How about going out on a limb last night and then seeing that limb break off right in front of your face. With two games this week, on Monday and then Friday and both of the broadcast games being one-point differences, 7-6 Monday, and 50-49 last night, all you can say is CRAZY MAN, and ask the question have you ever seen anything like it in just one week of football?????
Again it was 7-6 on Monday with Ragsdale over SEG in a game that wasn’t decided until the last minute of the game and then last evening with Page up 34-8 at halftime and then they fall in overtime 50-49 to Davie County. The word is, that almost like you see in some of our presidential races, FOX 8 had already declared Page the winner of the game on their football show after seeing the first half results.
The first half blowout, the interception, the safety, the fumble recovery for a War Eagle touchdown, the blocked extra point in overtime, the Davie County fumble on their first play in OT; this game had it all, and there may not be many more like it, ever. Our man Joe Barile will have full details here at the site later today.
Now back to that, “Give me a limb and I’ll break it”, statement. I went for the downs this week and had Page, Grimsley, and even Smith taking victories and none of them made me look like a genius. The record for this week is decent at (7-4) and the season record now stands at (50-16) and with the Pirates, Whirlies, and Golden Eagles falling, we also saw Southest Guilford come home with the empty feeling(losing 14-12) and we had them topping Trinity at Archdale or in that neighborhood.
Joe will get us up to speed on Page-Davie County and we look for Lee or Mark to help us on the Ragsdale-Eastern Randolph contest which the Tigers took from the Wildcats 31-12. Looks like it was a big night for LB Walt Sparks with a fumble return for a TD and DeSean Anderson had 82 yards in receptions on just three catches.
Talking about those Wildcats, Eastern Guilford got the win at Southwest Guilford to go (6-0) for the season and Reidsville is waiting down the road for EG. EG coach Scott Loosemore sat his quarterback Jason Davis out in the first quarter on Friday night after Davis was one minute late for an Algebra class this week. It was 0-0 after one period with EG-SWG but Davis came in and he ran for two Wildcat scores and passed for another and Eastern wins it 33-8.
Western Guilford pounded Morehead 43-0 behind two TD’s each from Brandon Easter and Julius Hooks and the Hornets are now at (3-4) overall. WG had 134 yards rushing and 115 yds. through the air. The Smith Golden Eagles played North Forsyth tight but came up without a “W” for 27th game in a row. Twenty-seven straight games now without a win for Smith and the Golden Eagles lost the first half 14-6 and in half number two they fell 18-6, but at one point Smith was only down 20-12 in the second half. The NF Vikings missed on 4 PAT kicks and this was a perfect chance for the Eagles to get a win, but it won’t come this week. BJ Briley scored both Smith touchdowns.
Doug Cockman has our NEG rewind and it is good to see Coach Tommy Pursley’s men back in the hunt with the big win over Southern Alamance. What is up with Grimsley????? The Whirlies are on a four-game losing streak after winning their first two and now stand at (2-4) after falling at WS Reynolds 25-0 last night. Lately Grimsley can’t even seem to score points.
Northern Guilford led by the man we highlighted here at the site yesterday, Rocco Scarfone, crushed North Raleigh Christian 36-0. Little Rocky had 3 TD passes and ran for another score to send the NG Nighthawks to (5-1). Dudley smacked Bartlett Yancey 41-0 and Reidsville racked High Point Andrews 47-6.
That has us covered for this week’s rewind and if you can help us and pass along other details on the games. please leave them in the comment box.
Who knows what will happen next week, and if you want to be right on top of the most exciting and interesting football in the area then keep here and stay tuned in to our radio games at AM950, because it doesn’t get any better or closer than this. In one week we go with 7-6 and 50-49 in OT. Wow, that is CRAZY MAN…….
Andy could you find out if the same refs called the Southeast game last night, they lost a close one so it had to be the refs fault, or maybe Coach Fritz needs to work on how to stop the other team with the game on the line.
Grimsley is on the way back and they have two new players that will join the team next week so look out High Point and Page because the Whirlie offense is fixing to blow.
The Black Watch better look out for Charlie Jones coming up the middle.
The Black Watch is coming to town Friday night and the Whirlies will be shut out for 2 weeks in a row.
Ragsdale defense got it done last night in the 31-12 win over E Randolph. Four turnovers, interceptions by Antonio Gilyard, Billy Stone and Jonathan Ashworth (returned for a TD) and a fumble recovery by Walt Sparks (also returned for a TD) was the main theme last night. Ragsdale was only up 7-0 at half time on a 11 yard TD pass from Romer to Sonricker on the heels of a 60 yard completion to DeSean Anderson. Ragsdale should have been up more as they had two trips inside the 20 end in interceptions – both went right through receiver hands first.
Sparks fumble recovery in the third made it 14-0. Ed (Ratt) Ross scored from 14 yards out to make it 21-0 Ragsdale. ER finally got on the board on a short TD run in the third to cut the lead to 21-6. Billy Stone’s INT was turned into a 20 yard Kasey Redfern FG and Ragsdale finished their scoring on Ashworth’s interception return. ER scored on a hail mary as time expired to make it a 31-12 final. Ragsdale now 7-0 and with Trinity beating Southeast last night Ragsdale’s game at Trinity next Friday is for first place in the conference.
It was great to see the defense continue to mature. Ragsdale runs lots of athletes out there and Stone, Sparks and Ashworth really do a great job all game from their linebacker spots. Good to see Anderson punting again (although he didn’t in the second half) and also making big plays on offense. This is a fun team to watch on both sides of the ball.
For three quarters it was your typical Eastern Randolph/Ragsdale dog fight until the Ragsdale offense and a couple of ER turnovers ended in a 31-12 Ragsdale win.
ER took the opening kickoff and QB Coward led ER straight down the field with a strong running game behind good blocking and a couple of key completions. However the drive stalled at the 14 yard line as ER passed on the 1st two downs and was unable to move the ball. A field goal attempt went just wide left and Ragsdale held on downs.
Ragsdale them moved downfield behind nice holes opened by the O line for D’Onavon Smith. Romer completed a couple for nice passes and it was 1st and goal from the ER 10 yard line. However that is where it ended as a holding call out on the edge and well behind the line put Ragsdale back to the 25 yard line with 1st and goal. Romer had to take to the air and a ball just off the out-stretched fingers of Mearite was tipped and intercepted by ER. ER then began to move the ball again however a ER pass was tipped on a deep in route and Gilyard for Ragsdale intercepted the tipped ball and ran it back 10 yards to the Ragsdale 47. Romer proceeded to take Ragsdale down the field but on 3rd down another ball just a bit high went off the finger tips of Jenkins and the ER safety was once again where he was supposed to be and intercepted the pass.
The Ragsdale defense held again and once again Romer led the Ragsdale team down the field and completed a deep out for 10 yards to Sonricker in the corner of the end zone to give Ragsdale a 7-0 lead midway through the 2nd quarter. After an exchange of punts the half ended with Ragsdale leading 7-0 at the half.
Ragsdale received the 2nd half kickoff but was unable to move the ball. After exchanging punts Ragsdale was able to pin ER back deep in their territory. ER picked up one 1st down however on 2nd down Coward rolled to his left on an option play. Ragsdale DE Daniel McNeill stayed home and had Coward pinned in with help from Ragsdale LBer Walt Sparks. Coward was able to get off a rushed pitched to his running back but the pitch was slightly behind him and Sparks scooped up the loose ball and ran it in for a touchdown from 17 yards out to make the score 14-0 after Redfern’s kick.
Redfern kicked off and once again sent the kickoff completely out of the end zone. Only one of his kickoffs could be returned by ER. The Ragsdale defense quickly stopped ER and forced a punt. Romer wasted no time directing a short drive capped off by a 15 yard run by Ragsdale FB Ed Ross to put Ragsdale up 21-0. A key play in the drive was a 50 plus yard reception from Romer to DeSean Anderson.
There was no quit in ER as they took the kickoff and move the ball steadily down the field. A key play in the drive was a pass from Tucker Coward to Bill Stanley to move the ball too the Ragsdale 4 yard line for a 1st and goal. ER was able to punch the ball in on 2n down from the 3 on a nice o-line push for ER back Malcolm Greene. The kick was just wide and the score was 21-6.
Ragsdale was unable to sustain a drive and ER forced a punt. ER took over after the Ragsdale punt. ER was able to pick up one 1st down however ER tried a pass down the middle late and Ragsdale LBer Billy Stone stepped in front of the Tucker Coward pass and intercepted the ball. Ragsdale moved the ball down to the 4 yard line where the offense stalled and Redfern was called on to kick a 20 yard field goal which was successful making the score 24-6 in favor of Ragsdale.
Again ER and Ragsdale exchanged punts however with ER moving the ball they called a flat pass that the whole Ragsdale defense had seen on tape all week and Ragsdale LBer Jonathon Ashworth broke on the ball and intercepted the pass in full stride and raced into the end zone. The kick from Ryan Wall was successful making the score 31-6. Ragsdale Coach Norwood begins substituting freely and ER continued to move the ball on offense. On the last play of the game Coward connected with ER receiver Terrence Street from about 40 yards out for a touchdown making the score 31-12. The extra point was not attempted since the clock had run out.
Once again Ragsdale was paced by a complete team effort. The defense was tough with many players stepping up and making plays such as Ellison and Jones at DT, McNeill, Garner and McCoy at DE, Lbers Stone, Sparks, Jon and Josh Ashworth, and Gilyard, Armwood, Benjamin, Mearite and Lecompte in the defensive backfield. On offense Smith ran hard behind Cobb, Ritter, Jenkins, Gabel, Morris, Fennison and Cates. Romer was steady as usual and Jenkins, Sonricker, Anderson and Mearite did yeoman’s work at the receiver positions.
The score of the game does not indicate how close the game was for 3 quarters. The ER team that took the field did not have the talent of recent ER teams due to ER losing many players to the new Providence Grove School. Even though ER coach Burton Cates had his feet swept out from under him, there was no quit in ER. They were a typical Burton Cates coached team. ER played hard and never quit all night. They played tough on defense and had creativity on offense. ER actually out-gained Ragsdale 211 yards to 186 for Ragsdale. However the 4 turnovers and 2 defensive touchdowns were too much for ER to overcome. As ER moves to 2A next year and Ragsdale moves to 4A the fans can only hope this series will continue as an OOC game.
While the game was exciting we all turn our focus and prayers to Cameron Scott Wayne from Southern Guilford and his family as well as Deandre Thomas from NC A&T and his family. Both men were taken from this world in a car accident early Saturday morning.
The report I heard on the car accident was incorrect. Only one young man passed away. I apologize for the mistake.