Happy Holiday Hunting for the Grimsley Whirlies and the Eastern Guilford Wildcats…Both of these Guilford County high school football teams remain in the hunt…We have a #1 Seed(Grimsley) and a #23 Seed(Eastern Guilford)….
There are no Forsyth County teams left in the postseason, no Alamance County teams, no Davidson County teams, there’s one team from Rockingham County(Reidsville Rams), and one team from Randolph County(Eastern Randolph Wildcats)…
Then you look at Guilford County, and we have two teams ready to put Pigskin on their plate, during the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend…
The Grimsley Whirlies, seeded #1 in the 4-A West, and the Eastern Guilford Wildcats, the #23 seed in the 3-A West, are both ready to play more postseason football, as the playoffs hit Round Four next Friday night….
Grimsley, at (13-0) will be hosting the Hough Huskies(11-2) next Friday night, at Jamieson Stadium…Hough’s two losses came against Dutch Fork, S.C., 27-24, and the Huskies also fell to the Mallard Creek Mavericks, 13-9…In Round Two of the playoffs, Hough defeated Mallard Creek, 16-6…
Eastern Guilford now sporting a (9-4) overall record, and the Wildcats are at (3-0) in the postseason…EG has won all of their games on the road, as a #23 seed…Eastern Guilford will travel to Belmont next Friday evening, and the ‘Cats will face the South Point Red Raiders(12-1)…The Dudley Panthers topped Eastern Guilford 51-13, but Dudley lost to South Point in Round Two of the playoffs, 74-41…
It looks like the EG Wildcats are right now getting stronger, with each additional week of playoff action…As the playoffs continue to unfold, Eastern Guilford seems like they are getting tougher to beat…This Eastern Guilford team has hit the road, and the road has not been able to hit them back….EG ran all over West Henderson on Friday night, and the West Henderson crew was saying their boys had been sick all week, and Eastern was able to take them apart due to the flu…Eastern Guilford flew past the West Henderson Falcons, like the Falcons were standing still…Eastern Guilford going to South Point, and facing that Triple Option, will be the Underdogs…But, it appears that the EG Wildcats are starting to like being the “Road Dogs”…
Eastern Guilford will have to be ready to try and contain that South Point freshman quarterback Patrick Blee…He is #30…Got to be a marked man this upcoming week, in the Eastern Guilford practices…Got to get to #30 Patrick Blee, and get him on the ground, and keep him on the ground…Don’t let him get back up, make him fight to get back to his huddle…When you hit him, make him want to stay down….
We will be looking more at the EG task of taking down South Point, as the next week progresses…
But those Grimsley Whirlies sure looked like a top tier team on Friday night vs. Independence…The Independence Patriots came back on Grimsley late in the contest, but the Whirlies already had enough points on the scoreboard, and Independence could’t catch Grimsley…
Grimsley got a great effort from their two-back offensive attack, with sophomore RB Mitchell Summers and senior RB Ja’carion Maynard complimenting each other very well back there…It was just a super two-pronged approach, with both backs going for big yards…Last week, vs. Charlotte Catholic, the Whirlies’ QB Ryan Stephens got the jump on the Catholic Cougars with his running, but this week, it was Summers and Maynard that really got the ball rolling…
Summers carried the football 20 times for Grimsley and he contributed 176 yards, and Summers had two TD runs…Summers also added in a two-point conversion run…Maynard ran for 112 yards on 10 carries, and with Maynard, it was his runs on the jet sweeps, that kept Independence off balance…Maynard really ran strong in the second half, when the game was on the line, and the Grimsley Whirlies needed some big first downs, and it was Maynard and Summers that helped Grimsley get them…
Summers and Maynard were not factors vs. Charlotte Catholic, but they sure were versus Charlotte Independence…Grimsley QB Ryan Stephens came out running early in the game, scoring two TD’s on the ground in the first half…Stephens finished the ballgame with 84 yards on 12 carries, and the senior signal-caller was 7 of 13 passing for 98 more yards, and Stephens threw for one touchdown, and he was intercepted once…
The Grimsley Whirlies receiver Terrell Anderson hauled in two passes for 75 yards/1 TD, and he ran back a kickoff 95 yards for another score…A busy night for the Whirlies’ Anderson, and did we mention, he started on the D-line, at defensive end, for the Whirlie defense…
Since we went big with Ryan Stephens on offense last week, as the Steak n Shake Player of the Game, this week are leaning on Mitchell Summers, Ja’carion Maynard, and Terrell Anderson…
Gonna need to put a big shout up here too, for the Grimsley Whirlies offensive line, after the Grimsley Whirlies Friday night win over the Charlotte Independence Patriots…The Grimsley offense led by Summers, Maynard, and Stephens rushed for 370 yards on Friday night….Grant Buckrham, Jamarius Matier, Henry Harden, Jaden Staton, and Tyler Smouse were the men up front opening up those holes for the Grimsley runners…Got to give a lot of credit to those O-linemen for making sure the runners, had room to run and roam…Shout Out to the O-line, from Grimsley…A good night, and hard work turned in too by the Grimsley tight end/H-back Nolan Albright…Albright was right there blocking with the rest of his teammates…
The Grimsley “D” got outstanding production from Jamaal Jarrett, Andre Hill, and Bryce Davis up front, and it was very busy night for the Grimsley linebacker, Kahlil Stimpson…DB Deon McLaughlin made it a memorable night, by picking off two Independence passes, by the Patriots’ sophomore QB Justin Little…Little ran for one TD and he threw a TD pass to Sincere McIntyre, but McIntyre was handful….McIntyre was a very shifty and speedy athlete…
Here is the scoring rundown from the Grimsley-Independence game….
7:22 First Quarter Kahleil Hoke with a 1-yard run for Independence…PAT kick is good by Daniel Locklear…Independence 7, Grimsley 0
7:08 First Quarter Terrell Anderson with a 95-yard Kickoff Return for a Grimsley touchdown…Anderson caught the two-point conversion pass from Ryan Stephens…Grimsley 8, Independence 7
2:23 First Quarter Ryan Stephens with a 1-yard TD run for Grimsley….Two-point play was no good…Grimsley 14, Independence 7
End of First Quarter:Grimsley 14, Independence 7
9:28 Second Quarter Emmanuel Teah with a 1-yard TD run for Independence…Locklear kick is good…Grimsley 14, Independence 14
8:01 Second Quarter Terrell Anderson with a 68-yard TD pass from Ryan Stephens…Two-point conversion play fails…
Grimsley 20, Independence 14
5:08 Second Quarter Ryan Stephens on a 59-yard TD run for Grimsley…Two-point run is good by Mitchell Summers…
Grimsley 28, Independence 14
Halftime:Grimsley 28, Independence 14
7:04 Third Quarter Summers on a 6-yard TD run for Grimsley…Anderson from Stephens on the two-point pass play…
Grimsley 36, Independence 14
4:49 Third Quarter Sincere McIntyre with 28-yard pass from Justin Little for the TD…Locklear’s kick is good…
Grimsley 36, Independence 21
0:54 Seconds left in the Third Quarter Summers with a 29-yard run for a Grimsley TD…Stephens to Nolan Albright for the two-point conversion pass play…Grimsley 44, Independence 21
End of Third Quarter:Grimsley 44, Independence 21
10:38 Fourth Quarter Little with 1-yard Independence TD run…Locklear with the PAT kick…Grimsley 44, Independence 28…
7:44 Fourth Quarter Little to McIntyre on a 29-yard TD pass…Little to Will Brown on the two-point pass play…
Grimsley 44, Independence 36
Final Score:Grimsley 44, Independence 36
1st Q 2nd Q 3rd Q 4thQ Final
Grimsley 14 14 16 0 44
Independence 7 7 7 15 36
***********Some solid kickoffs for Grimsley on Friday night, by #16 James Tyler…Tyler subbing for the regular Grimsley kicker, Jackson Henry…Tyler with a full arsenal of Pooch Kicks, that kept the Independence return people busy, and often in ‘Guess Mode’, all night long….**********