In a game featuring defense, defense, and more defense, the McMichael Fighting Phoenix bested the North Forsyth Vikings, 20-12, behind Hayden Meeks, Cody Yoakley, and four consecutive fourth quarter turnovers.
When the offense of McMichael just wasn’t connecting like it typically does, Meeks and Yoakley kept the score from getting out of hand. Yoakley devoured return men, quarterbacks, and made massive fourth down red zone plays. He also did it on offense with a long rushing touchdown to seize the lead in the fourth. On the other hand, Meeks, who played on the defensive line, wasn’t above going all over the place to get the tackle. The big man showed off his surprising speed and agility, and also recovered a fumble with two-and-a-half minutes to go to essentially seal the victory.
In the first quarter, Jayden Moore put McMichael on the board with a rushing touchdown. On the last drive of the quarter, a large run by Lewis Green IV put the Vikings in the red zone. The defense held things down until it was a fourth-and-goal from the six yard line, and North Forsyth went for it. They soon regretted that decision when Yoakley devoured Jacquez Jackson with a sack to turn it over on downs!
The second quarter didn’t go quite as well. Ethan Fox of McMichael was punting when he got blocked, and the ball looked like it would travel out of bounds. However, on the sideline, Varteice Hamilton of North Forsyth caught it and turned on the jets! He then bulldozed Fox, Chandler Jones – Mac Jones style, to get into the end zone! However, after a weird formation on a two-point conversion failed to do the trick, it was 7-6, McMichael. On the next North Forsyth drive, they started in nice field position. Carey Miller got a nice block and ran into the end zone, but their extra point was blocked, giving us the strange score of 7-12. On their next drive, they were pushing into McMichael territory with less than a minute remaining. On a second-and-goal at the three yard line, with nineteen seconds to go and no timeouts, Cody Yoakley once again stopped a touchdown with an enormous sack! The clock winded down, and North Forsyth couldn’t get a play off, allowing McMichael to escape the half in a better situation than that second quarter should’ve allowed.
McMichael decided that they wanted possession of the ball for a good, long time in the second half. They ran the air out of the football, and North Forsyth only controlled the ball for four downs of the third quarter. McMichael felt that the defense needed some recovery time, and spent nearly the entire quarter getting them some rest. However, that didn’t translate to any points on the board, and heading into the fourth quarter, they still faced a five-point deficit.
And, as usual with my Greensboro Sports game of the week, the fourth quarter was ridiculously entertaining.
Yoakley, who was an enormous presence on defense, decided that he needed to take matters into his own hands on the other side of the ball. He took the handoff and charged all the way to the end zone, getting hit by multiple defenders on the way, for the touchdown and the lead! Jayden Moore’s two-point attempt was stopped, and it was now 13-12. Cody Peters, who had two interceptions against South Stokes, then picked off one in beautiful field position. On the first offensive play, Moore waltzed into the end zone untouched, and McMichael now led, 20-12.
Quarterback Jace Dunne did not throw any interceptions, but he did catch one to give McMichael the ball back. They continued to run the air out of the football and time off the clock, and, when North Forsyth got the ball back, they didn’t keep it long. Meeks would recover a fumble with two minutes, thirty-one seconds to go! With less than a minute and a half remaining, on fourth and three, McMichael decided to go for it and try to end things then and there. Moore got a nice shove from behind, but, after some discussion, the refs marked him short. North Forsyth decided it was time to go for the big play, and launched it halfway across the field. Tyvon Dalton of McMichael came down with it, getting the fourth turnover in a row and clinching the win for the Phoenix! They were then able to line up in victory formation to end the game, winning 20-12 on Homecoming Night.
McMichael improves to 4-2 overall, and 2-0 in conference play. Remaining on their schedule is a rivalry game against the Reidsville Rams next week at Jimmy Teague Field, followed by a bye week and matchups with West Stokes, Walkertown, and T.W. Andrews. All of these are important conference games, and McMichael could wind up in good playoff position depending on how they perform in those games.
Around the Rock, Reidsville got a much-needed bye week to recover from the slew of injuries. Morehead fell to West Stokes, with the Panthers scoring just 6 points to the 52 of the Wildcats. Also, the Rockingham County Cougars improved to a very impressive 4-1 when they defeated the Ben L. Smith Golden Eagles, 29-13. They have now won more games than they did last year with just half the games played.
Next week, Morehead and Rockingham both have home games. The Panthers will host the Walkertown Wolfpack, who will try to break a four game losing streak, and the Eastern Guilford Wildcats will head to Cougar Pride Stadium in a battle of teams who are 4-1. As mentioned, McMichael and Reidsville will be competing in a heavyweight matchup that I will be covering for Greensboro Sports next week, one that every football fan in the county is excited to see.
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