Sort of like Rolling on the River for most of our teams on Friday night, but the game we attended got pretty tight tonight…Northern Guilford over Norheast Guilford, 14-8…Have the NEG Rams ever beaten the NG Nighthawks???
Well to my recollection, I did not remember any Ram wins in the games played between the two teams from over the years…A couple of times Coach Tommy Pursley’s Ram teams were close, but did they win against Northern???
Not from what I could tell, but I just got the word tonight around 12:50am that in fact, Northeast did defeat Northern Guilford, and it happened not too long ago…It was back in 2019, and the final score on that Friday night was, Northeast Guilford 35, Northern Guilford 21…
How did I come across that golden nugget of information??? I heard from the NEG Ram who coached that Northeast team to victory on that special night…I will let you fill in blank on who that coach was….I don’t want to go revealing all my sources, but if you have the sources, you let them run…
And I bet back in that day that the NEG Rams had some backs that could run, and run really super fast and hard…
Northern Guilford was running hard on this Friday night, with the Nighthawks’ key RB Amare Akers gaining key yards, and his backup, Christian Leach, was a more that valuable stead…Also for Northern, the Hawks QB was able to gain important yards, and he scored their game-sealing touchdown…
To me, I was surprised with the Northeast Guilford Defense…They were playing with the old, “Bend But Don’t Break”
mentality….Both teams were doing each other favors by committing costly penalties that allowed both squads to be in this football game…
Northern Guilford got interceptions from both Bobby Bah and Hunter Crum, and the Nighthawks also grabbed a fumble recovery by Khan Achina…Northeast Guilford took a Pick Six by Shelton Moss to The House, so as you can see, both teams were able to utilize turnovers to either snuff out key rallies, or to flat out put points on the board…
I was talking up that Northeast Guilford defense, and giving them the credits for the game they played, holding the NG Nighthawks to just two touchdowns…Thinking much of the season, Northern has been putting 30 or more points on the board in key games…
So NEG was doing their dead-level best to be the beast that would keep the NG Nighthawks out of the end zone, but when you flip the script, you had NG flipping the field, not allowing even one Northeast Guilford offensive score from scrimmage in this affair…NEG scored on the Pick Six by Mr. Moss, but otherwise, Northern Guilford kept NEG off of the scoreboard…Up front for Northern, Jude Keyser, Charlie Griffin, and Achina were making their presence known in the NEG backfield…They blew up several plays and made it a point to keep pressure on the NEG’s QB combo of Jaquez Crawford and Zorian Campbell…
So mission accomplished up front on defense by Northern Guilford…But as good as the D-linemen were dealing, we saw maybe the best One-Two Linebacker duo/tandem in the state…Chance Crews plays linebacker like he is on his own planet, and you see him involved on almost every play…Then you add in Noah Smith…And tracking Smith, is like watching Bruce Smith play linebacker, even though he was a D-Lineman for the Buffalo Bills…Crews and Smith, that is like seeing Kevin Greene and Sam Mills teaming up again…You could talk ALL Night Long about that defensive work that Crews and Smith turned in…
We know that DB Bobby Bah and LB Hunter Crum both had picks for NG, and I am thinking that Tajae Alston got one too…Alston was making some BIG plays back there, on the back line of the defense…Noah Smith getting the credit for that other NG INT., and there was a mass of players back there on that pick, and Smith was able to grab the errant pass from the NEG QB Crawford…All kinds of defensive activity coming NG LBs Noah Smith and Chance Crews on Friday night….We were still correct in our assessments…Tajae Alston did have an Interception for Northern like we were thinking…So NG actually picked off four passes in this game vs. NEG….INTs for Bah, Crum, Alston, and Noah Smith…Busy night for the Northern Guilford Defense….
Was thinking going in, that this was going to be an offensive shootout, but due to some key miscues and the penalties, and in such a big part due to the Defense of both teams, this became a Defensive Showcase…Coach Randy Norris was calling for a Defensive Dogfight and that is what we ended up with….
Over the past few weeks we have seen some very close ball games on GreensboroSports Radio One…Dudley 21-19, over NEG…NG topped Oak Grove, 26-21…Dudley got Page, 21-17…Southeast Guilford ran hard and won 13-10 over Eastern Guilford…And now tonight we saw Northern Guilford top Northeast Guilford, 14-8…Two points, Five points, Four points, Three points, and now just a Six-point difference…Some tight ones rolling down the river there…
A lot of credit also needs to be going to NEG Defensive Coordinator Tre Deese…He had his defense putting Northern Guilford in tough conversion situations, and the NEG “D” were doing things to keep their team, on the overall map…Tonight you must say, the NEG “D” kept their kids in the contest…They never let Northern Guilford get totally untracked, and the Nighthawks would score, but they never were ever really able to get into their rhythm, and find the groove that would make them able to put Northeast Guilford out-of-reach…
Northeast Guilford got game from receivers Aaryn Tate and Dre Deese…Tate was getting big yardage every time he touched and handled the ball cleanly…Deese went up and grabbed a wild duck pass from Campbell, and the Deese catch was a work of true art, as two defenders were right there with Deese, as he snatched the ball out of the air…NEG’s Suleiman Solongo caught a flare/swing pass from Campbell and turned it into a key first down, as he ran upfield and then hit the sideline….
Going to be interesting when we see the Final Stat Numbers pouring in from Bryant Roche at the News and Record…This was one of those games where you weren’t sure who was going to win, until the very end…Northern Guilford survived to advance to next week at home, vs. Southern Guilford…NG now at (2-0) in the 6-A/5-A Conference that they are calling the TAAC, and NG at (6-1) overall…NEG has fallen to (1-1) Conference and (5-2) overall…Next Friday night, Northeast Guilford will be at Southeast Guilford(5-2/2-0)…
Here is the scoring rundown from Northern Guilford over Northeast Guilford, 14-8…..
6:42 First Quarter:Northern Guilford gets a 3-yard Touchdown Run from RB Amare Akers and the PAT Kick from Kobe Guardado was Good…NG 7, NWG 0
End of First Quarter:Northern Guilford 7, Northeast Guilford 0
1:57 Second Quarter:QB Jackson Kemp takes off a on 10-yard TD run for Northern Guilford and the Kobe Guardado PAT Kick was Good again…NG 14, NEG 0
Halftime:Northern Guilford 14, Northeast Guilford 0
10:39 Third Quarter:NEG gets a Pick Six from DB Shelton Moss and he takes it 40 yards to the house, and the Two-Point Conversion run by Elijah Jones was Good…NG 14, NEG 8
End of Third Quarter:Northern Guilford 14, Northeast Guilford 8
Final Score:Northern Guilford 14, Northeast Guilford 8
Lean toward Chance Crews and Noah Smith for Players of the Game from Northern Guilford…Will be looking forward to seeing the final defensive stats…Player of the Game from Northeast Guilford could Moss for his Pick Six TD return or even Dre Deese for that catch he had and for his overall job, in the receiving department for Northeast…
Great job by the Northern Guilford parking lot crew, with the Boosters getting fans fed and charged up for the big game, prior to the Big Game…Mr. Kemp, Kathy Kemp, Kerry Finch, Jaxson Kemp’s grandmother and others were leading the charge of the Purple Passion out there in the lot, near the tennis courts before the game got underway, at the Johnny Roscoe Stadium, on this Friday Night Football Finish…
The other teams from our Guilford County area won big, with Grimsley winning big, Dudley winning big, Page winning big, West Forsyth winning big, Eastern Guilford winning big, Southeast Guilford winning big, while High Point Andrews and the High Point Christian Academy were winning big games…See our pick results below, and we have included our numbers for the season…
PICKS:
Picks go (16-2) and for the season now we go with (98-24)…..
Grimsley-WIN
Dudley-WIN
Page-WIN
West Forsyth-WIN
High Point Andrews-WIN
Northern Guilford-WIN
Eastern Guilford-WIN
Southeast Guilford-WIN
High Point Christian Academy-WIN
Bishop McGuinness-WIN
CPLA-LOSS
Rockingham County-WIN
Reidsville-WIN
WS Carver-WIN
Western Alamance-WIN
East Forsyth-WIN
WS Reagan-WIN
Southeast Alamance-LOSS
Jesse Poole had 2 INTs last night from his MLB spot. On top of a ton of tackles and other stats! Not bad for a back up! I’m imagining Poole and Harty lining up next to each other when he’s back healthy. Two sophomores with instincts and a nose for the ball!
Jesse Poole starting look like his future might be brighter as LB, more so than as RB…He is doing well…
NW Guilford needs a new Head Coach now! This guy has lost the team. Nobody wants to play for him and players are transferring.