Friday Night Finish:Week One in the Books and Week #2 is Knocking at the Door

The teams that won on Friday night, can’t wait to get back to work on Monday, and the teams that lost close games, but still played well, well they can’t wait to get back at it on Monday too….And as for the teams that just did not make it to their expected level of play on Friday night, they are looking to Monday as their new day dawning…

But the teams that won, they really, REALLY can’t wait for Monday to get here, and as far as next Friday goes, they want that day/night to get here quickly too…

If you are the Northeast Guilford Rams, and you just topped the Ragsdale Tigers, 28-22, you have to be feeling real good about yourselves right now…For NEG to win, that does raise some eyebrows, and Ram fans are feeling like there really is still some Magic in the Air, out there on Hicone Road…Northeast Guilford at (1-0) to start the season, that is something to be crowing about come Saturday morning, in McLeansville…NEG has Western Guilford and Morehead up next, and both of those games are on the road, but both of those are winnable for the NEG Rams…If NEG started this season at (3-0), that would be one of the top stories of the year…

Of all of the games from this first Friday night of the new high school football season, I think this Northeast Guilford win captured my attention, in the largest manner/way….

Southwest Guilford falling to Oak Grove, 23-20, that has to leave the SWG Cowboys and first-year head coach Marlon White, hurting on this late Friday night/early Saturday morning…That is a tough one to swallow, especially after SWG led Oak Grove, 12-0, at halftime…Southwest Guilford with WS Reynolds next, and Reynolds shot down High Point Central, 31-0, on Friday night…SWG must regroup in a hurry, and Monday will be a crucial day of practice for the Cowboys…

Northwest Guilford ran out of time, on Friday night at East Forsyth…This game needed to go another half, and maybe NWG would have outlasted the EF Eagles…As it was, NWG came up short, going down 49-38, at the hands of the Eagles…Tanner Ballou was pushing his Vikings on through, and on into paydirt, with Trent Cloud, Bristol Carter, and other Vikes finding their way into the promised land…Jaylen Raynor was just holding too many aces for the EF Eagles…QB Raynor with 333 yards rushing on 11 carries, and 4 TD runs, and that was with 5 minutes still left in the game…Northwest Guilford with North Davidson next, and ND lost a close one to a very good WS Reagan team on Thursday night of this week…NWG is going to have to tighten the screws on the defense, and let the offense keep doing what they are doing…

Southeast Guilford at Dudley could be entertaining and interesting for a while next Friday night…Dudley has so many talented young men on their team, and one of the new kids, Cordell Bartley sure was impressive on Friday night…The kid has explosive speed, and we saw him nearly run through a pack of Page Pirates on one play…Some of the Dudley highlights on the Dennis White replay sheet show Andrew Attmore II to Jalen Hicks for a 15-yard TD pass…Samad Bell recovered a fumble for Dudley in the Page end zone, RJ Baker took off on a 27-yard run for a TD, and then Bartley had his 57-yard punt return for a touchdown…Dudley with four touchdowns, and Page could just produce one…Abdul Bayor was 2-4 on his PAT kicks, and Bayor just barely missed a 31-yard FG for the Panthers…Diamonte Brown scored on a three-yard run for the Page Pirates, and Tylar Elliot’s PAT kick was through…Bayor missed on some of his kicks, but he had the height/altitude and the distance…He just needs to work on his ball placement…Dudley’s defense was super with Logan Wright stopping things up all night, and Kafi Abass was all over the place for the Panthers…DJ Parker had two pass picks for Dudley, and his pass coverage was strong…Southeast Guilford will bring a very tough defense over to Dudley next Friday night….Page had a very good defensive scheme, and Dudley still found the end zone two times on offense…The other Dudley scores came on the punt return by Bartley and fumble recovery in the end zone by Bell…

Next up, Page has the Reidsville Rams at home, and then the Pirates travel over to Winston-Salem, to face the WS Reagan Raiders…Like we mentioned earlier, that Dudley-SEG game could get interesting next Friday night…SEG has guys like Jordan Dollar and Cam Williams on defense, and Williams plays all ways for the Falcons…Bryson Serrano, the SEG QB, seems to have found his stride, but the Dudley defense can take you out of your game in a hurry, with Logan Wright breathing down your neck, as you trying to release the football….

Grimsley with a solid win on the road at Clayton, and Whirlies have their home opener coming up next Friday night, with the WS Reagan Raiders heading into Jamieson Stadium, coming off of Week One win over North Davidson…Grimsley could use a good test, and recent years, the Whirlies have pretty much passed the testing process…Grimsley getting by Clayton real fast, as Whirlies walk out, 42-14 victors…

Talking about passing the test, Northern Guilford passed an early exam at Gibsonville on Friday night, when the Nighthawks took down the Eastern Guilford Wildcats, 44-15. On the Friday Football Fever highlights from NEWS 2, Chad Silber was saying Mark Johnston was coming up with several large receptions and runs for the Nighthawks…When we looked up, the next thing we knew, NG QB Jack Mercer was running the football into the end zone…NG will be tougher than first predicted…It will all come down getting the correct plays for Mercer, as he shows no mercy for the opposing defenses…Eastern Guilford must band together and find the bounce-back mode that can keep the ‘Cats clicking…Northern Guilford is headed down Murderer’s Road next, as the NG Nighthawks will be hosting the Eastern Alamance Eagles, next Friday night, at Johnny Roscoe Stadium…Eastern Guilford travels to Burlington Williams next Friday night, and then the ‘Cats face Western Alamance, the week after that…

The Ragsdale Tigers have the (0-1) Glenn Bobcats at home next Friday night, and Glenn fell to Terry Sanford on the first Friday of the season…Western Guilford at home next Friday night, versus the Northeast Guilford Rams…Southern Guilford at Providence Grove next week, and High Point Central vs. High Point Andrews in Week Two….

And I think we have talked about every team that played this week, and now we can begin preparing for WEEK #2…..We should have a Saturday Morning Rewind up here in about eight hours, so let’s talk to the pillow and see if it needs any special fluffing, or maybe a need load of stuffing…

**********From High School OT late on Friday night……**********