Greensboro, NC- Northwest Guilford has had Friday, September 2, 2016, circled on its calendar for almost an entire year. There were pictures of the scoreboard from last year’s game against Northern Guilford in the weight room, so every time a member of the football team did a rep, he saw what the team was working for. All of that hard work finally paid off for the Vikings on Friday when they beat their arch-rival, Northern Guilford, by a commanding 47-20 score.
But the score alone doesn’t tell the whole story.
The game was close after 24 minutes of play – tied at 14 – but it became the Thomas Hennigan show in the second half.
Northern won the opening coin toss and deferred, giving the ball to the powerful Viking offense, which has scored 106 points in its first two games.
The Vikings quickly took advantage of the first possession when, on the sixth play of the opening drive, junior receiver Tre Turner caught a 27-yard pass from Jacob Leonard with 9:29 remaining in the first. It looked as though Northwest was going to do what most had anticipated: blow out the Nighthawks.
Myron (M.J.) Frazier wasn’t going to let Northern go down without a fight.
Frazier took the Nighthawks’ first play from scrimmage to the house on a 78- yard rush, stunning Northwest fans.
The Nighthawks continued their first quarter dominance on a ten-play, 46-yard drive that was punctuated by Garrett Marsh’s 10-yard touchdown reception. The drive was led by the legs of Frazier, who got his team to the red-zone.
The Nighthawks’ Brad Cranford was ejected with 2:27 to play in the opening quarter. The penalty seemed to give momentum to the Vikings, who were trailing 14-6.
The Vikings began the 2nd quarter with the ball, and on the first play of the quarter, senior Thomas Hennigan fumbled as he was tackled from behind inside the 10-yard line. Northern’s Ford Moser jumped on the loose ball, the only Viking turnover in the game.
The Vikings’ defense picked up Hennigan, their senior captain and Appalachian State commit, and forced the Nighthawks to punt on the drive following the fumble.
When the Vikings got the ball back, they once again drove the ball downfield, and Kyle Finnie ran the ball five yards for the score with 4:45 remaining. The score was knotted at 14 and remained that way at halftime.
With the game tied, Northwest coach Jared Rolfes delivered a message of battling adversity and settling down to win during his message to his team in the locker room.
“I came in and told the defense, ‘Guys, we’re better than them up front, just settle down’,” Rolfes said of his momentum-building speech. “Once we settled down we were fine.”
The Nighthawks weren’t giving up easy, though, and they showed that when Myron Frazier broke out up the middle on Northern’s second play of the third quarter, and this time only needed 70 yards to score. Frazier was a dominant force for the Nighthawks in the game. He didn’t rush for negative yardage until the 4th quarter and led the offense for the visiting team.
Although Frazier stood out, there was brighter shining star on the field on this night. Number seven in red, Thomas Hennigan.
Hennigan came out and scored five touchdowns after halftime. One 47 yard reception, and runs of 17, 34, 9, and 2 yards respectively for scores. The Vikings had risen to the occasion.
Hennigan talked about stepping up his game after the turnover in the 1st half and leading his team to a victory.
“I didn’t have the best first half in the world,” the senior said. “My offensive line just kept opening up holes, and I was hitting them in the 2nd half.”
The win is the first for Northwest against Northern on the field. Its only victory over Northern before this one came in 2009 as the result of a forfeit after the Nighthawks were penalized by the NCHSAA.
Rolfes, who was the offensive coordinator at Northern in 2013 before taking the head coaching job at Northwest, spoke for all of the Viking players and his staff when he talked about how big the win was.
“It feels really good,” he said. “I hope that everyone knows it, too.”
The Vikings have improved to (3-0) and completed “Operation Nighthawk Down” as Rolfes dubbed it.
Northwest takes on the Southeast Guilford Falcons next week at home, where they will look to remain undefeated and continue their overpowering offense. The Viking offense has scored 153 points in their three games so far this season.
Northern Guilford will look to get its first win of the season under new head coach Erik Westberg next Friday night, on the road once again, against Burlington Williams. The Nighthawks are (0-2) after the loss.
NG: 14 0 6 0 – 20
NWG: 6 8 36 7 – 47
Scoring Plays:
1st
NWG: Tré Turner 27 pass from Jacob Leonard (Pass Failed)
NG: Myron Frazier 78 rush (Nick Carter kick)
NG: Garrett Marsh 10 pass from Tyler Flippin (Carter kick)
2nd
NWG: Kyle Finnie 5 run (Thomas Hennigan run)
3rd
NG: Frazier 70 run (kick failed)
NWG: Hennigan 47 pass from Leonard (Cody Creed kick)
NWG: Hennigan 17 run (pass failed)
NWG: Hennigan 34 run (Creed kick)
NWG: Hennigan 9 run (kick failed)
4th
NWG: Hennigan 2 run (Creed kick)
Northwest Leaders:
Thomas Hennigan- 1-1 8yds; 17 rush 162yds 4 TD; 3 rec 71yds TD
Jacob Leonard- 10-14 196yds TD; 7 rush 42yds
Kyle Finnie- 7 rush 23yds TD
Tre Turner: 4 rec 100yds TD
Northern Leaders:
Myron (M.J.) Frazier- 26 rush 232 yds, 2 TD
Tyler Flippin- 7-21 71yds, TD, INT; 1 rush 4yds
Garrett Marsh- 2 rec 26yds TD
Guilford County High School Football Top-10 Poll (9/2/16)
1- Dudley
T2- Page
T2- Northwest Guilford
4- Southwest Guilford
5- Southeast Guilford
6- H.P. Christian
7- Southern Guilford
8- H.P. Central
9- Smith
Pop the Bottles and break out the Cigars! Dunk the Head Coach (wait you did that HAHAHA) cause you finally did it! Your student section is saying a day that nobody will ever forget!!!. Do they get you guys Championship Rings at NW now for finally beating Northern? Maybe a T-shirt and a Hat? You beat the worst Northern team in school history without Roscoe!!! If Roscoe was there I don’t think NW would have won it cause even this new staff was kicking your butts through 3. But anyways…. Get coach Rolfes a contract extension fast!
NW did beat Northern like their worst team in several years. When you lose by nearly 30 pts there are some things to fix. Don’t hate on NW because you had your head handed to you. This is the last game this year that anyone will care what happens to Northern. Most of Northern’s conference is junk and the 2 teams worth anything will blow Northern out. Welcome to your 5-5 reality year Northern. Get use it as you join the metro. You will have a permanent seat in the 3rd or 4th place finish going forward. Lock those past playoff wins up tightly because the future does not look good for you.
Congrats to Thomas Hennigan for your single handed victory over the Nighthawks!
Why do some people feel as if all their job to be so negative. It was a big win for the NW program. Yes it was the worst Northern team but even those fine young men for Northern played a good game. By the way, it was only for 2 quarters not 3. 1 play in the third doesn’t mean you dominated the 3rd quarter. Furthermore, this is the first time NW has had a true Division 1 athlete where in the past Norhtern has had at least 1 playing for them. But, Thomas, as good as he is, had 10 others out there blocking for him. And, the defense held Northern to 6 points in the second half. C’mon….stop hating on these NW kids and show some class.
Vikings said the same thing when TJ was at NG.
Then they said same thing when Mook was the star.
Last year it was CJ that the Vikings were crying about.
He’s put up stupid stats against 3 horrible teams. Tell Rolfes to schedule some teams worthy of playing a top 25 4AA team and lets see what kind of number he puts up. He would probably be sitting on the bench more if they played tougher teams because Rolfes would know he would need to save him from so many hits if he was playing Page, Dudley, SEG, and maybe a West Forsyth or Reagan type teams in Non Conference. Nope NW lets pick the 2 worst teams in the Triad then lets follow it up with a 3A team thats normally good but horrible this year and a 2A school. But Whatever makes you happy and sells tickets NW fans. If its beating up on teams that most 4AA teams could beat with their JV then good for you guys! By the way did they get you guys championship t-shirts for you win last night? Saw you guys dunking your Head Coach like you won the Ship last night. LOL
Check Rolfes on Twitter. He’s like a 17 yo kid. And that haircut? What the heck is that? Page, Dudley, EF all would eat them alive. Coach is to immature and no real support system for Hennigan. He’s a great kid in an underperforming program. He’ll do great at App though with some coaching.
Really you’re talking trash about the coaches hair cut now? WTF? Get a life! Here’s whats going to happen Rolfes will take NW right over there to Kernersville and smack the Eagles right in the mouth this year with Hennigan leading the way. We know where the conference title will be played and thats K-Vegas! Trust me we want it that way! Just so you know East ain’t what they were last year. Keep thinking that NW is just playing weaker teams thats ok we love it! Then when we kick your teams butt make sure you come back here and continue to talk. NW Coaches won’t say anything but We true old school NW fans and some players and former players haven’t forgot how East and the coach that use to be here ran the score up on us. All I can say is payback is coming. Make sure you let them know the Vikings are coming for them! By the way at this pace Hennigan may have 50 TDs on the season!
GO VIKINGS!
Time to pack it in and hit the sack on the comments for today….Will look to unpack tomorrow…
I read up on Coach Rolfes at Twitter and all I saw was a dedicated coach who was training his team for “Nighthawk Down” and NWG beat the Nighthawks and the mission was accomplished…
NWG and Coach Rolfes had a goal and they worked hard and they attained their goal and that is how sports works and there is nothing wrong with that…
No for NWG it is on to their next goal and that will be next week’s game…
Northern is mad because they lost and they should be mad, that is how sports works too, no team accepts losing, they go out and do something about it….
Unpack on Sunday…..