Report on Northern Guilford-Eastern Alamance from Friday night

I tried a couple of times to get this on Saturday over at the Burlington Times-News web site and one of our readers got through over there and grabbed it and here it is on the Eastern Alamance-Northern Guilford game from Friday evening and there’s a video that goes with this article and you can take that all in when you Click Here and head to the Times-News site.

Eagles fall short against Northern Guilford

MEBANE — In the frantic moments after Eastern Alamance scored a touchdown that whittled a seven-point Northern Guilford lead down to a single point with 15 seconds left, the Nighthawks burned their final timeout while the Eagles’ offense trotted back out on the field to try a potential game-winning two-point conversion.

In the midst of the frenzied Eastern Alamance sideline, a group of grass-stained linemen huddled together for a quick prayer.

The group broke up with an emphatic “Amen!”

When Northern Guilford pressure forced Eagles quarterback Lamar Ivey to fling a rushed pass well short of his intended receiver, those prayers were left unanswered as Northern Guilford took a 24-23 victory, handing the Eagles their first loss of the season.

“We decided to go for the win instead of the tie, it just didn’t pan out,” Eastern Alamance coach John Kirby said.

Eastern Alamance (5-1), ranked second in Class 3-A in The Associated Press state poll, hadn’t been behind much in its five victories this season. But the Eagles didn’t appear fazed when they fell behind 24-14 in the fourth quarter.

“I think our kids kept fighting and playing hard,” Kirby said. “… I don’t think we ever felt like we were going to quit. I don’t think there’s any quit in this team.”

A 38-yard field goal by Tripp Hupman with 11:10 left in the fourth quarter moved the Eagles a score away from knotting things up.

Later in the quarter, a promising Eagles drive was snuffed out when North Guilford recovered a botched handoff. Eastern Alamance’s defense held strong and gave its offense one more try.

Eastern Alamance took advantage of the opportunity, grinding out five first downs to move to the Northern Guilford 8-yard line with less than 30 seconds left.

After an incomplete pass on first down, Ivey rolled to his left and hit tight end Dylan Hair in the end zone with 15 ticks left.

On the two-point conversion try, Ivey looked for Hair again. This time, Northern Guilford’s Stephen Machanic broke through the Eagles blockers to smother Ivey. Before going down, Ivey floated a pass toward the goal line that was knocked down by the Nighthawks’ defense.

“We got a little penetration up the middle and that forced them outside,” Northern Guilford coach Johnny Roscoe said. “I think we had everybody covered on the patterns they were running, we put some pressure on them and tried to put them between a rock and a hard place.”

The failed two-point try was the last turning point in a game full of them.

Eastern Alamance turned its opening possession into an efficient 10-play, 80-yard scoring drive that ended with a 1-yard touchdown run by Ivey.

But the Nighthawks’ senior standout Keenan Allen answered with a 69-yard kickoff return, giving Northern Guilford the ball at the Eagles’ 16. Receiver Maurice Harris made the field position pay off by scoring on a 15-yard reverse.

Northern Guilford jumped ahead later in the quarter when Chris Gaford hit a 22-yard field goal on a possession set up when Northern Guilford recovered an errant Eastern Alamance option pitch. The Nighthawks pushed their lead to 17-7 when Allen, who split time at quarterback, fired a 9-yard touchdown pass to Daniel Downing.

Eastern Alamance chopped into the Nighthawks’ edge before halftime as Ivey guided the Eagles on a nine-play scoring drive, plunging into the end zone for a 2-yard touchdown with two seconds left in the half.

“The line was blocking and I was picking out the routes and reading the defense,” Ivey said. “It was working for us. … It seemed like when it came down to the two-minute drills, we started scoring. We’ve got to do that all throughout the game.”

Northern Guilford put the Eagles back down by double digits when Allen hit Harris for a 33-yard touchdown reception.

“Everybody knew that we were going to make a comeback,” Ivey said. “Nobody’s heads were down. We had faith.”

10 thoughts on “Report on Northern Guilford-Eastern Alamance from Friday night

  1. That was a heck of a football game to watch. The Nighthawk team played great against a difficult opponent and the Nighthawk fans were loud and proud. Thanks for posting!

  2. Well at least some newspaper carried the story about what was one of the best games of the night. HELLO! News and Record, you have a game with one team undefeated, the other with one loss and you couldn’t find the time to send a reporter. I am proud to say I am the dad of a Northern football player and the effort they put out Friday was super. The N&R had time for articles about players who couldn’t play (Gabe King) and even more time when there was the basketball scandal, I guess it would take up to much space to write about something good about our school. Go Nighthawhs

  3. Thanks to the Times-News for a great article. The EA stadium was loud and fun! Wonderful, competitive game by 2 great teams. Click on the link above and see the video someone put together with game highlights; really nice! Thanks to whoever that was! The boys will all love it!

  4. ” The N&R had time for articles about players who couldn’t play (Gabe King) and even more time when there was the basketball scandal, I guess it would take up to much space to write about something good about our school ”

    don’t you know only negativity and perpetuating falsehoods sells newspapers? 😉

    Northern , the most scrutinized, investigated, villanized team ever just knocked of the #2 AP ranked 3A team in the state…it’s amazing how those boys and coaching staff can keep the focus w/ all the crap they have had thrown at them.

    N & R takes the easy way out by only reporting the surface ” fluff “…I do believe they are in such poor financial shape that they can only give about 10% of the coverage they used to, so they gamble on what they think will be the game of the week, ala the BIG story on that real exciting 6-3 game for 4th place in the conference…it’s those kind of decisions that show just what kind of paper we’re dealing w/…

  5. It must be a lack of funding for that newspaper. It was obviously the number one game in the area this weekend and they don’t send a reporter? Robert Bell appears to read this blog and maybe he can respond. If the N&R is going to print all of the negative stories about Northern, they should have the decency to report on the good things that are happening there.

  6. What a very great compettive game. What I’m looking forward to is this Friday night when Eastern Guilford goes to Northern and then we’ll see Josh Morehead match up against the very much talked about Keenan Allen. The word around town is player of the year is between Mr.Morehead and Mr.Allen even though Allen is more talked about but maybe Morehead has more talent just maybe but Allen is already committed to alabama Morehead has not committed anywhere yet but maybe that’s because Josh Morehead plays for coach Scott Loosemore who seems to be a very lazy coach. You coaches out there if you had talent like Josh Morehead don’t you think you could at least already had him a offer? Maybe a different coach would put in more effort. Josh Morehead is just a stud on the field with 13 touchdowns this season and just got moved to quarterback the 4th game of the season seems to be adjusting well I’m ready for the rest of the season to see what Morehead can do. And maybe just maybe a 1-5 Eastern Guilford team can beat a 6-1 northern team but who knows. We just have to wait and see.

  7. NCAA,

    Again you are another idiot that is not with any of these coaches when they are working for these kids. You don’t know what these coaches do for the kids. You are also a person that knows nothing about the recruiting process. Josh is getting looks but at the same time a high school coach cannot make a college offer. He will get offered in due time. Until then shut your freakin mouth and quit presuming to know anything about football or it’s coaches.

  8. To Mr. NCAA,
    First, I hate to get involved in name calling but you my friend are an idiot. You are the guy that gets on rivals.com and other recruiting websites and gets caught up in how many stars a recruiting service is putting beside a name. You read the articles put before you and deem yourself a self proclaimed bird dog scout that actually thinks you know anything about the recruiting process. Let’s put out of the equation the near 40-50 division I schools that Coach Loosemore has sent letters, emails, and tape too but let us also remember that he was a division I football Coach himself giving him more contacts then most coaches in the area. I am also very aware that Coach Loosemore personally took Josh Morehead to ECU for an invite only camp. I am tired of people like YOU, this website, and this area thinking that they know everything about every good local talent because you read greensborosports.com and I don’t know everything either but I know Eastern Guilford football because thats my school and thats who I follow. If you knew anything all you can do IDIOT is promote promote promote and ultimately its up to the recruiting coordinators to make their decisions. Do these college guys sometimes make mistakes on kids yes do kids get overlooked yes but Scott Loosemore promotes his kids just as hard or harder then any Coach in this area. Stop talking about something you don’t have any clue about your post was insane and funny. Guess you haven’t seen Josh Morehead and 4 stars on rivals.com so you get on here and bash Loosemore. Get off your computer and go really learn something about football.

  9. Mr. NCAA or better known as Keenan Allens dad, how bout this doesnt become a personal thing between you and Coach Loosemore. He was not even the coach when your sons were at Eastern.

  10. ” Mr. NCAA or better known as Keenan Allens dad ”

    Why would KA’s dad be on here talking up Josh Morehead? and even saying JM could hang w/ or be better than KA??

    Some of you people can dream up some screwed up unrealities in your own paranoid little worlds… & btw, I agree that calling the coach lazy is uncalled for, no one knows whats been done except the player and his family…

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