Following a rough week in the county, this one was a complete 180, as week one of conference play went very well. Kendre Harrison, the MaxPreps National Male Athlete of the Year, made his return to the ‘Ville, the Morehead Panthers beat the McMichael Phoenix for the first time since 2019 to give second-year Morehead Head Coach Bobby Martin his first win, and Rockingham County’s defense continued to make the difference in their 9-0 victory over Southern Guilford.
The Reidsville Rams came into their game with North Forsyth on a 63-game conference winning streak, so their win would not seem like anything special just looking at the score. But it was, as five-star tight end junior Kendre Harrison, one of the top recruits in the nation, made his glorious return to the Lucky City. After a short stint at Providence Day in Charlotte, Kendre put up 61 yards on four receptions, and RoCo Radio’s Joe Dexter said that that did not tell the full story of his impact, as he was blocking and was an extra threat for the defense to have to focus on. Notably, Harrison did not play defense. The Rams took down North Forsyth, 37-0, for their fifth win this season.
Down at MacField Stadium, the best football rivalry in the county went down. The environment was perfect for the McMichael Fighting Phoenix: it was homecoming, the first game of conference play, an opportunity for Coach Steve Tapley to win his first home game with McMichael. And to add to that, they were going to get it against their rivals, the Morehead Panthers, in the annual Mid-State 2A matchup. But instead, the Morehead Panthers rattled off their first win since October of 2022! After coming into the game with only four combined touchdowns all season, Morehead scored four in one game, all starting with their first drive. Pinned back on a fourth and twenty inside their own twenty, they faked a punt with a pass to Dequay Matthews for a touchdown! Though they would fumble it three times, once in fantastic field position for McMichael, the blue-and-black never capitalized, resulting in a shutout. And it all came full circle, as it had been 707 days since their last shutout loss, this time coming to the team that had gone 707 days without a win.
The Rockingham County Cougars impressed defensively in their 9-0 win over the Southern Guilford Storm, giving them a promising conference win. They now improve to 3-1 heading into a matchup with Ben L. Smith, as they try to stay high up in those Mid-State 3A rankings, where they finished in third place in the eight-team conference in 2023. The biggest concern is that they are only scoring thirteen-and-a-half points per game, and they will need to get some more points on the board to keep this winning sustainable.
Next week, the Morehead Panthers play the 4-1 West Stokes Wildcats in a home game, and McMichael looks to recover with a win when they travel to Winston-Salem to play North Forsyth, who are also coming off of a rough shutout loss to a county team. The Rockingham County Cougars play the aforementioned 2-2 Ben L. Smith as they try to improve to 2-0 in conference play, and Reidsville gets a break, which will likely be great for Kendre Harrison, who only got a couple of practices in with his old squad before their game against North Forsyth.