50th Anniversary, The year of the Pirate

On a rainy, windy, soggy night in Greensboro.. the annual clash of rivals was on. In the hours leading up to the game, I was thinking to myself. Grimsley plays the perfect offense to grind it out on a wet, rainy night. Page on the other hand, plays a offense that more relies on set plays and speed, as well as a passing game that can sometimes be not so effective because of the rain.

The 50th year of the rivalry was a true test of defenses as both teams didn’t open up the play book that much because of the wet conditions. Grimsley tried to pass the ball, but as they have done all year.. not much has come of the Whirlie passing attack. Page also relied a little more of the run because of the wet stuff, and that proved to be all that the Whirlies could handle, Perry Fryar, Lenny Gordon, and Will Newman had around 174 yards rushing. You figure that if it had been a dry night, the passing game would have been utilized more and opened up the run for Page, a bit more.

The Pirates got a early safety on the Whirlies first possession. Both teams couldn’t sustain drives, even though Page had about 6-7 nice plays. Early in the 2nd quarter Page scored on a Newman keeper making it 9-0 at the half. In the 3rd, Grimsley put together a pretty long drive and LaLa Brown punched it in for a TD but the PAT was blocked. Page shut down the Grimsley offense in the 2nd half and converted on a forced fumble that set up a Matt Millisor FG on the drive, and it was good. 12-6. Grimsley went for it on 4th and 1 on there next drive and nothing doing as the Pirates get the ball turnover on downs. Lenny Gordon would capitalize on the good field position and score on a 9 yard run to put the Pirates ahead 19-6. With about a minute left in the game Page looked to score again in the 5 yard line but Grimsley had a nice stop and Coach Gillespie decided to show some respect for the Whirlie faithful and let the clock run out.

Page’s K/P Matt Millisor had two very big plays in the game that changed it in two very big ways. He scooped up a high snap that went over his head and somehow got off a rugby style punt for 40 yards, Millisor’s punt kept Grimsley from getting the ball deep in Pirate territory, that potentially could have been a easy score from about 20 yards out. On the kickoff of the second half, Grimsley’s LaLa Brown broke free and was looking to score. The one man left to make the play was Millisor. He showed his speed and tackled Brown, preventing the sure-fire TD score.

Grimsley was held to 96 total yards on offense and Page tallied 274 total.
–Stats–

PageGrimsley
First downs139
Rushes-yards30-17430-80
Passing yards10016
Comp-Attempts-Int7-16-11-7-1
Punts-average4-324-31
Fumbles-lost1-01-1
Penalties-yards4-303-24
Page2701019
Grimsley00606

8 thoughts on “50th Anniversary, The year of the Pirate

  1. the only stat you need is 96 total yards for grimsley, that is how you lose a ball game and 1 pass completion. It was rain soaked especially during halftime but to only get 96 yards is not a good sign

  2. grimsley has NO passing game. one dimensional,la la brown. stop him and you stop the offence. that is an easy task for most any team. need shupin back to win.

  3. in 2006, Grimsley didn’t have much of a passing game. but they did have the right athletes to run the Wing-T triple option that Grimsley runs. To work effectively you need a big offensive line to open the holes for a solid RB, a hardnosed big FB, and a QB that can run as well. The offensive like being the most important.

  4. hey joe, if you don’t have the personell to run the wing-t, why run the wing-t? do you recall einstein’s defininition of “insanity”? let me help..”doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. Quit making excuses and get shupin back.

  5. Whoa there buddy, I dont need to make excuses. I’m a Page supporter. I was just making a statement that it can be done without passing the ball.

  6. Grimsley has a good QB in Patterson,just doesnt have the OL to block. They went to the State acouple years back and didn’t have a passing game,but they had the OL that could block.In the next couple years they should be ok,they are really young.But they have played hard every game this season.

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