High School Football Friday Night Finish:Great Year came up short and we are finished

Very tough Guilford County ending over at Jamieson Stadium on Friday night….East Forsyth got by Grimsley, 21-20, to claim the NCHSAA West 4-A Championship…

East has now won the West title in back-to-back seasons, and the Eagles look to wrap up their second consecutive NCHSAA 4-A title, next Saturday in Chapel Hill…

East Forsyth knows how to win and get by in the close ball games…The East Forsyth Eagles football team, under the direction of head coach Todd Willert, is battle-tested, and the Eagles passed the test again on Friday night, and did what it took to get them back to the State Championship Game…

Coach Willert mentioned before the game on Friday night that you have to work and earn these wins, and they won’t be handed to you, and that you have to earn them, and by earning these victories they mean more to you, since you didn’t have the big wins handed to you, you went out and earned them…

And East Forsyth has earned their current status of “Top Team in the Triad”…Reidsville might be set to argue that claim, but Reidsville is 2-A and East is 4-A, so we will hand the title to East Forsyth…

Randleman is gone, Eastern Alamance is gone and tonight, the Grimsley Whirlies were eliminated…

What happened to our Guilford County Whirlies???

Well, in case you missed it, Grimsley led early in this game, 8-0 on Quan Nora’s 10-yard touchdown run and the two-point conversion run by Chris Ellis…Then Grimsley went up 14-0, as Quan Nora took off on a 97-yard jaunt, and it looked like it might become a Grimsley blowout…The second time around, the two-point run failed and with 4:17 left in the second quarter, Grimsley led East Forsyth, 14-0….

Grimsley up 14-0 as we near the halfway mark of this game….Nearing 24 minutes down and then there would be just 24 minutes left in the season for one of these two teams, and with Grimsley up now, 14-0, this is looking real good for the Grimsley Whirlies…
14-0 Grimsley and the Whirlies had chances to get more…

Then all of the sudden East Forsyth begins to wake up, and this looks like a case where Grimsley might see a bomb about to go off…

East battles back and gets on the scoreboard with a six-yard run with 2:58 to go in the second period…Andrew Conrad’s PAT kick is good and now East has cut that 14-0 lead in half, and Grimsley now just leads East Forsyth, 14-7, as we get closer to the halftime break…

East is not done yet, and they punch the football into the end zone again, with just 8 seconds left in the first half…Eagles’ quarterback Ty Lyles runs in from four yards out, and the Lyles TD makes the score Grimsley 14, East Forsyth 13, and then comes the kick by Andrew Conrad to tie the game up at 14-14…That will be our halftime score, Grimsley 14, East Forsyth 14…Momentum now on the side of East Forsyth…

There were still 24 minutes to play in this contest and now we are in for a tight third quarter…..So tight was that third quarter, that there was no scoring in the third quarter…

As we hit the fourth and final quarter, East Forsyth is getting ready to make a move, or two…East Forsyth finds the end zone to get their first lead over Grimsley since back on October 4…What was that score back on October 4??? It was 21-20 East Forsyth and that score may show up again tonight….

With 9:19 left in one team’s season, the visiting team, East Forsyth, finds paydirt and takes a 21-14 lead over Grimsley, with the East 10-yard touchdown run by wildcat back Robbin Smith, and that was followed by the third PAT kick of the night from Andrew Conrad…Conrad was injured last week vs. Ragsdale, but Conrad has been on the money with his kicks tonight….

Grimsley would get one more chance for the season, and the Whirlies would score with just 1:40 left in the ball game…QB Chris Zellous scored for the Whirlies on a one-yard scamper off the right side and Zellous was stopped momentarily and initially it looked like Zellous failed to reach the end zone, but the official raised his hand, and the points were on the scoreboard and Grimsley was within one point of East Forsyth….The Eagles led the Whirlies 21-20 and next up was the two-point conversion run and it did not work out right…Bad snap to Zellous and bad exchange with Zellous and the intended ball carrier, and Grimsley was denied and the Whirlies will not be going to Chapel Hill, like they did back in 2005…

Just like back on October 4, our score is East Forsyth 21, Grimsley 20 and that is how this game will end….

It is really was a heart-breaking loss for the Grimsley Whirlies…They came up just a little bit short….

A sad way to end their 2019 season, but this team was a success…Over 2,000 yards rushing for Quan Nora, the team went (12-2) and Grimsley was 2 points away from going (14-0)…

For East Forsyth, it is now on to Chapel Hill and Kenan Stadium, where the East Forsyth Eagles will face Cardinal Gibbons, for the NCHSAA 4-A State Championship next Saturday….Grimsley missed out on their chance for the State Title, but the Grimsley Whirlies are now true Winners, and they have an outstanding young coach to lead them on, in Darryl Brown….This will be a season the 2019 Grimsley Whirlies will never forget, and these memories will last for a lifetime…It was fun to follow this team and the time we spent with them, will be with us for many years to come…

Congratulations Grimsley Whirlies on a great football season in 2019….A job well done and you men are on your way to doing great things in the future….

Tonight:Quan Nora 31 carries 289 yards and 2 TD’s…A 10-yard run for touchdown and a 97-yard run for a TD…
Chris Zellous with 10 carries for 36 yards and 1 TD…
Zellous 5-13 passing for 64 yards and 1 INT.
Grimsley 41 carries for 325 yards…

East Forsyth:
17 First Downs…31 rushes for 237 yards…QB Ty Lyles was 20-31 passing for 210 yards passing…
Lyles with 11 carries for 77 yards and one TD…
Robbin Smith with 13 carries for 102 yards and 1 TD…
Chris Chaplin with 3 carries for 43 yards…

8 thoughts on “High School Football Friday Night Finish:Great Year came up short and we are finished

  1. I understand wanting to take a lead, but I’ll never understand why coaches don’t just kick the FG to tie the game up. Grimsley defense played great all night. Should have went for the FG and went to OT with momentum at HOME!!!

  2. Whirlies had a amazing season . Very proud of these kids and what they accomplished . With that said I feel like we saw what hampered grimsley with no kicker to the days gone by where the great Dudley teams lost in playoffs because they had to go for two on every touchdown . After Last weeks game against Glenn I was worried about not having a kicker and it sure played out that way last night . Great run for the Whirlies and hopefully we will see a kicker emerge from this situation at Grimsley

  3. Hate to be the told you so guy. Great year for the Whirlies though. Have to be solid in all phases.

  4. Great year for the Grimsley Whirlies…Coaching staff helped these kids on and off the field…The entire group at Grimsley are a class act and if you ask me they aren’t acting, they are legitimate…

    Got to love all of those kids and the effort they put in this season and they earned all that they accomplished, and as a coach from the opposing camp, told us last night, it means more when you earn it and it is not given to you…

    East Forsyth does a super job with their football program and you have to tip your cap to Coach Willert and Coach Beal for what they have done over there in Kernersville and we wish them luck next week in the 4-A Championship Game in Chapel Hill..

    The East QB Ty Lyles stayed real cool back there running his team last night and he was like they used to say, “Cool as a Cucumber”…Lyles was a real gunslinger back there and he looked like a high school version of Kurt Warner, throwing that ball around back there in that East Forsyth offense…

    No hard feelings toward East Forsyth, they were the enemy for our Greensboro team last night, but we will be pulling hard for them next Saturday, because just look at how close Grimsley was to them last night and on October 4…Maybe they will be taking a piece of Jamieson Stadium with them to Kenan Stadium next Saturday….There are for sure a few broken hearts laying around Greensboro here this morning….

    I was down there at Southern Guilford on a Saturday night back in 2014 when Coach Brown and his SG Storm encountered a similar fate that hit Grimsley last night…Southern was going for two late in the game and and they snapped the ball to their running back Reggie Gallaspy in the Wildcat formation and the play failed and Southern lost by one point….

    This will make your coaches and players better coaches and people in the future…It all comes down to how you handle adversity and you need to look up and see these same players and coaches battling again in life the next day….

    If you get up and do it again the next day and keep going, you will be better for it….We will know as time goes on, why we have this obstacles to get over and around, but if we don’t go through and get through this adversity, we will not be ready for the final battle and that might be cancer, heart problems, other health problems, the bottom line is we have to keep battling…..

    Grimsley will keep on battling and now as of this morning they have to be looking for a new quarterback and a new running back to replace Chris Zellous and Quan Nora…Their time is done and they are now gone, and if you are the Grimsley staff, the next step is start finding that new QB and new RB…

    Going have to let some of this paint dry, but it will be back to the drawing board if you are Grimsley, and time to reload….You thank the players you had and bless them for the work they did for you and wish them luck in their future endeavors, but now is the time to head back to the old proverbial crucible and begin to mold and make your new team….

    How far Grimsley goes next, will determine the true character of this team and this program…..

    Maybe we don’t have all of the answers here, but we do have a good idea of what is happening next, and it is time to be about that business….

    For us over here at the site, as of completing our High School Football Saturday Morning Rewind, we are now on the high school and middle school basketball trail, and we will see you in there….The doctor said he just got reinstated this morning and we did at around 3am, and “we will see you in there”….

    Doing all of this sports talk, I never thought it would be as effective as it has been, here in print form, but people are reading this stuff and it is all about reaching out to sports masses…..

    Again, thank-you Grimsley Whirlies for a great playoff run in 2019 and you sure gave us some opportunities, as followed and covered your games, here at GreensboroSports.com and GreensboroSports Radio….

  5. One more note and we will back away/back off…

    That Grimsley running back Quan Nora was something special….You won’t know us from Adam’s House Cat, but this kid was a special back/cat..

    Quan Nora 2,279 yards rushing and 27 touchdowns for the 2019 season….

    Quan needs to tell those college coaches, “I’ll see you in there”…..
    (Just give me a chance.)

  6. Grimsley had a wonderful year. Nora best football player in guilford. No disrespect to zellous. East forsyth is no joke talent depth, athleticism and experience in big games for the players and coaching staff. Next year grimsley maybe in toruble offense side. Need qb rb and wr all they got is a te i wanna say. They are losing many kids who i suspect are all conference players. Coach brown is good though i give him that.

  7. I saw all I need to see Friday night! Page GO GET COACH BEAL FROM EAST FORSYTH! Any other defense would have folded after giving up those 14 points and coming off a damn near 100 yard run. The crowd was going crazy. I watched him that entire series on the sidelines to see what all the hype was about. He had the entire defense around him with 3 Ipads going and a white board. He was teaching in the middle of about 10 fans screaming at him. Never looked up once on to the next kid and then the next kid. They went out on the next series and you could see the adjustments made. Not only that they were flying around. They play hard for their coach and thats what impressed me the most. I don’t know how great he is as far as the fund raising and admin work goes but as far as X’s & O’s and in game adjustments he may be one of the great coordinators in this area. I for one think he would make a great HC at Page and being that he has to be in his mid 30’s him and Brown would go at it for a long long time. Page go get us a coach we can get excited about. That is all

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