High School Football Saturday Morning rewind:Very CONVINCING win by Northern Guilford last night, but knock on wood, here comes Charlotte Catholic and Mr. Hood and this kid is really GOOD(Greensboro vs. Charlotte)

Big Time win by Northern Guilford, to claim their third straight NCHSAA 3-AA Eastern Regional football title last night, but the most important thing this morning is the condition of #4 Brett Welch, who took a strong hit and was knocked unconcious last night and thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family this morning and we hope to see him back in practice next week and on the sidelines for next Saturday night’s CHAMPIONSHIP GAME vs. Charlotte Catholic…Always good to see that #4 runnning in and out of the Nighthawks’ offensive lineup and maybe he won’t be in practice on Monday, but we hope he is able to return before week’s end and maybe he doesn’t get in the game at all next Saturday night, but you hope he can be dressed out and on the sidelines for the Big Game with Catholic…Don’t think there were any head or neck injuries involved and we are thankful for that, the concussion was the story and those things are a top priority in all sports these days….Former Northern Guilford basketball player Jonathan Frye is still working through concussion issues he suffered while at Tulane and now playing at Appalachian…

And back to last night’s game with tons of random thoughts…

Very convincing and dominant win by Northern Guilford last evening at the Nighthawks’s Nest and how about that Time Management Course the Nighthawks were teaching us last night….They scored 16 points in the last 1:40 of the first half….Two touchdowns and a safety by Tre Purcell…What a job by the entire team to put the game ‘on ice’, just before the half….

This Northern Guilford defense has to be one of the best-ever in the state and if not for a long period of time, they have to among the very best you’ll see this season…Three shutout games in the playoffs??? Man that is tough..Deepest threat of the night by Wilson Hunt comes from just outside the 20 and then the ball is fumbled and then kicked and then Jamon Reynolds recovers the ball and it goes back to Northern’s side…The defense is stiffling and who is that defensive coordinator, is that Coach Brian Thomas???

Defensive lineman Ryan Johnston was at the hospital getting hooked to an IV on Thanksgiving Day and he showed up to play in a big way again last night…RJ on the big play and Sindab, Simmons, we mentioned Tre Purcell, plus Ripberger had one interception and he almost had one more, and freshman Matthew McGarry, TJ Ruff, Rory Bergen, TJ Logan, Cam Harris, Jamon Reynolds, they all are doing the job and you have to really appreciate all of those Northern names from the past like Allen, Scarfone, Downing, Hart, Parker, McBeth, Machanic, Maurice Harris, Farris and others, but I think they would be the first to tell you brother, “This team is really making a name for itself”…..

And what about the return of Andrew Keen at left tackle along the offensvie line? We consulted Jeff Mills of the News and Record and we came up with Keen as our ‘Steak and Shake Player of the Game’ from last night’s Nighthawk win…Keen is back on course and of course, we saved the key money man for a little later in this story, and what a job again, by TJ Logan with 221 yards rushing, 67 receiving, he was 2-2 passing to make him 8-8 passing on the season and Logan goes for a total of FOUR big TD’s last night and that one-on-one catch vs. McNair(I think it was) from Hunt, on the pass from Austin Coltrane to the right corner of the end zone was a jump-ball thing of beauty and it made Jeff Mills’ statement that TJ Logan loves his basketball, seem almost prophetic, as Logan went way up, and then came down with the ‘football’…Some kind of athletic play…

Austin Coltrane did a very solid job of running and directing the Northern Guilford offense last night and he had one TD passing and then he ran the ball into the end zone from five yards out for a rushing touchdown and that QB keeper for the TD was a thing of beauty, as Coltrane took it up the chute, you might say, for the paydirt payoff/special…The line almost holds their blocks at the line of scrimmage and Coltrane runs up that chute, going middle with a slight turn/cut to the left and enters the back of the end zone, nearly untouched…Smooth move up the chute….Good to see more members of the ‘Coltrane Train’ at last night’s game, with Billie and Barry there to cheer on their namesake….

Ripberger with a pick/INT and a TD run was having some fun and when Chris Forlano and the Forlano family were breaking down this game at the McDonald’s on Westridge at Battleground after the game, they were telling me that Ripberger(or Red as he is known to many), this kid ‘Red’, is a real student of the game…Breaking it down and taking down every detail, of all of the games….

Getting close the end of the ‘Saturday Morning Rewind’ for today, but how about this ‘Big Question’…..Will Northern Guilford make the trek up to Guilford College one night this week, so they can practice on the Quakers’ Herb Appenzeller Field, which is a ‘turf field’, just like the one at BB&T Field(Wake Forest)??? The Page Pirates got a workout in at Guilford last season, before their meeting with the Garner Trojans, for the 4-AA Title at BB&T…Coach Roscoe, being a Guilford College Quaker grad and former Quaker football player, ought to have the in-roads to that mission…The Nighthawks used to play their games up at Guilford, until their field out on Spencer-Dixon Road was ready for play and back in those days we were watching a Junior Varsity edition of the Northern Guilford Nighthawks, playing at Guilford College…

That just about sums up the ‘Rewind’ for today, but we may have to go back and add in a point or two later on this afternoon….

Maybe we did leave out one key part of the puzzle….

This has to be an extended forecast and guess who is coming to dinner next???

Public Enemy #1….Charlotte Catholic and their top back, Elijah Hood and the kid is that good….Over 3,000 yards rushing on the season and the kid is really that good….Welcome to the neighborhood, Mr. Hood….Only a junior and he stands 6’2 and he weighs 215 and with over 3,000 rushing yards on the year, he has 46 TD’s(right at 50) to go along with his running totals….And he says he likes to play linebacker much more than he does runningback…That’s OK, if plays both ways next Saturday night, he is going to be real busy and maybe the Nighthawks can wear this kid down a bit….We shall see and I’ll have a link on Hood coming your way later today…..

But for right now, what happend last night has to stay out on Spencer-Dixon Road and it is time to for the Northen Guilford Nighthawks to set their sights on Charlotte Catholic and the upcoming Championship Game at BB&T Field….Catholic will be more than just Hood, but the focus will be directly on him and if I was a Northern player, I would with Hood, have his jersey number already memorized and be taking to that number with me to every event I attend this week….Catholic has a coach, in Jim Oddo, that has been in the business as long as Coach Roscoe has, and that is rare to see this day and time…..

Rewind behind and time to get ready for Catholic….Time to take that tweet for the ‘Three-peat’ to the street and it won’t be complete, until the defeat of Mr. Hood and his Catholic cohorts….This ought to be the ‘Game of the Week’, ‘the Game of the Month’, the ‘Game of the Year’ and a ‘GAME FOR THE AGES’, all rolled into one…

Time to shut up and get to work……Best of Luck to both teams on the way in, they are the BEST…….