Football: Monday Morning Quarterback - Southern Alamance 2012

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And oh...

And oh...

And oh...

And oh...

Oh how wonderful it is for your season record to end in the words... "and oh." 

For WA, "and oh" was prefaced by the number "4" on Friday evening around 10:15pm as the Warriors moved to a perfect 4-0 for the first time since the 2007 season.  That's hard to believe, but its true.  And it feels good!

What a great turnout by the Warrior Nation over in the southern reaches of Alamance County!  As is frequently the case, I believe our crowd outnumbered the "home" crowd yet again.  All I can say is...  WOW!

I frequently become engrossed in the game while shooting video.  Not a lot of things get my attention away from the action on the field.  But on Friday night, the loud cheering and animated faces certainly caught my eye! 

I want to give props to ALL Warrior fans with some extra-special props going to our infamous Student Section!!  Loved the "Camo" attire!

In a word...  FANtastic!!!  You guys were aweome AND you do make a difference!  Keep it up!

This game was another hard fought contest between Alamance County rivals.  You've got to love Alamance County football.  This is truly one of the best counties in the state for high school football.  And while I love to beat all of the other teams, it is nice to see teams like Southern and Graham (and even... dare I say it....  Williams) get back on track.  OK... Maybe not Williams.  Life is better when they are bad!  :)

Brock Deatherage really got to show off his speed in this game.  A "normal" person would not have scored any of Brock's 3 touchdowns.  But Brock is not normal...  At least when it comes to speed.  The kid's got some wheels!

You know I love to give out nicknames.  Last year, Brock got 2 nicknames from me:

• The Thief - Because he stole so many footballs with his interceptions
• The Swiss Army Knife - Because he's multi-talented and can play several positions on the football field

This year, I'm going with another nickname.  But I have to give credit where credit is due because I did not come with this nickname myself.  It was awarded to Brock during baseball season as a result of all of his stolen bases.   So in 2012, I will just refer to Brock as "Beep!  Beep!"   You get the picture!

 Beep!  Beep!

I don't know what it was, but the WA coaches were very intense for this game.  You could tell that Coach Snuffer, in particular, really wanted to win this one.  He was REALLY into the game.  You can read Coach Snuffer's intensity through his facial expressions.

When seriously intense...  Coach gets...  "The Look."  I don't have a picture of Coach Snuffer with "The Look," but I've got a picture of someone else with the same look.  So if you turn the 'stache into a goatee, this is kind of how Coach looked on the sidelines (especially when the refs threw one of the seemingly 10,000 penalty flags).

With the score tied at 13 apiece going into halftime, I was a little nervous.  Southern was playing well and so were we for the most part.  Penalties were kiling us but, overall, we were doing OK.  The running game wasn't working just yet, but everything else was up to snuff (no pun intended).

But we needed to kick it up another notch in order to put Southern at bay in the second half.  And something happened at halftime.  I don't know if it was a fiery speech by the coaches or if it was just our senior leaders stepping up and saying, "Its Winning Time."  But the attitude coming out for the 3rd quarter was really spirited and positive and the results showed on playing field. 

A lot of teams like to stick their hands in the air and display 4 fingers to announce the beginning of the 4th quarter and make their claim that Q4 belongs to them.  But while a lot of teams do this, only a few of them can back it up.  WA BACKS IT UP! 

Q4 belongs to the Warriors!  

So players...  All of that time you spent in the hot sun this summer has paid off!  Conditioning matters!  And WA is the best conditioned team I have seen thus far in 2012. 

I'm giving out co-MVP awards for this game.  The first goes to Brock Deatherage.  As previously noted, Brock scored 3TDs on the night.  The first was was a 30-yard dash down the right sideline on the opening drive that made the Patriot defenders look like Wile E Coyote trying to catch Roadrunner!

The second TD was a nifty out-and-up pattern as a scrambling Nigel hit Brock down the left sideline for a 54-yard TD just before the half.

And the final TD was a QB keeper that Deatherage took to the left pylon midway through the second half and gave WA some much needed breathing room.

I've got just 2 words to say to you Brock...  BEEP!  BEEP!

Co-MVP #2 may come as a surprise because its not often that the punter receives such an award.  But no one was more deserving on Friday night that our very own "Cannon" - a.k.a. - Hunter Lent.

WOW!  The kid sent up some rockets that could probably be seen by the Mars space probe.  The first punt covered 60+ yards and the others were all in the 40-50 yard range.  And there were ZERO return yards by the Patriots.  Nada.  Zilch.  Nothing. 


So while its not often that a "highlight" tape gets put together for a punter, I thought "The Cannon" deserved a little recognition. 

Here's a link to Lent's cannon shots:  Link

Turn up the volume and listen to some of the commentary along the sidelines!  Hunter earned a lot of "Attaboy's."  Everyone appreciated the difference that Hunter made in this game.  He truly can change field position with a single swing of his leg!  Great job #46!

 

Great job #8!  We're going to need you to step up even more over the next few weeks!

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And now for this week's winner of the "Its The Little Things" Award....

 

One play can make a difference.  A little extra effort to just stretch a little bit further can completely change the game.  You just never know what might have happened if that effort was not made.

Here's a perfect example of the extra effort being made.  As he has done on at least 2 (maybe more) other occasions this season, Sr DE Jay Underwood stretched his 6'5" frame into the air and got a finger on one of Jonathan Lloyd's pass attempts for the Patriots.  Who knows what might have happened if Jay hadn't knocked that pass to the turf.  Southern could have scored a long TD and changed momentum.  But they did NOT!  Thanks to Jay.

 

So #88 wins the "Its The Little Things" award for week 4 and also gets a nickname....

 

Underdog!

 

Who remembers this saying????  "There's no need to fear.  Underdog is here!"

 

One of the best cartoons ever!  Link

 

 

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 Now its time for my weekly shout-out's to others who caught my eye this week:

• Neil Kernodle - #44 is truly the "middle" of the defense.  From the middle LB position, Neil anchors the Warrior 'D' and is always around the ball.  He's not flashy, but he gets the job done.  'Nuff said!

• Sam "Ghost Crab" Foster - Like Neil, Sam is always around the ball.  And #20 came up with a big interception to stop a Patriots drive on 4th down.  This was true momentum swing in the game.

• Dexter Brower - #3 has a knack for the big play notching another interception and nice return to set up a WA score.

• Andrew Falk - #6 connected on a 35+ yard field goal to push the WA lead to 10 in the 2nd half.  His kickoffs were also good with one of flying into the SA endzone for a touchback

• Blake Deatherage - Goodness gracious!  Is this youngster coming on strong or what???  Blake was a dominant force in the second half coming up with a big sack and another tackle behind the line of scrimmage.  As #40 continues to gain experience and confidence, the sky is the limit!

• Syd "The Squid" Younger - Big #77 was rock solid on the interior of Warrior DL.  I bet the SA announcer got tired of saying...  "In on the tackle for the Warriors, #77, Sydney Younger."  Big Syd was a force along the DL.

• Another force on the DL was TJ Harris.  The Man-i-mal got rocked a couple of times early by some sneaky crack-back blocks by the Patriots.  But TJ got his revenge with a couple of sacks.  TJ is one of those "high motor" guys who goes and goes and goes and goes.

• Nigel "Ninja" Carlton - Another sterling performance by #4.  Nigel didn't put up huge numbers in this game, but he masterfully guided the Warrior offense to 30 points.  And he had an impressive run of about 25 yards while filling in at RB.  Another thing Nigel excels at is the hard count.  You can't help but laugh at the opposing defense when Nigel repeatedly baits them into jumping off-sides with his snap cadence.  All of those 5-yard penalties add up!

• And how about Christian Valenzuela?!?!  #51 notched a sack of his own late in game.

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And now for the bad news...  WA suffered its first significant injury of the season when Jr RB Jacob Webster had to be carried off the field in the 3rd quarter with an apparent knee injury.  The extent of the injury is still being evaluated and we don't want to speculate on the prognosis.  But there is a lot of hope that Jacob will be back in action again at some point. 

For now...  Everyone please say a prayer for Jacob's recovery; and for strength and patience to see him through this adversity.

 

J-Train - Keep your head up!  We're behind you 100% and we know you will work your tail off to get back on the field again soon.

 

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Next week...  The "Second Season" begins as WA opens conference play up in Eden taking on the Morehead Panthers.  Morehead is sitting at 1-3 on the seaon after getting throttled 34-0 at Reidsville on Friday night.

But its a conference game and its a game that the Warriors simply cannot afford to lose.  With a critical 3-game swing coming up after Morehead, WA needs to get the conference season started off with a 'W' and keep building momentum.

Now its confession time....  We are playing hooky next week and are taking off for a long weekend at the beach.  But we will be putting out as much info as possible as several of our loyal band of iHigh football contributors will be making the trek to Eden.

Here are some of the folks who bring you Warrior Football via iHigh.  They do a TREMENDOUS job and I sincerely thank them all.   If you see them, please take the time to thank them yourself.

 

• Kay McCloskey - Photos
• Ray Sheibley - Photos
• Anita Richard - Photos
• Abby Snuffer - Photos
• Kim Harper - Photos
• Ricky Portela - Warrior Wrapup and stats (in addition to pulling the chains at home games)

 

I hope everyone has a great week!   Next week...  Let's get win #5 and keep the Warrior Train rollin'!!!

 

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