North Johnston Drops to 1-5 Before Entering Conference Play
September 28th, 2008 Posted in High School Football
The Panthers of North Johnston traveled down to Bailey, NC this past Friday evening to hook up with the home standing Firebirds of Southern Nash on Homecoming. Last week, Southern Nash defeated a good team in Wilson-Hunt on this same turf. Firebird Stadium is a nice facility and it looks as if the community takes good care of the place.
The game begins with Southern Nash winning the coin flip and electing to defer to the second half. The Panthers take possession of the ball on their own 33 following the kick off and quickly punt it right back after a 3 and out. #11 Chris Whitley, the Firebird QB leads his squad onto the field for the first time taking possession on their own 24. Nash doesn’t waste much time in making it quite obvious that the right side of the NoJo D-line is their target of choice. The QB and #28 Clint Quickly, repeatedly are making dashes for the NJ side line hoping to turn the corner. The opening drive for SN takes up about 5 minutes of clock but eventually the defense holds for the Panthers after they force a fumble that is recovered by #9 Grey Bruton, with 4:30 to go in the opening quarter of play.
Taking possession of the ball on their own 45, the Panther’s ask Mr. Knight #28 if he would care to dance with the pig skin. On a muggy evening, when EJ is pulling double duty by playing on both sides of the ball, he steps up and makes the Fire birds pay for their error. Several short gains later, and with 1:34 left in the 1st quarter, Knight rumbles in to the right side of the end zone from 23 yards out to put NoJo on the scoreboard first. #11 Harrison Grady tacks on the extra point and NJ is out of the shoot early with a 7-0 lead.
After the score, when the kick team is lining up, something unusual is noticed. I may be dead wrong, but I don’t recall #36 Glenwood Watson performing any kicking duties earlier this year. Nevertheless, the guy who in all reality may be the best athlete on the team, kicks the ball off and danged if it didn’t land in the back of the end zone! Where did that come from? According to the coach at the end of the game, it was the result of a 1976, Spotbuilt flat toe. Where the heck did he find that thing? Ok ok back to the game. At the end of the first quarter of play the score is NJ 7 and SN 0.
After taking possession on their own 20 following the Glenwood Watson missile kick, the fire birds go 3 and out and punt the ball. NoJo fires up the offensive engine again from their own 25. On the next play, #5 Jaques Alston, bounces off defenders like a pinball rumbling almost 38 yards down to the Southern Nash 37. Knight continues to gain positive yards up the middle driving to the 16 before Kyle Sanders takes a pass form #7 Joe Harned all the way down to the SN 4 yard line. On the following play, with 8:02 to go in the first half, Knight takes a hand off up the middle and crosses over the goal line to score again. #11 Gray is good with the extra point and the score now is NJ 14 and SN 0. What a difference a week makes. Several times this year we have come out to start the game flat only to be forced into a catch up role for the rest of the game. Not tonight!
Following the second score of the night, Watson puts that antique Spotbuilt to use again. This time there is a fumble by the Fire birds on the kick off and it is recovered by #33 Spenser Lebbano on the SN 34 with 7:53 to go in the half. The Panthers attempt to pour more trouble into the lives of the homecoming crowd, but on a big 4th and 18 at the Nash 31, #7 Harned drops back and is picked off at the 10 yard line with 6:07 showing on the first half clock. Over the course of the remaining minutes, the Firebirds work the ball down to the NJ 40. However, Lewis, Hicks and the D-Line hold off the late opening half threat to go in 14-0 at the break.
**First Half Notes** Other than an opening possession scare, the defensive line for NJ is playing all out smash mouth football. EJ Knight is playing both sides of the ball tonight and is really excelling in his duties a middle linebacker as the night wears on. This is the mentality and kill instinct that has been missing in the early parts of games all year. A excellent first half. Knight is 11 rushes for 78 yards and 2 TD’s and Alston is 6 rushes for 51 yards all in the opening round. Southern Nash has been hit with lots of costly penalties that have kept drives alive for the Panthers and in a few instances killed drives of their own.
The Firebirds begin the 2nd half on offense taking possession at their own 9 following a penalty on the kick off. However, on the first play from scrimmage, their QB #11 Whitley, heaves a huge pass down the right side line that is complete down to the NJ 15. With their backs continuing to work the right side of the D-line, they get the ball closer and down to the NJ 9. The next play results in #24 Chris Simpson, rushing in for a touchdown with 8:35 to go in the 3rd. The point after attempt is good and SN is on the board but still trailing 14-7.
The Panthers take the kick off and assume possession on their own 34. The next 8 minutes of play are not easily described. Suffice it to say that NJ survives the defensive attack of Southern Nash and the self inflicted attack of penalties. We even talk the bad guys in to jumping offsides on 4th and 1. After eating up a huge amount of time on the clock, #5 Jaques Alston makes a dash for the left side of the SN line and sprints well over 30 yards to place another 6 on the scoreboard. Grey delivers on the kick and with 2:25 to go in the 3rd, the score is NJ 21 and SN 7.
After another kickoff, SN takes the ball on their own 45. With the penalty bug beginning bite consistently, NJ draws a flag and the ball is advanced across the 50 to the NJ 37. The quarter ends with the ball on the NJ 29 and the Firebirds driving.
On the first play of the final period, #28 Clint Quickly, rushes into the endzone from 29 yards out and makes thing a little more interesting. The point after is good and the score is now NJ 21 and SN 14 with 11:51 to go.
The kick is taken by NoJo down to their own 43. Soon there after, at the 10:38 mark the offense fumbles and turns the ball over to Southern Nash on the NJ 48. In all honesty it looks like the same penalty and mistake demon that plagued SN in the first half has jumped sides and is now whipping the Panthers hind end like a rented mule!
Five minutes and several offensive plays later, the Firebirds toss a beautiful pass right into the middle of the endzone at the 5:36 mark. When the play was over, everyone got up except for NJ’s own #1 Laquan Cox. Cox was playing defensive back on the score by SN and immediately was crying out in a terrible amount of pain. Holding his left knee and rolling on the ground, it was obvious this was serious. After several minutes surrounded by trainers and coaches, two team matres carried Cox off the field where he was loaded into a waiting ambulance. You could honestly see the wind fall out of the sidelines sails.
Taking advantage of a drasitc swing in mood, the coaching staff for the Firebirds elect to go for a 2 point conversion in hopes of taking the lead at home with only a short amount of time left to play. The conversion is good and SN goes up 22-21 with approximatley 5 minutes left in the game.
On the ensuing kick off, the ball is kicked short and two NJ players attempt to field it at the same time. As expected that usually does not end with a good result and it didn’t this time either. The ball bounced off the shoulder pads of a Panther and right into the waiting arms of a Firebird specail teamer. Now we’re really looking at a tough scenario. With 4:13 showing to play, SN has the ball on the NJ 49. Shaking off the shell shock and cobb webbs, the defense bow their backs and make a last attempt to wrestle the ball away and give the offense one last shot. With 3:57 on the clock, SN is facing 4th down on the NJ 29. The SN coaching staff decide to go for it in an attempt to ice the game. However, with a heart aching wanting badly to go home victorious, the defense holds and assumes the ball on downs 70 yards from the promised land. We still had a little something left. Faced with a big 4th down and 20 and less than 2:00 to go, #7 Joe Harned rolls out and delivers a strike to #6 Charles Pipkin down to the SN 46. The clock is moving fast and we’re trying to cover a whole lot or real estate in a short amount of time. Facing 3rd and 10, Harned rolls out again but is intercepted as he is hit at the moment of release. Southern Nash just runs out the clock from there. God did it hurt!
Final score of the game Southern Nash 22 and North Johnston 21. How many times can a team be bitten by the 1 point snake?
**Quotes from the Coach following the game**
** Speaking with his troops**
“You played your guts out”
“It’s the first time this year that I have seen it hurt so much that tears are in your eyes.”
“There is a lot to be seen from the Panthers! If the team that showed up here tonight shows up, you will not lose the next 5 games.”
**Speaking with Press following the game**
“We might be 1-5 but the Carolina 1-A better watch out!”
“I’ll be able to sleep a lot better this weekend knowing what kind of effort our kids gave tonight.”
Game Stats provided by: Mike Wickham
SCORE BY QUARTERS 1 2 3 4 FINAL
NJ 7 7 7 0 21
S NASH 0 0 7 15 22
SCORING SUMMARY…..1ST (NJ) EJ Knight 24yd run. Harrison Grady kick(1:24)
2ND (NJ)Knight 5 yd run.Grady kick(8:02)
3RD (SN)Gary Tharrington 9yd run Jordan Hagler kick(8:35)
(NJ) Jacques Alston 29yd run.Grady kick(2:27)
4TH.(SN) Clinton Whitley 29yd run.Hagler kick((11:51)
(SN) Sampson 15yd pass from Whitley.Batchelor run(5:36)
TEAM SUMMARIES….. NJ SN
FIRST DOWNS 12 13
RUSHING ATT/YD 35-196 42-142
PASSES COM/ATT/INT/TD 3-11-2-0 2-3-0-1
PASSING YDS 48 93
FUMBLES/LOST 3-2 4-2
PEN/YDS 8-75 9-74
PUNTS/AVG 1-40.0 1-33.0
INDIVIDUAL STATS…..RUSHING (NJ) Knight 16-94,Bruton 4-2,Alston 8-81,Harned 2–19,Watson 5-38
PASSING (NJ) Harned 3-11-48 yds 2 int. REC.(NJ) Bruton 1-9,Sanders 1-15,Pipkin 1-24
SN could not provide a roster so i didnt have names for their stats……
