34 Carolina 24. The death march of Jim Grobe continues as the Deacs travel to one of the neat football places on any Saturday afternoon. Not such a neat place when you lose. USMA. 24 Wake 21. Wake really needs this one. Duke and Pitt during the Duke glory days use to be a real big inter sectional game. Pitts first ACC game will be a win. PITT. 35 Duke. 21. We are Marshall travels to Blacksburg to take on the Hokies after they survived ECU last week. Marshall makes a game of it Tech 31 Marsall 17. A game that I don't know that anybody cares about Tulane travels to Syracuse. The Orange beats the Greenwave. The KEYDETS of VMI travel to Thomas Jefferson's house to play Virginia. Jefferson's boys 36 VMI 6 . I would like to know whether Vegas even has this game on their betting board. Bethune-Cookman travels across state to play Florida State. I think they should just stay home and get Florida STATE to send them a check. FSU 63 B-C 13 . Savannah State travels to Miami and this one will not be as bad as Florida St game. Miami 36 SS 14. Have a good friday and support your local high school football team.

Odd Event At Northern

If you are a Northern Nash fan brace yourself for an event here we are in mid season that Northern hasn't had happen all season. A home football game will take place Friday night which will be the first home football game of the season. If you have forgotten how to get to the stadium as you drive into the school property turn left at the triangle and drive past the school buses on the right as you turn right past the buses that property on the left is the football field. Just a little fun here but Southern Vance will be the team providing the opposition and they both have played one common foe. They both have lost to Northeastern. SV lost at home 0-43 while Northern lost at Northeastern 45-0. Looks like a close game here but this is Northern's home opener and they will post their second win in a row. 26-18. The game of the weekend is SouthWest Edgecombe at Rocky Mount. In the last ten years this has been an even series. SWE was shutout by Tarboro and Rocky Mount played well losing to Rosé. I think RM is better at this point of the season but the key to this game will be SWE offensive line against the Gryphon defense. Gryphons 26 SWE 12. Hunt enjoyed driving all the way to Elizabeth City so much last weekend that they want to go there again and then drive 30 miles more in going to Curritck. Currituck is unbeaten but they are not in Hunt's league. Hunt 34 Curritck 6. Fike travels to Smithfield Selma and if they play to the level they have so far this is no game. Fike 44 SSS 16 RM Preps only football victory came at home to Kipp Pride 6-0. They can get another one again this time at KP who so far this year has scored 14 points and none against RMP. Prep 20 KP 6 Beddingfield continues it' run of playing everyone in the area. They come to Nash Central. I doubt the Bulldogs can score enough to stay up. Beddingfield 35 Nash Central 13. Roanoke Rapids comes to Tarboro and in years past this just might be a real game but not this year. Vikes. 35 RR 6 Ayden Grifton comes to Southern Nash. Much better game than you might expect but the Birds remain unbeaten. SN 40 AG 24. Word of GOD travels to Rocky Mount Academy and this could be a tricky game. I am going out on the limb and taking the Eagles 42-36 So far this year 29-6. There is a college game tonight involving the Wolfpack. State will either lose this game by 40 or win 17-16. Clemson put 62 on the Pack last year and Clemson this year is better. The question is, is State better? Clemson 49 N C State 20

Local Schools Have No 2012/13 Ejections

Recently the NCHSAA announced all the teams from across North Carolina that played the entire school year 2012/13 without any player or coach getting ejected from any school sponsored sporting event. There are 396 member institutions in the NCHSAA and 129 schools played the games the honorable way. That is about two out of three sometime during the season had a player ,coach or school official tossed from a game for some reason. We all take sports way to serious because in the skeem of life the outcome of a ball game has no bearing on whether the sun rises tomorrow or not. It is interesting to note that all three public schools in Edgecombe County did not have an ejection all year. Only two of the five public schools in Nash County were ejection free Rocky Mount Prep and Nash Central. Rocky Mount, Northern Nash and Southern Nash all received a red card at some point in the season. There is no reason of course that every time two teams meet on any field of competition they can't play the game doing every thing they can do to win the game but do it in a manner of good sportsmanship. The world we live in today the world of twenty four hour news where when you watch what they put on the air there is only about 15 minutes a day that has anything that truly concerns us. We really don't need to know what happens in Arizona unless it is got something to do with National security of our country. What is missing is the "On the road segments like Charles Karalt use to do on the national scene or the Tar Heel Traveler" on WRAL. It is nice to see features like the Telegram ran Sunday on the Brice Sisters Tanner and Chandler. One of the problems in this world is violence sells. We live in a world that would rather talk about killings than talk about the things we remember fifty years from now that we call the good old days.

Football Is In High Gear

High school football is nearing the halfway point and some teams are surely setting themselves up to be contenders when conference play starts. Fike is the one team to me that to be 4-0 is the real shocker to this point. I picked them for last and their results so far say they are in the race till the end. HUNT may not be as strong as their undefeated past but but don't look past them when they appear on your schedule. They are as good as anybody and will be in it till the last week. Southern Nash can move the ball on any team in the league and when you can score you will be in every ball game. Injuries will determine how good their offense is. Rocky Mount has proven they can hold down good offenses. The offense has proven to be explosive. Any team that holds you to minimum points will have a chance. Rocky Mount probably has the best offense/defense of any team. They will be in till the end. Northern Nash has a new coach and it takes time to learn new ways and you can see that Northern is slowly coming round to the Randy Raper way. There are three more weeks until conference starts and if they continue to improve each week then they will be a bundle for anyone when conference starts. I thought in my preseason picks they would finish 5th and right Nash Central is headed there or worse. Thursday Clemson comes to Raleigh to play State. Clemson has looked like a world beater while State is not exactly setting the world on Fire. Just might be what the Pack needs national tv. The new look NFL with all of the wide open offenses it still being won by the teams that have the best quarterbacks. Right now there may not be a better quarterback in the NFL than Russell Wilson of the Seahawks. Wilson is not the so called run at every opportunity QB but runs when needed and the Seahawks defense just might be a Super Bowl contender.

Fun Trip Over The Weekend

Followed Campbell Volleyball over the weekend in which Campbell's new coach Greg Goral returned to his stomping grounds for the last five years to Morehead State where he was part of the coaching staff that won the Missouri Valley Conference title the last four years. Whenever you win teams needing a coach come calling to the winners an thus Goral now at Campbell. Morehead does a neat thing before each one of their home games as they have someone to make a ceremonial first serve. Saturday night Jaime Gordon got Goral to make the first serve. I don't know whether Goral knew this was coming or not But Gordon presented Goral with his championship ring from winning the MVC Conference Championship last season. Nice touch from Morehead State. I know everyone in Buies Creek are pleased with the 7-4 start and you could tell those from Morehead loved Greg with all the hugs he got this weekend. It is official the Oakland A's released Xavier Macklin last week and the former Nash Central Bulldog has a decision to make whether will continue to try to make it in pro baseball or look to his future else where. Injuries have cut many a players career short. X never got going this year from shoulder surgery last year. Brian Goodwin's summer seems to be over. Harrisburg lost in the Eastern League finals last Wednesday and Goodwin did not get a call to Washington. Jim Grobe has been the perfect coach for Wake Forest but a lost Saturday to Louisiana-Monroe might be the first or should I say second nail in his coffin after losing to BC last week. The life of a coach is tenuous at best. Just five years or so every college in the country was knocking on his door. I hope the Deacs turn it around except when the Pack comes calling.