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LANDIS — The theme of South Rowan’s Saturday morning scrimmage with North Davidson was “no surprises.”
It was mostly about reinforcing things the Raiders already knew. South head coach Rick Vanhoy figured ever since the first day of practice that his key trouble spots were going to be pass defense and a rebuilt offensive line, and the a.m. battle with the tough Black Knights bore out those concerns.
On the other hand, Vanhoy figured his run defense was solid and his skill position people on offense were exceptional, and the scrimmage certainly backed up those predictions, as well.
“Overall we were pleased, but mostly we saw things that we coaches already knew,” said Vanhoy. “We saw things that honestly, we were aware of coming in. The good thing, though, is now the kids recognize those things, too. Now when we talk to them they’ll understand what they have to do to get better. We’ve got four practices left to correct things before we start the season.”
Maybe it’s a positive that the scrimmage didn’t go perfectly for the Raiders. A year ago, when the Raiders scrimmaged at North Davidson, they played lights out. Running backs Keith Garrett and Tore’ Girty piled up one long TD run after another and the Raiders came back home feeling like they were more than ready to get the season under way. But then they got smacked in their opener with East Rowan and never recovered their momentum until late in the season.
This time around, South players are fully aware that there’s still a lot of work to do.
A number of Raiders had outstanding games. Vanhoy lauded 240-pound defensive end Randy Rigsby and linebackers Joel Reyes and Jay Phillips for their part in silencing the Knights’ running attack.
“We expected Randy to be good, but he was even better than we had thought,” said Vanhoy
Offensively, Ricky Childers, who is battling Tim Cook for a starting role, moved the team well. Halfback Girty had a strong day and running mate Garrett turned an aerial from Childers into a long touchdown.
Vanhoy pointed out that one of the advantages of taking on North Davidson was that the Knights, will be back in the same league with the Raiders next season when they return to the 4A ranks.
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NORTHROWAN: Cavalier head coach Roger Secreast has a unique way of describing his team, which, if it’s humanly possible, could be more high-powered than usual in 2000.
“We go sputter, sputter and then we go boom!” announced Secreast. “Teams shouldn’t get excited about stopping us for two plays, because we might just explode on that third one.”
It took the Cavs roughly four seconds to ignite in Friday night’s scrimmage against 4A Butler in Charlotte. Junior All-State candidate Alfonzo Miller raced 50 yards on a screen pass on North’s very first play.
North held its own with the strong Bulldogs, even though Cav coaches agreed to a man that Butler boasted linemen as good as any they expect to see all season. The Cavs, though, had the advantage at the skill positions, even though they played without receivers Dre Byrd, Marcus Reddick and Eric Davis and running back Aundray Russell. That quartet had not practiced a sufficient number of days to be eligible for the first scrimmage. But Secreast still had wideout missiles Miller and Chris Phillips soaring from their silos and that was enough to keep things rolling.
“Alfonzo,” praised Secreast, “was head and shoulders above everyone out there.”
New QB Graham Hosch was also as good as advertised, throwing for two TDs and running for another score.
“We took it 70 yards on our first possession; 70 more on our second and about 50 on our third,” said Secreast. “We were pleased with that, because Butler’s not a bad football team.”
The Cav defense, led by linebacker Marcus Lawing, gave up some big plays, but generally proved it was a unit far superior to last season’s. A surprise star was backup linebacker Jonathan Lomax, who came up with back-to-back big plays.
“We feel good about our defense this year,” said Secreast. “Chris Sifford (defensive coordinator in ‘99) did a great job last season, but he just didn’t have enough soldiers. We’re older and more experienced and that’s why we’re better on defense this year.”
Secreast pointed to one sequence in which Butler retreated from first-and-goal at the North 3 to fourth down at the North 20. That sort of thing just didn’t happen last season.
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A.L. BROWN:Hard-working Wonder head coach Ron Massey reportedly slept in the film room after watching late-night tape of A.L. Brown’s opening scrimmage with 4A powerhouse Morganton Freedom. Attempts to contact Massey, who is still commuting to Kannapolis from Kings Mountain, met with little success on Friday night, but at least showed that the new coach’s wife has a sense of humor.
As press deadline approached, the Post placed a desperate midnight call to Massey’s residence, seeking scrimmage info.
“No, you didn’t wake me, but Ron won’t be home tonight,” Mrs. Massey replied cheerfully.
A few seconds later, though, she had a flash of insight.
“Now, wait a minute,” she said. “It’s midnight and I’ve just informed you that my husband’s not coming home. You’re not a mass murderer or something, are you?”
Quickly assured that Post sports reporters are at least one step up the evolutionary scale from mass murderers, Mrs. Massey returned to cheerfulness and wished everyone a pleasant “Good night.”
Meanwhile, coach Massey’s troops didn’t exactly murder Freedom, but they didn’t let Freedom ring its bells, either.
Wonder linebacker coach Jeremy Ryan, who cheerfully checked in at 2:30 (now here’s a guy who checks his messages) on Saturday morning, calculated that the Wonders had won the scrimmage 4-2 (in touchdowns) when first teams were on the field and 6-4 overall.
“It showed how hard the kids have worked,” said Ryan. “There were some long days this week in the heat, but no one’s complaining. These are great kids who love to play football.”
The Wonders are apparently improving, learning vastly revamped offenses and defenses right on schedule.
“We took advantage of our athletes,” said Ryan. “We did a great job of attacking on both offense and defense. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but Ron was happy. The big thing was that the kids showed real improvement from last week.”
Ryan was especially pleased with his own position group, the inside backers. Untested Clifford White, Fernando Edwards and Deawain McClure delivered in their first test. Ryan said the defense’s leader was lineman Lee Basinger, who had 10 tackles before fans got settled.
Running back Eric Caldwell showed brilliant open-field moves and flyer Chris Carter made a catch that Ryan described as “fantastic.”
“The ball was thrown over his head 15 yards,” said Ryan, “but he ran it down and made a diving catch.”
The key figure on offense for the Wonders was senior quarterback Josh Lee.
“Josh dominated — as expected,” said Ryan. “He made all the correct calls and then he led the cheers for the defense. Josh has reached that point, where it’s sort of like it was with Nick Maddox. The team looks to him and if Josh is feeling good and playing good everyone sort of takes its lead from him.”
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EAST ROWAN and NORTHSTANLY scrimmaged late Saturday night at Albemarle. Check Monday’s Post for details.
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