Nothing new to Northern:Nighthawks will need a double-dose of ‘Double D’ and TJ, on Friday night at Byrd

Daniel Downing and T.J. Logan will need to step up their games to another level, as Northern Guilford travels to Fayetteville Byrd on Friday night, in Round Three of the NCHSAA football playoffs…..

Nothing new to them, they have been doing it all year/season……Logan, as his numbers speak loud and clear about what he has been doing on the football field this season, will have to rip and run for his average tomorrow night in Fayetteville, if the Nighthawks expect to move on to Round Four of the playoffs, on Thanksgiving Weekend…..

Logan is averaging right 160 yards per game on the ground(159.7 in real time) and he has totaled 31 touchdowns, to go along with his 1,916 rushing yards, for the 2011 season…..Logan has been hitting the ground and running for 200 yards per game, so far in the playoffs….Logan is averaging 9.08 yards per carry on the year and it all comes in on 211 carries for him….Logan needs another 200 yard night, to give the Nighthawks the boost and the roost they need, to survive Fayetteville Byrd….

Daniel Downing, the Nighthawk QB and field-general, has numbers that get your attention too….’Double D’ does double-duty, as a passer and a runner, for NG….Downing has gone 39-78 passing for the Nighthawks, for 802 yards, 15 TD’s and just 4 interceptions…..Daniel Downing has added 833 rushing yards to the Northern cause and that comes in on 122 carries, with an end result of 8 touchdowns….Downing has been averaging 6.83 yards per carry on the season……Logan right at 10 yards per carry and Downing sitting near 7 yards per rush…..

Those two young men bring on the big numbers for Northern and they need to keep producing at that level on Friday night in Fayetteville and if that happens, then Northern has a great shot to win this game……

Defensively, T.J. Ruff, Austin Coltrane and John McBeth are your leading tacklers, plus Scooter Mooney has five interceptions and Coltrane and Cameron Harris have picked off four passes each……On defense, one wild number is the 12, yes I counted 12 fumble recoveries by Tre Purcell…..That is the most that I have seen in a while for one season…..I remember Tommy Harris of Western Guilford was close to a state record, with his 10 fumble recoveries back in 1997…….

The ‘Countdown to Kickoff’ continues and we look for big games from the young men we mentioned here today and Downing and Logan need big games again, if Northern wants to win, down in Fayetteville, on Friday evening….