Friday Football Finish, as Metro 4-A Stays Tight at the Top:Grimsley, Northern Guilford and Page are all (4-0)/Dudley and Eastern Guilford will fight to the finish in the 3-A ranks

Friday Football Finish, as Metro 4-A Stays Tight at the Top:Grimsley, Northern Guilford and Page are all (4-0)/Dudley and Eastern Guilford will fight to the finish in the 3-A ranks…..

Things are staying real tight at the top of the Metro 4-A Conference standings….We see Grimsley(4-0), Northern Guilford(4-0) and Page at (4-0)…Something will have to give over the next few weeks, as Northern Guilford goes to Page next Friday, Page goes to Grimsley the following Friday, and then Grimsley comes to Northern Guilford, on the last week/Friday of the regular season…

Northern Guilford at Page next Friday night, and NG will get a huge portion of Trevon Hester on the ground, but the game may be won or lost, on Hester doesn’t do…Page will need to get more than Hester moving, because NG has the kind of defense that can neutralize one back, and the Nighthawks will not let one back mow them down…

Page will need to find other pieces of the Pirates’ puzzle for the jigsaw to come together…Northern has more than one major component on offense, with QB Jack Mercer, RB Jordan McInnis, WR Manny Elliot, WR Zion Crawford, TE Vance Bolyard, and WR Terrell Timmons all being threats to go for six…Mercer can run or pass the ball, McInnis is really a power runner, Elliot knows how to get open, Crawford can go in motion and keep going back-and-forth across the field all night long, and for a guy to be doing that and not getting the ball every time, he has to have a built-in motor that keeps him going/clicking…Bolyard can go up and get the football, and he does a super job of finding ways to get open….Timmons did not play tonight/Friday night due to a bad ankle, but he is expected to be back in the Nighthawks’ lineup, for next Friday night’s game at Marion Kirby Stadium(Page High School).

Who is your early favorite for this game next week, at Page HS??? I would say Northern would be the favorite coming out of this past week’s games, and since NG is (7-0), it seems like the edge would go to the Nighthawks, as of Friday night at 11:48pm…Wonder what others are saying??? Page will counter Northern with the home field advantage, and Page still has some other weapons that came prove to be effective on offense, including Jerron Blackwell, Grady Sherrill, Nick Williamson, and others…I guess it will come down to play-calling…Who can call the right play, at the right time, in the right situation???

The Northern defense will be ready to come after Trevon Hester, and NG is very quick up front on defense, with Conner Lachesky, Jay Underwood and Jack Gooch….The Page men up front on offense will have to be able to get off of the ball quickly, and get those three NG D-linemen moving backwards…You can’t give the NG D-linemen penetration, or they will drop you in your own backfield for a big loss…

We will talk more about this NG-Page game, as it gets closer, and for now, let’s not forget, Grimsley is still “King of the Hill” in the Metro 4-A Conference, until somebody knocks them off…NG and Grimsley, with identical (7-0) overall records, and how wild would it be for both the Whirlies and the Nighthawks to be going into the last game of the regular season at (9-0)….If they are both at (9-0), that means they both would be at (6-0), in the Metro…Page will look to have a say, in how both Northern and Grimsley arrive at that October 29 regular season finale…

Lots of excitement left in the Metro 4-A and don’t look now, but Southeast Guilford is now at (2-2) Metro, and the Falcons sit at (4-3) overall….SEG might be ready to play spoiler, and if you don’t look out, and say Page were to fall to Northern and then also get tripped up at Grimsley, the on October 29, Page and Southeast Guilford might just be playing for the final playoff spot in the Metro 4-A….

There are all kinds of possible scenarios, but for the most part it has been looking lately like Grimsley, Northern Guilford and Page would get in, but if something sort of crazy happens along the way, and then again, it might not be crazy, it might just be the playoff picture taking on true form, but if say Page did fall two times, then you would all have to agree, it would be time to look out for “The Boys in Orange”….

I’m telling you friends, this could get real interesting…Say Page beats Northern, and then Grimsley beats Page, and then Northern beats Grimsley…And then take it step further and say SEG beats Page…

In the end you could have a two-way tie for First Place, and a two-way tie for Third-Place…There is just so much more that can happen, and could happen, over the next three weeks…

Dudley and Eastern Guilford seem to be on a collision course for a final throw-down at Eastern Guilford, on October 29…Dudley at (4-0) Mid-State 3-A, and I guess that is what the Conference is being called this day, with the new realignment…

Mid-State 3-A, or Triad 3-A, either way, Dudley is currently at (6-1) overall, and the Panthers sit at (4-0) Mid-State 3-A…Eastern Guilford is at (5-1) overall, and the Wildcats are now just like Dudley, looking at (4-0) in the Mid-State Conference…Dudley and Eastern Guilford should both make the playoffs, and it should be almost a lock for both of them to get into the postseason, but who wins the Mid-State 3-A will be anyone’s guess, until Dudley and Eastern Guilford lock horns on the football field of competition….

Friday night October 29, at Tommy Grayson Stadium, EG and Dudley will do battle…Until then, they better both continue to win…The Southern Guilford Storm might also be able to eke out a playoff berth, if Rockingham County falls another time or two, along the way…Would love to see EG, SG and Dudley all three, hit the postseason….

Who is going to get in, and who will be staying at home for the 2021 playoffs???
(As you can see of this writing/posting, the Playoff Picture is as clear as mud, on October 9, 2021.)

Let’s give you the rundown, and not the runaround on the Northwest Guilford at Northern Guilford game tonight, at Johnny Roscoe Stadium, on the Northern Guilford High School campus…
In the first quarter with 8:42 remaining, Northern Guilford QB Jack Mercer hit his receiver, Vance Bolyard, on a 16-yard TD pass play, and with the PAT kick from Grant McNeil sailing through the uprights, NG led Northwest Guilford, 7-0….

Northwest Guilford strikes back with NWG QB Tanner Ballou, connecting with Alex Sarrantos for a 19-yard TD pass, and the Cameron Tippet kick was good, we are tied, Northwest 7, Northern 7 with 4:08 left in the first quarter….

Northern Guilford back at you on a 20-yard TD run by the Nighthawks’ QB Jack Mercer, and after the successful Grant McNeil PAT kick, and with 2:38 on the first quarter clock, NG now leads NWG, 14-7…
End of the First Quarter:Northern Guilford 14, Northwest Guilford 7

Northern’s Jordan McInnis goes a 4-yard jaunt to the end zone, and with the McInnis Friday Night Finish, plus McNeil is there again on his PAT kick, NG has grabbed a 21-7 advantage over Northwest, with 5:10 to play in the second quarter…

And there goes the X-Man…Xavier Simmons takes off on 57-yard Friday Night Finish, and this was some kind of big chunk run for the TD by Simmons…The Tippett kick was near-perfect, and NWG is within one touchdown of Northern, but that was as close as NWG would get…21-14 Northern Guilford over Northwest Guilford, with 4:18 to play in the second quarter…This was the last time Northwest would smell the end zone in this football game…

But, Northern Guilford, the home standing Nighthawks, got a field goal from their kicker Grant McNeil, and with the McNeil boot, from 22 yards out, NG now goes on top of NWG, 24-14, Northern Guilford….And that score will take us to halftime…
Halftime:Northern Guilford 24, Northwest Guilford 14
(NWG still within 10 points at the half.)

With our old broadcast partner, Lindsey Nelson, looking down on us from the broadcast booth in the sky, we hit third quarter action, and we see NG QB Jack Mercer scoring his second TD of the game on the ground, with an 8-yard run for glory to the end zone…Mercer in and McNeil’s PAT kick is good again, and now Northern has extended their lead over Northwest, to 31-14 Nighthawks, with 10:02 still on the third quarter ticker…Still real early in the third period…31-14 NG…

Northern Guilford did not ring the Victory Bell with time left in this game…The ‘Hawks went to work and carved out some more points, with Grant McNeil ready to seal the deal, with his foot….The NG Nighthawks field goal kicker connected from 37 yards away and his three-pointer gives Northern a twenty point lead, with NG climbing the Spencer-Dixon Road hill, to the tune of a 34-14 lead, over Northwest Guilford…The McNeil FG comes with 5:32 left in the third quarter…

The Nighthawk faithful may have thought they had their fill, but the pill still was not totally dissolved…But, any scoring problems NG encountered prior to this game, all of those problems were put to bed/rest this evening…TD runs, TD passes, Field Goals, and then Northern finds another way to get into the Promised Land…Ishmel Atkins blocks the punt by NWG’s Cameron Tippett, and Louden Peters recovers the blocked punt in the end zone, for another NG TD…Atkins on the block and Peters on the recovery in the end zone, for the touchdown…
NG leads NWG, 41-14…..
(Not sure about the clock time, when this score occured, but will look that up tomorrow.)

How many ways can the Nighthawks score????? Let us count the ways….Oh, we just did that up above….

One more touchdown on this night, for the Nighthawks, and it comes with 5:16 left in the ball game…In other words, we have 5:16 remaining in the fourth period…It’s Jordan McInnis, with his second TD run of the game, getting in from 12 yards out, and when you add on the final Grant McNeil PAT kick of the night, Northern has built up a solid 48-14 lead on Northwest Guilford….

And that is how it ended this evening….Your Final Score:Northern Guilford 48, Northwest Guilford 14

NG(7-0/4-0)…NWG(3-4/1-3)

For Northern, these stats from our broadcast associate, Don Tilley…
Jack Mercer 14 carries for 93 yards and two TD’s rushing….
Mercer with 116 yards passing and one TD toss…
Jordan McInnis with 22 carries for 188 yards and two TD’s rushing….

Steak n Shake Player of the Game on Offense for Northern Guilford:Jack Mercer
Steak n Shake Player of the Game on Defense for Northern Guilford:The Entire NG Defense…..It came from all over tonight for Northern Guilford…The D-Line with Gooch, Underwood, Lechesky, then Flippen, Peters, Achina, Atkins, Bluitt, Dormer, Harris had a pick, Lee was making plays…The entire NG “D” was overly active on this Friday night…All of the Nighthawks seem to know their role on Defense….

And with all of that being said, on behalf of GreensboroSports.com, that will close us out tonight/early morning…..Andy Durham bidding you all a good evening/morning….