Christmas Comes Early for Guilford County Schools’ Football Teams:React and Adjust and they did and they must(State Titles or Bust)

THIS IS OUR FRIDAY NIGHT FINISH
All three of our Guilford County Teams won tonight and now you have Three, that’s right Three Guilford County Schools going for NCHSAA State Titles next Saturday….

Last week we got done with the finish around 4am and our goal is to get done a little sooner this evening/morning…

Dudley was down to Charlotte Catholic by the score of 10-7 at halftime in Charlotte tonight and that offensive line for Catholic, coached by former Carolina Panther Frank Garcia, was giving the Panthers fits…But fit this. Dudley knew how to react and adjust and the Panthers got a beautiful TD pass from Hendon Hooker to Nigel Fitzgerald and later on the second half Awstyn Williams runs a fumble back 85 yards for a Panthers scoop and score and that gave Dudley six more and after some defensive adjustments, the Panthers did not allow a second half point to the Charlotte Catholic Cougars…For the past month and maybe even longer than that, Williams has been playing like an All-State player…He plays the run to near-perfection and then as a defensive lineman, he also drops back into pass coverage..For the past two weeks, this young man has set the tone for the Dudley Defense…Hendon Hooker accounted for the other two TD’s for Dudley, with one a short run and the other on that pass to Fitzgerald…

Dudley was able to react and adjust and it didn’t take them long to do it…Dudley has played “Lights Out” football in the second half the past two Friday Nights…This is a team that can win a 4-A Title next Saturday night at Carter-Finley Stadium, in Raleigh…Dudley also got a strong effort from Myles White, who was out of the lineup last Friday at Davie County, but Myles returned this week and he was again, a difference-maker…DJ Crossen came up with a fumble recovery on ‘D’, Caleb Matthews got a big strip, Dudley was ripping and stripping that ball away from the Catholic Cougar ball carriers all night long and that is a tribute to Dudley’s overall strength….Tariek Rush had one super kickoff return for right at 56 yards and Dudley got a lot of help from a lot of different areas and from a lot of different people on both offense and defense on Friday night…

One observation, it is not easy to stop a running back who lines up 5 yards deep in the backfield, behind the QB, who is settled under his center and that back gets a head start and he hits the line with a full head of steam like Jack Brigham and Milan Howard were doing for Catholic tonight, that is not easy to stop, but Dudley began closing that door, as the game went on Friday night….Those backs hit those holes quick and hard and they are coming at you fast and no matter what size they are, the backs can make it tough, but Dudley got tougher tonight….

Dudley vs. Cape Fear next Friday night….That is one team from Guilford County in and good job Dudley Panthers…
Cape Fear over Scotland County, 27-7…Dudley(14-1)/Cape Fear(15-0)..

We have another team from Greensboro/Guilford County going to the Big Dance/Big Show next Saturday and that would be the Page Pirates…Page wore out Charlotte Vance on Friday night, 49-14 and Will Jones accounted for six more touchdowns and what does give him now, 18 touchdowns responsible for over the past three weeks alone…Will Jones making a run for All-State QB and no reason why he and Hendon Hooker shouldn’t both make that All-State List, at QB…Both Jones and Hooker were named to the NC Shrine Bowl squad, but now neither one of them will be playing in that game next Saturday, they(Jones and Hooker) will both be going for State Championships…And the same applies for Javon Leake(Page HS), Spencer Clapp(Eastern Guilford HS) and others from Guilford County that were named to the NC Shrine Bowl team…

Now Will Jones and Page will be facing Wake Forest High School, who just knocked off Middle Creek 20-17 and this is the same Wake Forest HS team that sent Dexter Lawrence to Clemson and some are saying Lawrence might now be the best defensive lineman in all of college football and he is just a freshman…Last year Page beat Lawrence and the Unbeaten Wake Forest Cougars, 30-12 in Round Two of the NCHSAA Playoffs and that game was at Wake Forest and now this year, the Pirates(14-1) and the Cougars(15-0) will meet for all of the marbles, in Raleigh at the Carter-Finley Stadium, next Saturday afternoon and the NCHSAA 4-AA Title will be on the line….

Page got three TD receptions from Ronald Polite, plus an interception from RP, plus Javon Leake broke loose on a 49-yard touchdown run bringing smiles to the Pirates’ fans faces and making all feel like Leake is now back to 100% and this return to full-strength status couldn’t have come at a better time for Leake and all of those on the Pirate Ship…Will Jones could have jumped off of that Pirate Ship after his performance in last year’s 2015 State Championship Game and that was a 49-6 loss to the Mallard Creek Mavericks by the way, but Will Jones has used that experience in that final game of 2015 to make him the complete player and leader that he has become in 2016 and the Page Pirates and their strong fan base have been well rewarded by the leaps and bounds that Will Jones has taken since his team took that loss, in last year’s final game…

Will Jones has grown and from what are hearing and seeing, this young man has not quite finished what he started, but he is one game away from making good on his promise that we would never have to see
him go through what he went through and had to endure in 2015, when the Mallard Creek Mavericks made life miserable for Will Jones and his Pirate Mates…….

Good job Page Pirates and my how that Will Jones has grown and don’t forget the maturation of one Ronald Polite, who now is just about ready to be named an All-State wide receiver…And don’t sell Tyler DeBerry short, he is tall enough/big enough to make Page a true favorite in that game next Saturday…

Plenty more on PAGE in the Wyatt Smith post-game post, coming your way here at GreensboroSports.com….

And then you have your regular feline neighborhood wild cats and then you really have your Unbeaten Guilford County Eastern Guilford Wildcats and what about the EG ‘Cats???

EG is Unbeaten at (15-0) and will go for an 3-AA Title next Saturday at BB&T Field, in Winston-Salem…EG topped Jacksonville 26-21 on Friday and what a night it was for the EG ‘Cats and for all of their “Wildcat Crazies”…

EG at (15-0) will meet (12-3) Weddington for the 3-AA Crown and the Weddington Warriors stopped Hickory Ridge 24-7 on Friday night and Weddington is a team on the move…Weddington fell to the Northern Guilford Nighthawks 14-7 in the 3-AA Championship Game back in 2014 and for Eastern Guilford they have never been this far before, but they are making the most of the journey now…

EG had a close one with Jacksonville, as the #1 seeded ‘Cats just slipped past the JAX by five points and the JAX were a #5 seed and EG is #1 and the JAX game could have been a ‘Trap Game’, but the EG ‘Cats lived to survive and advance and now Eastern Guilford is headed to the Big Dance/Stage…

I saw some of the EG highlights on the Friday Football Fever Show while I was driving back from Charlotte and was very impressed with the Dominique Graves to Bryant Barr hookup for a TD on the pass from Graves to Barr and somebody, either Barr or Graves, hit Isaiah Finerty on a beautiful pass and Finerty did the rest, taking the pass to the house and putting EG on the board in the process….

That is what this whole deal is, a Process….You have to let it work out and it is all working out very well this high school football season for out Guilford County teams….And with the EG ‘Cats coming to Winston, that gives us Three teams in the Big Picture next Saturday as the Process works…Good job Eastern Guilford Wildcats on punching your tickets to Winston-Salem and on to the 3-AA Title Game…EG now (15-0) and Coach Doug Robertson was named Coach of the Year for Guilford County this week by GreensboroSports.com and by YES Weekly! Magazine…..

More on Eastern Guilford coming in from Kris Walser over the next few days…..