Reggie Johnson will lead the Rocky Mount defense into Southern Guilford’s C.K. Siler Stadium on Friday night:Reggie Johnson-Reggie Gallaspy(Going to be a busy night)

from Andrew Ivins at the Rocky Mount Telegram, Rocky Mount, N.C. and at www.rockymounttelegram.com

Ivins on Reggie Johnson, linebacker for the Rocky Mount Gryphons….
(CLICK HERE to read the entire article from Andrew Ivins.)

Senior linebacker Reggie Johnson transferred to Rocky Mount High this past spring from a school in New Jersey.

Johnson leads the team with 147 tackles this season and is one of the reasons the Gryphons (8-4) are in the second round of the 3-A state playoffs for the first time in five years.

When Rocky Mount High travels to Southern Guilford on Friday, it will be Johnson who is tasked with leading a defense that has to stop the state’s leading rusher.

Southern Guilford (12-0) is home to senior running back Reggie Gallaspy, an N.C. State commitment who has ran for 2,724 yards and 42 touchdowns this season.

He’s a bruising back with breakaway speed, but if you ask Johnson about Gallaspy, he has a plan for him.

Simply tackle him.

Johnson thinks that for every 10 tackles he makes, that’s the equivalent to the Gryphons scoring points on offense.

“It’s as good as two touchdowns,” he said with a chuckle.

It will come down to the entire defense getting to the ball.

“We have to run and tackle. For a kid like that, everybody has to get involved. You can’t put it on the defensive linemen or the linebackers. It has to be gang tackling,” Coach Jason Battle said.

That means everyone from Johnson, to senior safety Broderick Caudle will have to get in on the action.

“We need to do what we did last Friday this Friday,” Caudle said. “Everybody got to the ball and was in the backfield. Everybody was on their Ps and Qs, and we need that again this Friday.”

Rocky Mount High hasn’t won back-to-back playoffs games since 2008.

Battle is hoping that a once unknown linebacker and a defense that is giving up just 15.6 points per game this season can change that at Southern Guilford.

“We respect them,” Battle said. “We understand how hard it is to go undefeated, because that means they weathered every storm that they had.”

The Gryphons – and Johnson – plan to be the next storm for Southern Guilford, and they will travel almost three hours across the state like a real weather system to do it.

*****The next storm for the Southern Guilford Storm, interesting….*****