Mike hosts the NCPrepSports.net website for Cumberland County Schools High School sports and is an avid fan. While “walking the sidelines” this season, Mike will give us his observations on high school sports. He invites your comments.

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The final chapter was written Friday night for high school football in Cumberland County when Raleigh Leesville Road came to Hope Mills and beat South View 17-7.

South View had seven turnovers, five in the first half and if not for the South View defense this game could have gotten ugly real early. As it was, if not for turnover #5 (an interception in the end zone on a first down pass from the 4 yard line with approximately 50 seconds to go in the half) this game would have been 10-7 at the half.

The Tigers held the much heralded Leesville Road QB Thomas Wilson to only 107 yds passing on 14 for 24. After a second Leesville Road TD in the third quarter making the score 17-0, it seemed the Pride had the game in hand. But on the next Tiger possession, DB Jamaal Bethea grabbed a tipped Wilson pass and returned it to the Pride 34 yard line. South View QB quickly capitalized with a 34 yard pass from QB Ryan Everette to WR Craig Sanders making the score 17-7. After a Leesville Road punt, South View got the ball back early in the fourth quarter and drove inside the Pride 30 yard line where the turnover bug struck again on another interception on the five yard line. From there, the Tigers were pretty much done with their last two possessions ending in fourth downs.

South View had almost 100 yards more offense than Leesville Road, but unfortunately they were having to get the same yardage over and over. South View also had 18 first downs to Leesville Road’s 10, but more yardage and first downs don’t get you to the Eastern Championship game.

It has now been three years since a Cumberland County team has played for a Regional Championship. In 2004, we actually had South View win the 4AA Eastern Championship, Jack Britt win the 4A Western Championship and E.E. Smith play in the 4A Eastern Championship, losing to Greenville Rose. We expected to have a team get to this game and several times it was held in Cumberland County.

I don’t know if I buy Earl Vaughan’s latest blog about the thinning of talent in the county. Cumberland County is not the only school system that has built new schools (we have only opened two new ones in Jack Britt and Gray’s Creek). It seems that the Wake and Johnston County areas are opening a new high school every year and a majority of the teams in the 4AA East were from the Wake County area. So talent there is being thinned also and they seem to be getting teams into the Regional finals. New Hanover County has four high schools. Talent runs in cycles there, with Hoggard having it all the past few years. Didn’t Wilmington Laney play for the 4AA state championship in 2001 and lose to Charlotte Independence?

Moreover, the football programs with the dedicated and organized coaching staffs and players in the program will always do well. South View for instance, did not have the caliber of team that they had in 2000, but coaching makes a difference. You see this in several other schools in the county, where good coaching can hide talent deficiencies and these schools very rarely have bad seasons. It the old adage about reloading, not rebuilding.

This will be my last football post for the season. Thanks to the good folks at Fayetteville Observer for asking me to do this blog. It’s been a real treat for me and Yogi.

For now it’s on to basketball.

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It has been said that if you are practicing high school football on Thanksgiving Day, then you must have a pretty good team. (Credit cannot be given to Yogi Berra on this one). Thanksgiving week is the week that the 3rd Round or Sectional playoffs usually occur in North Carolina.

South View hosts Raleigh Leesville Road this Friday in Hope Mills. South View gets the home game because the #7 seed Leesville Road beat the #2 seed Wake Forest Rolesville last week. And if the Tigers are able to win Friday, the 4AA Eastern Championship will return to Cumberland County next week when South View would host the winner of the Raleigh Millbrook �" New Bern game.

This is South View’s 13th appearance in the NHHSAA state playoffs and their 11th time they have made it to the 3rd round. At one point from 1998 to 1004, they were the only high school team in the state that had made the 3rd round seven years in a row. While posting an incredible 23-2 record in rounds 1 and 2, they have only a 4-6 record in the 3rd round. Their third round string was broken in Round 2 in 2005 against Cary, who had the best running back in the state at that time, Josh Aiken. South View dominated the stats that game and Josh Aikens actually had more yards passing than running, completing two long halfback passes during the game.

South View has played two Cumberland County teams in the third round. In 1989, fresh from the resurgence of its football program led by first year coach, Bobby Poss, the Tigers were blown out by Seventy First 49-6. In 1999, Douglas Byrd visited Hope Mills and shut out the Tigers 9-0. Byrd went on to beat Pine Forest in the 4A Eastern Championship game at Pine Forest in overtime, but lost to a Bobby Poss led Asheville Reynolds team in the state championship game.

In 2003, after a horrid 1-3 start, the Tigers finished strong and traveled to New Bern for the third round. Behind 28-21, South View was driving in the last few minutes of the game for the tying TD, but after 4 straight incomplete passes by QB Todd Jeffreys, turned the ball over to the Bears.

So, the Tigers return to the third round, undefeated at 13-0. They have been undefeated three other times going into the third round and have won all three games. In 1992, the Tigers beat Greenville, 24-17; in 2000 they had an easy win over Durham Jordan, 34-0 and in 2004, another easy win over Raleigh Millbrook, 33-6.

But on to Friday night and Leesville Road. Several Wake County area schools have adopted the very popular pass oriented, no huddle spread offense. Leesville Road being one of them. Of course, you have to have some good skill people to run this offense and the Pride has them, especially their QB, Thomas Wilson. Their goal is to get the pass off within 3 seconds. That does not give the South View defense much time to put any pressure on the QB. South View has not faced a team that runs this type of offense so their challenge is designing a defense to stop Leesville Road. Of course, it has been said that the best defense is a good offense (once again, not attributable to Yogi Berra). So if South View can keep the ball with some long drives, it will defenitely help out the defense.

Moreover, I look for the South View defense to give up some points, but the offense to come through and score more. Good luch Tigers!

See you Friday night

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If you did not attend or watch on TV the replay of the Jack Britt �" South View game last Friday, you missed a good one.

In games like this with evenly matched teams, momentum swings, mistakes and penalties at key times, and unexpected big plays usually play a big part in who wins and and who loses. In the case of playoffs, who goes on with a chance to make to the championship game and who packs up the equipment until next July.

Jack Britt took control early after with a first quarter touchdown and a South View safety, but let South View back in the game on a blocked punt. Then after another score on a 4th and 18 from the South View 27 yard line, Britt lets South View drive 73 yards at the end of the half to cut the score to 16-14. South View owns momentum at the half even though they are losing.

In the second half, South View gives up two long kick off returns to the Buc’s Mario Baldwin, one for a 92 yard score. But the Tigers use touchdown drives of 80, 44 and 51 yards to score three times in the half, while holding the Britt offense to 38 total yards of offense. Key to two of the drives was a 3rd down and 4th down plays that drew the Britt defense off sides, allowing the Tigers to get first downs without snapping the ball. South View wins the game, 34-23 and this year sends the Bucs home early.

With playoff games the last two years, this is becoming a great rivalry. It is one thing to play non-conference games every year, but to play when a win means advancing and a loss means going home for the season makes the rivalry special.

As I noted last week, I thought the winner of this game has a good chance to get to the 4AA championship game in Winston Salem on December 8th because both teams know how to play defense. With wins by #7 seeded Raleigh Leesville Road over #2 Wake Forest Rolesville and by #9 seeded Raleigh Millbrook over #1 Garner, South View now enjoys home field advantage this Friday against Leesville Road through the Eastern Championship if they can keep their unbeaten streak going.

I guess we will find out after Turkey day.

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Not being bias or anything to Cumberland County football, but personally I think the best two teams in the 4AA East are squaring off in Hope Mills this Friday. In my humble opinion, the winner of the Jack Britt at South View game could wind up in Winston Salem on December 8th.

I say this because if Clayton and Apex are any indication of football in the capital city, then I really question the quality of the teams? #7 Leesville Road has a rematch with #2 Wakefield Rolesville. The first game was close with WF Roleville winning 21-14. So this game is a toss up. Let’s say Leesville Road wins the rematch, then the Britt �" South View winner would be home Thanksgiving Friday. The other match up this Friday is Millbrook and Garner. #9 Millbrook won 62 to 31 last week against West Johnston and #1 and undefeated Garner beat Durham Jordan, 49 to 28. The winner of this game would play the winner of the #4 New Bern and #5 Raleigh Athens Drive game. Last week New Bern beat Raleigh Sanderson 48-20 and Athens Drive beat Wakefield 41-39. Look at all these points scored and given up!!! Does anyone play defense in Wake County? Defense is the difference between the Raleigh teams and the Cumberland County teams. South View has only given up 98 points this year, 28 to Jack Britt. That means they have given up a touchdown per game for the other 11 games. Likewise the key to Britt’s success is their defense. The Bucs have been behind early in many games this year, but their defense has made key stops to allow their offense to get going. We know how to play defense in Cumberland County and that will be the key for the team that moves on after Friday. (Of course, New Bern could really screw up my logic.)

Both Britt and South View have a revenge factor working for them. Britt wants revenge for their loss earlier this year when they twice attempted to come back from three TDs down but fell short. South View wants revenge for being eliminated from the playoffs last year in the first round, which was the earliest that ever happened to the Tigers. The first game this season was a game of momentum shifts which I discussed in my blog on September 1st. I don’t expect anything differently this time around. The teams are evenly matched. With the strength of their two defenses, field position will be key. The other key is when either team scores, can they make their extra points. When a team misses that first extra point, it puts teams into the “go for two” mode. This game is that close where a missed extra point or a failure to convert a two point conversion could be the deciding factor.

The other Cumberland County team still playing is Pine Forest. The Trojans travel to Wilmington to take on #1 Hoggard. Hoggard is undefeated and dominated the Mideastern conference winning the championship by five games with the second place teams finishing 6 and 6. In their last four games, the Vikings have outscored their opponents 139 to 15. The only friendly face Pine Forest will see Friday night is former coach, Dean Saffos, who works the radio broadcasts for DK Sports. The Trojans have not played consistently all year. The offense plays one week, the defense the next. As much as I would like to see the Trojans get the upset, I don’t like their chances, but that’s why the games are played.

As a side note, Pine Forest fans, take your radios to the game. DK Sports will broadcast the game on WMFD 1070 AM. You will once again be able to hear the wit and humor of Coach Saffos.

See you at the games.

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Based upon the seedings, the Cumberland County teams with the higher seeds won and the lower seeds lost.

South View continued its defense dominance with a shut out of Clayton, their fourth of the year. Clayton did not register a first down in the game and had only five yards of total offense. South View scored with ease on their first five possessions of the game and then freely substituted the remainder of the game. This makes one wonder about the competition in the Greater Neuse Conference of which the #1 seed, Garner is a member. Clayton only lost to Garner by a 15-7 score. Hmmmm!!!

Jack Britt started slow again, but pulled out a 1st round win vs Apex. Everett Proctor, once again was the star for the Bucs, running for 101 yards and passing selectively for 70 yards. So now the Bucs get to go to South View for the 2nd round in a match up of probably two of the top four teams in the 4AA East. More on this game later this week.

Pine Forest once again beat Terry Sanford in the Déjà vu Bowl. The game was tied at halftime, but the Trojans exploded for three touchdowns in the third quarter to put the game away. For their winning efforts, Pine Forest now gets to travel to Wilmington to take on the #1 4A team in the state, the Vikings of Wilmington Hoggard. Terry Sanford, after a 6-1 start, loses their fifth game in row to finish the season at 6-6.

Seventy first visited Fuquay Varina and lost a 13-6 lead in the fourth quarter as Fuquay scored two touchdowns. Speculation is that this may have been Coach Bob Paroli’s final game as a head coach. Say it ain’t so, Coach Bob!

Cape Fear got rewarded for making the state playoffs by traveling to Greenville to play the defending 4A state champions, the Rampants of J.H Rose. The Colts played it close for a quarter before Rose took control of the game. Here’s to Coach Bobby Bennett for getting the Colts to the playoffs and building a good base for future years.

Richmond, Scotland and Purnell Swett all won in their first round games while Lumberton lost.

More later this week.

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The third season begins this Friday with the state playoffs that will crown 4AA and 4A state championships in Winston Salem on Saturday, December 8th.

But before looking at the match ups, I’ve been wondering something all season. Why does NBC air their show “Friday Night Lights” on Friday nights when many of the potential viewers who would be interested in watching the show are probably at a high school football game? The people at NBC are a lot smarter than me, so they must know something.

Meanwhile, back to the games. #3 South View and #6 Jack Britt are in the 4AA East. In the 4AA East Bracket there are also 10 schools from the Raleigh area, one from Durham, 2 from Johnston County, and New Bern. I know the seedings are the seedings as the “Earl of Friday Nights” so eloquently stated this week on his webcast, but why do South View and Britt have the potential to face each other in the 2nd Round? I guess its all South View’s fault. If they had gotten a 1 or 2 seed, this situation would not exist. Assuming that they do win their first round games and meet in the second round, the good news is that Cumberland County will be represented in the third round.

A problem with a potential South View and Britt match up in the second round .... will they be looking ahead at their game and not take their Raleigh area opponents serious? Jack Britt hosts Apex. Britt is coming off an emotional comeback win last week at Scotland that allowed them to share the MSE conference title with Richmond. Apex was the fourth seed in their conference with a 6-5 record. Britt needs to play four quarters and play a turnover free game like they did against Scotland.

South View hosts Clayton. After a slow start Clayton won 4 of 5 down the stretch to finish at 5 and 6 for the year. There wasn’t much scoring in Clayton’s games this year. They only averaged 12 points a game, but only gave up 10 points. In a real oddity, Clayton only scored 3 points in their first two games, but managed to win one of them. South View was off last week and should be well prepared for this game. The South View defense only allowed 9 points a game. So, this game will come down to whose offense can move against a good defense. I’ll take the Tigers.

In the 4A East, we have four Cumberland County teams. In fact 2 Two Rivers Conference teams meet when #9 Terry Sanford goes to #8 Pine Forest again. In the words of my literary hero, Yogi Berra, is this déjà vu all over? So I wonder if Coach Bill Sochovka and Coach Wayne Inman exchanged films this week? Anyway, if Terry Sanford hopes to advance, they better find a way to score some points against the Trojans this week after being shut out last Friday. The Bulldogs just have too many offensive options. I think they will be ready and Pine Forest will need to score more that 2 TDs this week.

#10 seed Seventy First travels to #7 Fuquay Varina. The Falcons are on a roll winning their last three games and picking up a fourth on the Douglas Byrd forfeit. Coach Bob Paroli’s teams have always done well on the road in the playoffs, so the boys from Fuquay better be ready. Everybody was ready to right off Seventy First about a month ago, but now they are primed to play a few more weeks.

In the other game involving a Cumberland County team, Cape Fear travels to Greenville Rose. Greenville is defending 4A East State Champion but had an off season for them at 7-4. Rose will not be ready to give up their title so quickly. Cape Fear fans attending this game will be able to tune into the game in Greenville courtesy of Fayetteville's DK Sports on 1070 AM.

Two other potential 2nd round match ups in the state include Leesville Road and Wake Forest Rolesville in the 4AA East and Charlotte Independence and Matthews Butler in the 4AA West. Both these games would be replays from last Friday. Under the category of teams “just glad to be there” in the first round Lumberton travels to #2 seed Butler and Hoke visits #1 4A seed and the #1 4A team in the AP poll, Wilmington Hoggard.

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