High School Football Saturday Morning Rewind/Saturday Evening Post

Tough day in Raleigh for the Page Pirates where they fell 49-6 to the Mallard Creek Maverick in the NCHSAA 4-AA Football Championship Game….

Page turned the ball over early and there were three fumbles and two interceptions that really did the Pirates in….

Score was 14-0 Mallard Creek and they Page fumbled the ball two times those fumbles led to Mallard Creek scores and before you get up and take a deep breath and say what do we do next, Mallard Creek had extended their lead to 28-0…

Mallard Creek, behind their senior quarterback James Smith was rolling with Smith throwing for three TD scores and running for another and Chancery Bowman getting into the end three times, before leaving the game and coming back for the post-game awards ceremony on crutches…

Javon Leake scored late for the Pirates on a 70 yard pass play which came on a swing pass from Page QB Will Jones…

Plain and simple turnovers killed Page today and the best thing about today is that the Pirate juniors have a shot to get back here next season…

Page did not execute today in Raleigh, but does not kill an outstanding season, with Page finishing the year at (13-3)….

Talking about those turnovers earlier, pigskin turnovers taste flat-out terrible in comparison to apple and cherry turnovers….Like we said Page turned the ball over and game the ball to the Mallard Creek Mavericks too many times on Saturday afternoon…

Coach Mike Palmeri(Mallard Creek) said before the game that he had the best leader in the state and the best quarterback in the state and his main man, James Smith, lived up to that billing today…

Smith has now led the Mallard Creek Mavericks to three straight 4-AA State Titles and says a lot at any level of competition…Three straight titles and the same kid at the helm for the entire ride, that is steady stuff there…Northern Guilford had three different QB’s leading their charge back when they won three in a-row with Rocco Scarfone, Daniel Downing and Austin Coltrane having a handle on the Nighthawks’ fortunes as the claimed their crowns…

Page got a good education today and school was in session at N.C. State in Raleigh for a Saturday afternoon and you can be sure that Pirate QB Will Jones and RB Javon Leake got plenty of learning and loads of new ideas to take home with them and they will bring those educational tools back with them when they return for their senior seasons at Page…

I learned something and saw something for the first time in a long time today there in Raleigh and that was the key phrase, “Total Release”….Had not seen a “Total Release” to compare to what Mallard Creek was showing us today and had even thought about that key phrase, “Total Release” until later on this evening, after the game had some time to settle/soak in….

A true “Total Release” effort by James Smith with the three TD passes going to Thad Moss, Ryan Jones and Corey Sutton and then Smith ran for a score as well….

Part of what was happening today was not just that Page was having and off and in many ways they did come into Raleigh and choose to have a bad, Mallard Creek made it that way for them and for that, you have to give the Mavericks a lot of credit….

Many of the mistakes that Page was making were forced errors created by the Mallard Creek defense…Oh sure, Page had their fair share of miscues, but you have to lay of lot of the blame for the origination of those errors at the feet of the Mallard Creek Maverick…

Last week Page rolled over Middle Creek, but this week Jones and Leake were playing Mallard Creek and now after winning three consecutive State Titles, Mallard Creek is a team built more like “Old Man River”….

An eye-opening educational moment for the Page Pirates today and how Mallard Creek was able to find so much space in the Page defense was a tribute to the preparation and then with the Mavericks defense, they took away all the space that Page would need to complete key passes and to make crucial running plays work…Mallard Creek cut down the space that Page need to operate and execute their offense…

Mallard Creek was also working at a much faster speed than Page and the overall team speed of the Mavericks was evident from the beginning of the game when the Mavericks returned the opening kickoff nearly 55 yards and gave themselves great field position leading to the first and for sure not their last touchdown of the day…..

Mallard dictated the flow of this game and controlled the ball, the clock and the Pirates….

The Mavericks are the 4-AA Champions, but you can not take anything away at from Page and their remarkable 2015 season…Most of us would take a (13-3) overall record any day of the week….Page earned theirs and there is still more to come for remains of this team….

The Page Pirates have begun to scratch the surface of what they can do behind the passing of Will Jones and the running of Javon Leake and who knows maybe Micah Gafford gets more involved in the running and receiving mix for the Pirates next season…The kid, #26 Gafford, has excellent speed and vision and he was used primarily on defense and kickoff returns this season, but in the future, he may give Page a few more wrinkles that they can develop when they get this kid, Gafford, out there in the open spaces and let him run wild and fast….

Lots of hope for the future with young men like the Game Defensive MVP for Page, Alan Tisdale coming back in 2016 for his just his junior year as a Pirate….*****Keep an eye and ear on the development and the recruitment of returning center Nick Mackovic as 2016 approaches, this kid may get some hefty offers and he is on the big/hefty list already, checking in at 300-plus and still growing…

This team has a good arm(Jones) and good legs in Leake and Gafford and might see Page back up there on the big stage again next season…Mallard Creek will lose their QB James Smith, but this Mallard Creek bunch is a living and breeding high school football program and just like Page they have the key legs to stand on and they have been standing tall…..

Lots more to look at and to talk about and we have seen some good comments coming in here at the site in regards to today’s game in Raleigh….
+++++I tell you a kid we all going to miss as he has now closed out his Page Pirate career, but he will still be kicking for the North Carolina team next week in the North Carolina-South Carolina Shrine Bowl game and that is Harrison Kiser….Kiser “The Kicker”, great kid and a great one(#9) for the Page Pirates…+++++

Read On….

CLICK HERE for the Wyatt Smith(GreensboroSports.com) write-up of the game…

CLICK HERE for Joe Sirera with the News and Record report on Page-Mallard Creek from Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh….

CLICK HERE for Joe Sirera on the Mallard Creek experience and how it helped make a difference how today’s game was played….

CLICK HERE for Langston Wertz Jr. with the Charlotte Observer on the Page-Mallard Creek game…

CLICK HERE for Page-Mallard Creek from WRALSportsFan.com…

CLICK HERE for another good post from Langston Wertz Jr. at the Charlotte Observer with some key photos that you can click on…

One thought on “High School Football Saturday Morning Rewind/Saturday Evening Post

  1. Looks like the 4AA and 4A championships still run through Charlotte. Our two best teams in Guilford dropped the ball this year. Dudley the week before against Catholic and Page in a big way the week after to Mallardcreek. Lets pull it together next year guys and show up for the big games!

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