High School Football Poll

Here’s our second poll of the 2007 season:

#1 Northeast Guilford(The Rams stopped Page 14-7 and are 1-0 as they play host to Eastern this week. QB Kendall Bratcher is still the key to the NEG success)

#2 Grimsley(The Whirlies won it in Double OT at Northern Durham and now go over to face a very tough Dudley Panther team this Friday night. Grimsley will have sophomore RB Kenan Allen back from Academic Suspension and he should help in a hurry. Page-transfer Stefan Shepard was the man with the game-winning field goal at ND and another transfer fron Page, Jay Hinson, who came to Grimsley last year, has been a big help on defense. QB Zach Maynard will also return for Grimsley after his one-game suspension after being ejected from the opener at East Wake)

#3 Dudley(The Panthers took care of Eastern Randolph in week two and now host Grimsley with both squads coming in at 2-0. Ricky Lewis Jr. filled in for starting QB Jenkins, the Southern Guilford-transfer, and with both QB’s, RB Tyree Ward, and WR Kenny Okoro the Panthers have a potent offense. Dudley’s strong suit will be defense and since this game with Grimsley may be a toss-up then it may come down to the kicking game and the Whirlies hold the upper hand in that department)

#4 Page(The Pirates played NEG tough and now will take a 1-1 record to Southen Lee County this week. Calvin Stout will have to take over the Pirate defense and do his thing and QB Will Newman has to make the offense click. Will’s dad, Lewis Newman, said last night that the family lives in the Eastern Guilford district but they prefer that Will goes to Page but he would love to have him at Grimsley for his senior year, but he doesn’t see that happening. It will also help Page to get key RB DJ McNeil back in the lineup this week)

#5 Ragsdale(The Tigers are quietly becoming one of the teams to beat and after last week’s 29-15 win over Southwest Guilford the Tigers go to Northwest this week. Ragsdale should be fine with Canty and Cathey and looking ahead the Tigers have both Grimsley and Page coming up soon on their schedule)

#6 High Point Andrews(The Red Raiders have a strange schedule after beating Ben L. Smith to go 1-0 to start the season. HPA was open in week one, and now they have another open spot coming up in week three. Too soon to tell what they have got but we’ll know next week when they travel to take on Grimsley)

#7 High Point Central(The Black Bison looked good last Friday night in the shootout at Burlington Williams winning it 55-35 with Ricky Mitchell stealing the show. This week HPC at 1-1 will entertain 0-2 Eastern Randolph and the Wildcats will be fighting mad)

#8 Southern Guilford(The Storm have yet to blow it this year going 2-0 out of the blocks. SG rattled Randleman last week and now have the Trinity Bulldogs coming up this week. Former Grimsley boss, Todd Shuping, is with the ‘Dogs as an assistant but SG RB William Graves is getting cranked up and Southern is set to go 3-0 with Southeast coming on board next Friday)

#9 Western Guilford(The Hornets are another one of those surprise teams and this week should shock no one when they take out Smith. WG was solid against NWG and with week three almost upon them coach Chris Causey will have his men ready again. WG should be 3-0 come Saturday morning)

#10 Eastern Guilford(EG pulled off the biggest upset of the week last Friday when they went to Southeast and beat the Falcons. Eastern, at 1-1, will have more than their hands full when they travel to face NEG Friday in the Rams home-opener. Can Scott Loosemore’s EG ‘Cats pull off another one?)

#11 Southeast Guilford(Oh, how the Mighty Falcons have fallen. After last Friday’s loss to EG Don Venable, the granfather of ECU-bound Justin Venable, told me the Falcons were beat up. I saw Mr. Venable in church on Sunday morning and he said, “you’ve got to have some blocking up front”. It won’t be any easier with Southwest Guilford headed to SEG this Friday night. The running game must get going, Nick Bell only had 54 yards and he got 42 of those yards on one carry. SEG is 1-1 and SWG also stands at 1-1)

#12 Southwest Guilford(The Cowboys are 1-1 after that loss at Ragsdale and they will travel to SEG and face a Falcon club that they beat on Labor Monday 2006 after the game was rained out on Friday. SWG wins it in 2006 but SEG faces a must-win situation in 2007)

#13 Northwest Guilford(The NWG Vikngs have Ragsdale coming in to the Viking’s Den on Friday and the Tigers are heading in one direction and NWG is going the other. At 0-2, the Vikings better hope that this game doesn’t get out of control and that the Tigers go on a Roll. Ragsdale is right but they haven’t been tested this year and they won’t need a crash course going into or coming out of this one)

#14 Smith(It is going to be a long season for the Golden Eagles. They have been out-scored 70-7 after the first two weeks. This week it’s 3-A WG playing host to 4-A Smith but the extra enrollment numbers won’t add up to an Eagle victory. End result should be, WG 3-0 and Smith 0-3)

#15 Northern Guilford(The Nighthawks are 2-0 and travel to battle the JV’s at Smith on Thursday evening. Johnny Roscoe has become the best-known, unknown coach in Guilford County. Roscoe is old-school and it was a good move to bring him in to get this program started. He is all business, and as Jeff Carlton reported in the recent N&R article on JR, the coach has to get used to working with a bunch of kids that still need their momma and like to kiss their daddy. The coach and kids will grow up together and NGHS is building a solid foundation for future success)
******That’s it for this week, be sure to check our inteview with Grimsley coach Mark Saunders coming up later today.*****