Friday night at Jamieson Stadium the Grimsley Whirlies won the 2021 Spring Football NCHSAA 4-A Regional Championship, with the Whirlies 28-21 victory over the Matthews Butler Bulldogs…
Whirlies win it and it did not look good early for the winning Whirlies….These boys/young men are Champions, but in the First Quarter, it was the Butler Bulldogs who were imposing their will on the Whirlies…
Butler jumped on top early, when the Bulldogs got a 31-yard touchdown pass from their quarterback Parish Metzger, as Metzger connected up with his wide-open receiver Jake Snapps streaking across the football field and once Snapps had the ball in his hands, he was GONE….Thirty-one yards untouched to the end zone, and Butler got the PAT kick from Elijah Swett, and with 7:34 remaining in the First Quarter, the Butler Bulldogs lead the Grimsley Whirlies, 7-0…
On Grimsley’s first three offensive possessions of the First Half, it was three downs and out for the Whirlies…
Butler, on the other hand, was handing the ball off to their RB Davion Nelson and it was to no avail, as the Whirlies were shutting Nelson down….But, for Butler, their key weapon for the First Half of the game, was their QB Parish Metzger..
Metzger hooked up with his wide receiver Eli Sylverster on a 19-yard pass play and Sylverster scored to make the score Butler 13, Grimsley 0, with 8:05 to go in the Second Quarter, and with the PAT kick from the Bulldogs’ Swett, Butler now had moved in front, 14-0 over the Grimsley Whirlies….
Sometimes you find out how good you can really be when you are tested, you know those moments in life where you are forced to be patient and you are forced to make adjustments…And that is exactly what the Grimsley Whirlies did, they remained patient, and they made the necessary adjustments to their defense….Those adjustments meant Lawson Albright needed to come in and help out on the defensive line, Christian Tutuh joined the defense and helped out with pass coverage…Blair Price stepped up and gave his defensive teammates some key reps….
Everybody had a job to do, and when they were called on to do it, they did it….Grimsley’s defense made the adjustments, and Grimsley’s offense was stalling until Alonza Barnett III read the Butler Bulldogs’ defense and the Whirlies quarterback took off on the run and by the time Barnett stopped running, he was in the Bulldogs’ end zone…Barnett cashed in a 27-yard run and got his Whirlies on the scoreboard and with 3:04 left to play in the First Half, Grimsley has cut the Butler lead in half, with the perfect PAT kick from Jake Henry, Butler now leads Grimsley, 14-7….
And that was our halftime score, Butler 14, Grimsley 7….
Butler gets the opening kickoff to start the Second Half and the Bulldogs go on a drive that will end up getting them on the board again, this time with a one-yard run by running back Davion Nelson, and with the Elijah Swett PAT kick, Butler has a two-touchdown advantage again, leading Grimsley, 21-7…..Butler gets their 21st point of the night with 8:02 left to play in the Third Quarter, but that was the last point the Butler Bulldogs would score on this night….The Bulldogs were done, their scoring was over, but guess what, the Grimsley Whirlies were not done yet……
That score again with 8:02 to go in the Third Quarter was, Butler 21, Grimsley 7…..But, like we also told you, Butler was done scoring for the evening….The Butler Bulldogs would NOT score again, but Grimsley would…Grimsley would in fact, score three more times in this football game….
Like we told you back early in this article Grimsley was patient and Grimsley was also disciplined, and that is something that Coach Darryl Brown told us in the pregame interview…He said Grimsley would have to be patient and that Grimsley would have to be disciplined…The Grimsley players were doing their best to carry out those roles, but they had to be wondering, “When are things going to change, when is this game going to start going our way???”……
Get ready, we were about to begin to go through a great change….Here comes Grimsley with some real big chunk plays and these big chunk plays are going for six points….Jeiel Melton, Grimsley’s junior running back, got the football with 6:27 to go in Third Quarter, and one minute later, with 6:26 to go in the Third Quarter, Melton was standing 40 yards away from the previous line of scrimmage, and was standing in the Butler Bulldogs end zone….Melton just took off on a 40-yard TD run, and with Jake Henry’s second PAT kick of the night, Grimsley has cut Butler’s lead to one touchdown again, Butler 21, Grimsley 14, and with the patience that Grimsley has developed, it now appears that there is plenty of time left in this high school football playoff game….
We remain in the Third Period and like we were telling you, Butler has finished all of their scoring, but for the Grimsley Whirlies, they are by no means done….Grimsley gets another big Chunk Play, when Tyson Resper hauls in an Alonza Barnett III pass on the Grimsley side of the field, and the next thing you know, it is an old fashioned foot-race, and this is one race that Resper is going to win, because let me tell you something, I asked J.P. Mundy from the News and Record, and he agreed with me….Tyson Resper was the fastest man/football player on the field on this Friday night, and nobody else was going to get close to this kid, he caught that pass from Barnett, and Resper was GONE up that right sideline, on into the end zone for six more Grimsley points….Resper was a racer, he could not be caught…His breakaway speed was mind-boggling….He catches the ball, he turns on the jets, he maybe makes one or two moves, and he is GONE…..Once he gets running in a straight line, it is all over….He can not be caught by anyone that I have seen so far…..This kid can flat out FLY….The Resper scoring play covered 58 yards and the last 20 yards he left the Butler defenders in the dust….The Jake Henry PAT kick was perfect again, and if you are a Whirlies fan, your Whirlies have just scored 14 unanswered points to tie this football game up, at 21-21….
We are tied at Grimsley 21, Matthews Butler 21, with 3:49 left in the Third Quarter….
End of three quarters our score was, Grimsley 21, Matthews Butler 21….
Both teams have chances to take over the football game in the Fourth Quarter, but neither Grimsley nor Butler can take advantage of turnovers and penalties seem to be killing Butler’s chances to re-gain the advantage in this ball game…As the teams exchange punts and take turns trying to get out of each other’s end zones, that Fourth Quarter clock is running and burning down…Tamorye Thompson, the Grimsley Whirlies talented defensive end lays a hit on the Butler QB Parish Metzger, and the Bulldogs’ senior signal caller has to leave the contest….Metzger is out and the one man who was continuing to give Butler a chance, he was out/gone….
Butler turned to Ty Moore at QB and they ran a few wildcat plays, but they did not seem to have any flow or rhythm with Metzger out of the football game….On fourth down and 2 from their own 49-yard line and less than a minute left in the ball game, Butler tries a fake punt on fourth down, and the Grimsley defense stops Butler stone-cold for no gain at all, and the fake punt fails…Grimsley gets the biggest stop of their season to this stage of the Spring 2021 campaign, but with just under 30 seconds left in this playoff game and with the score tied at 21-21, Grimsley has the ball and the Whirlies might just have one big Chunk Play left in their arsenal….
Grimsley junior QB Alonza Barnett III takes the snap from his center Henry Harden, and with now less tha 20 seconds left to play, and with Overtime looming, Barnett says we are not done/finished yet and he slings a pass to his left to Christian Tutuh, and #1 in and on your game-day roster, and #1 in your hearts, Tutuh comes through with the biggest catch and run of his young football career, and once Tutuh pulls that Barnett pass in, Tutuh breaks through and he is on his way to the Promised Land….Tutuh gets by two Butler defenders and this kid is going to go “all the way”….Like his friends and teammates before him, Barnett, Melton and Resper, Tutuh is GONE…..To the End Zone, to the House, he hits Paydirt….Tutuh scores and Grimsley leads Butler, 27-21 with just 14 seconds left in this high school football playoff game…”Mr. Tutuh, how do you do”……Jake Henry puts his John Henry on the PAT kick and Grimsley has built a 28-21 lead, a touchdown advantage over the Butler Bulldogs, with just 14 seconds left in this game/contest…
Grimsley 28, Butler 21….Butler gets/takes the final kickoff of the game with less than 10 seconds to play and they have time for two plays, and they even trot their injured quarterback Parish Metzger back out on the field, and he has time for two passes and he has to go 60-plus yards upfield and it is not going to happen on the Grimsley Defensive Watch…Metzger can barely stand and his last pass gets picked off and this game is over….
The Grimsley Whirlies have survived and advanced and they will meet the Cardinal Gibbons Crusaders for the NCHSAA 4-A State Title next Friday night at 7pm, in either Raleigh or Chapel Hill….Grimsley(9-0) vs. Cardinal Gibbons(9-0) for the State Championship…
The Grimsley Whirlies are your NCHSAA 2021 Spring Football West Regional Champions…
Alonza Barnett III with two touchdowns passing and one TD running…Jeiel Melton with one rushing TD….Tyson Resper with a game-tying TD reception…Christian Tutuh with the game-winning TD catch for the Grimsley Whirlies….
Grimsley defense again getting a great effort from Travis Shaw and Tamorye Thompson up front, and tonight they were joined by Lawson Albright….Williamson, Burnett, and Allison again with stellar games at linebacker tonight, along with Nate Crawford giving them a helping hand….Christian Tutuh coming in on defense to help regulars Caleb Curtain, Myles Gowens, Jordan Watkins, Cah’lil Williams and others…Caleb Curtain also taking reps with the wide receivers on offense on this night….
(Let’s also throw a shout out, out there to the Grimsley offensive line….True unsung heroes and without their blocks, there would be no Grimsley TD’s.)
That’s our write up/wrap up for tonight’s game, and if you like it, give us a yell, at andy@greensborosports.com….Hoping to make it to next Friday night’s game…Seems like whenever a Greensboro or Guilford County team has won a State Football Title in the last 25-30 years, GreensboroSports has been there covering the game….
From a Pirate…..congratulations to the Whirlies. Basically playing from behind the entire game and making the plays when they counted. I was actually able to catch the last 60 seconds of the game on Greensborosportsradio.com…..what a finish. Great game call too Andy!
Awesome job Andy and how about those Whirlies!!!
Did not get to hear your call at end of game. Could you snippet it for us to hear. Am sure it was classic. I was very nervous when the interception was spotted at half yard line going out but they got out of that pickle to win . Great game , proud to be a Whirlie .
The Butler vs Grimsley game is on RE-PLAY at GreensboroSports Radio ALL WEEK LONG. This to the game in its entirety from start to finish. Listen as many times as you want. It repeats.
Did Page allow Butler to do a walkthrough on their campus Friday afternoon? Very disappointing if true.
Probably a good idea to just enjoy the moment and support our teams and our coaches and hope they can bring the title back to Guilford County, and pretty much leave it at that…