Football: Monday Morning Quarterback - Rock. Co. 2012

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Game Summary (NOTE - This is going to be really deep and insightful so you may want to take notes).   Ready???    Here goes...  

We

Got

Beat!

Its as simple as that really.  Rockingham County is a darn good football team and they beat us fair and square.  We didn't "lose" this game.  We got beat.  And you've heard me preach about it before...  There's a big difference between "losing"' and getting beat.  I can handle getting beat much better than losing.  So we just have to pick ourselves up; dust ourselves off; buckle up the chin strap; and go back to work!

Surprisingly, the sun did come up on Saturday morning.  I wasn't sure it would because I sure didn't feel sunny and cheerful when I sat down to work on video on Friday evening.  Things were pretty gloomy.  Getting beat is no fun (nor should it be).  It makes everything more difficult and kind of sucks the joy out out you (at least temporarily).

But lets start with the positives...  It was a glorious Friday evening with lots of festivity in the cool autumn (almost) air.  I love homecoming.  The best part of this year's homecoming for me was seeing the former players who have gone on to play college football.  As soon as I walked in the gate to the stadium, I got a great big bear hug from Michael Maness.  He's doing good at Lenoir-Rhyne and we're going to catch up with him in a few weeks.

Soon after, I saw another familiar face wearing a NC Wesleyan Football jacket.  It was Terell Bellamy.  Got me another hug!  

Once I arrived on the sidelines, I spotted that magic smile from 100 feet away.  You can't miss 'Q' - Quinton Richmond.  Another hug!  Both Terell and Q are playing for NC Wesleyan this season as true freshmen.  We're going to catch up with them later this season and hear how things are going.

But I say this to make a point....  Western Alamance turns out not just good football players, but outstanding young men!   These 3 guys (and all of the others) make me proud to be part of the WA Family!

The game itself was a really good one between 2 very solid programs.   I knew we were going to be in a dogfight (or, more appropriately, a cougarfight) when RC took the early lead.  But we bounced right back and tied the game at 7 apiece on a Nigel Carlton to Justin Wilson TD pass and catch.

I was feeling pretty good when the Warriors went up 14-7 and seized control of the momentum.  WA had a chance to really create some breathing room just before the half as the Warriors drove deep into Cougar territory.  But a turnover killed the drive and the Warrior lead remained at 7 leading up to the halftime festivities.

The second half very much resembled the second half of several of our games this season.  Unfortunately....  The roles were reversed on Friday night.  On Friday night, it was the Cougars who took charge and completely wore us down.

I can't sugar coat it...  RC flat out took us behind the woodshed in the 2nd half.  I think RC Head Coach, Lin Stadler, summed it up pretty well with this statement:

“We just pounded them,” said Rockingham County coach Lin Stadler, a former Western Alamance assistant coach. “It’s like tenderizing a piece of meat and then eventually you’re going to break one.”

That they did.  To be completely candid...  It got monotonous after awhile.

5 yards...

4 yards...

7 yards...

10 yards...

5 yards...

Over and over and over again. 

The analogy that came to my mind was that of a boxer taking shot after shot to the midsection.  You don't see blood.  You don't see bruising.  But the damage is being done.  Eventually....  You crumble.  Everyone in the stadium knew they were going to run the ball... and they did.  The Cougar OL and FB are very disciplined; very strong; and very good.

I think the final stats were 55 carries for 364 yards on the ground for the Cougars.  Those are numbers that WA has put up on other teams this season.  But this week, we got a taste of our own medicine.

If you go back and review the game, one area that really hurt WA was penalties.  I don't know the numbers, but it just seemed like, offensively, we would get ourselves in a hole (via penalty) and make it extremely difficult to pick up first downs and burn some clock.  So we would give the ball back to RC and let them pound some more while the Warrior defense just wore down over time.   I don't know the time-of-possession statistics, but I suspect they look something like this...

• Rockingham County:   A LOT
• Western Alamance:  A little

But its not all gloom and doom.  There were several outstanding performances on Friday evening.

This week, I'm going to single out Justin Wilson for my "MVP Award." 

PrimeTime had just a whale of a game!  If I recall correctly, here are a few of the highlights for #5:

• TD catch
• Pass breakup (on one of the Cougars rare downfield pass attempts)
• Interception
• Blocked extra point (that kept the Cougar lead at 7 thus giving WA a chance to tie at the end)
• And an amazing shoestring catch along the sidelines in front of the Warrior bench.  (Here's a picture - A little fuzzy, but you get to see just how great of catch it was).

I also really thought that Nigel Carlton had an exceptional game.  First and foremost, the Ninja did a great job of decision-making.  Compared to other schools, our offense is SIGNIFICANTLY more sophisticated.  Nigel is the leader of the offense and has to make a lot of decisions in a very short amount of time.   I don't have his final stats, but I came away very impressed with both his passing game and his running game.