You have to give it to the Dudley Panthers defensive line. They dictated the outcome of the game Friday night with Ragsdale and the Panthers(14-0) move on to face Northeast Guilford(8-6), for the 3-AA East Championship next Friday night at Tarpley Stadium on the Dudley campus. It will be an all-Triad 3-A conference battle for the crown and for the right to move on and play for the State Title Saturday December 13 at BB&T Field in Winston-Salem.
The Dudley “D” must have sacked Ragsdale quaterback Tim Romer at least 10 times last night(N&R had it at 7) and if it wasn’t a sack, Romer was being trapped in his own Tiger backfield by the Panthers. Kelton Shepherd, Darius Hall, Chris Neal, Josh Jones, Major Bryant and all the Panthers kept Romer roaming and runnng for his life all night long and it was especially treacherous for Romer in the second half and more so as the game got into it’s late stages. The guys up front, on the defensive line, and also on the blockers on the Dudley Panther offensive line, may be the best collective group of linemen we have seen since they started playing football in Guilford County, “they are that good”.
Ricky Lewis Jr. deserves special recognition too, for the job he did running the Panther offense. Dudley came out bound and determined to throw the ball during their first series on offense and they found out quickly that this was not going to be their primary means of moving the football. Dudley on the ground is going to work for you, and the Panthers know that in the end if you give the ball to Ricky Lewis Jr., or just have him keep after he take the snap at QB and run the ball, there is a very good chance that in the end, Lewis will get you into the end zone. Lewis had three TD’s last night and over 140 yards on the ground.
If you missed the score, the final was Dudley over Ragsdale, 26-10.
Ragsdale closes at (13-1) and you have to respect what the Tigers did this season. It was an excellent run by the kids from Jamestown and with a new QB in 2008, the Tigers and their field general Tim Romer, battled all the way to the third round of the state playoffs. I was looking at the Tiger add-on roster for the playoffs, and it looks like the Tigers have fomer quarterback Matt Heavner’s younger brother Luke, waiting in the wings and ready to take the center snaps in the future. Coach Tommy Norwood has 28 years of service in now with the school system, and as the end nears for the coach, hopefully the next couple of years will be good ones too.
Big Jim Modlin will have more on the Tigers later today or early tomorrow and we have Paul Lambeth’s write-up on the Page Pirates loss to Fayetteville 71st and the loss of Will Newman. The Pirates fall hard, 28-3 and in many ways that shows us how much Newman meant to the Pirates. Without Will, Page could pretty much write up the Pirates’ last will and testement. Joe Barile will have more on the Pirates’s seaon soon for us here at the site.
Northeast Guilford won with Ram-tough defense down at Northern Vance last night. NEG picks up the 7-6 victory and can Kenny Rush and crew bring that same NEG toughness over to Dudley’s Tarpley Stadium next week and upset the Panthers?????
A couple of other wild scores from last night; Charlotte Independence mauled Matthews Butler 49-7 and did we read this one correctly, 3-AA West:Kings Mountain over Anson County, 56-55. That reads again, Kings Mountain 56, Anson County 55……Whew, what kind of game was that?????
One game left and two Guilford County teams remain. Northeast Guilford(8-6) at Dudley(14-0) next Friday night.
Great Season for Ragsdale……….. Congratulations !!!!!
In time they will realize how special a season they had. Right now, I am sure it hurts.
Thanks Kevin. The boys are fine. They played hard and hung in there. They realize they had a great season and they played with class. It was better than we could have imagined. Good luck to Dudley the rest of the way.
Andy,
I think you are not giving enough credit to the Dudley O-line. In the second half Ragsdale only had 4 possesions. Once they did not score from the 2 yard line they only had 2 more possessions. The last 2 were desparation possessions since they were down at least 2 scores with less than 7 minutes to go.
More credit should Dudley O-line. Dudley started the second half with a 10 minute drive. That drive effectively won the game for Dudley. There was only one pass in the drive. No one expected the offense of Ragsdale to put up many points. But everyone new Ragsdale had a great D. Ragsdale sat back, never attacked and took a slow death on D Friday. It was because the Dudley O-line owned Ragsdale’s D-line and backers
I agree in the 4 possessions that Dudley had the D-line looked great. But it was the O-line that won the battle of which line was better for Dudley on Friday.