WIZS 1450 / 100.1 – You’re Community Voice for News and Sports
Final Score
Vance County 20
Warren County 16
Vance Vipers scored the go-ahead touchdown with 10 seconds to play
Click Play to hear it as broadcast
— press release courtesy of Vance County Schools
Vance County Schools welcomes Jacob “Aaron” Elliott, a native of Vance County, as the Head Football Coach at Vance County High School. A graduate of Southern Vance High School, Elliott went on to attend Liberty University. He began his career in public safety, serving in both Emergency Medical Services and Fire Services.
Elliott joined the football coaching staff at Louisburg High from 2010-2014, coaching the offensive and defensive lineman, achieving a record of 38-19 and a conference record of 17-3. The team had an undefeated conference season in 2013 and he later became the Defensive
Coordinator in 2015 with the team placing as the 1A Eastern Regional Runner Up in 2021. In 2021, Elliott accepted a position with Nash-Rocky Mount Public Schools as a Fire Technology Instructor at the Nash Central High School Fire Academy. His coaching continued while at Nash Central, where he contributed to the Bulldogs playoff run which ended in the third round.
Coach Elliott is excited to return to Vance County to serve as an educator and Head Football Coach sharing, “I look forward to continuing the opportunity to coach and lead young men to further their football and academic careers at the collegiate level, while also encouraging their growth as individuals and success in life itself. He will begin his coaching duties effective immediately and will serve as one of the Fire Academy and Public Safety instructors at Vance County High School, beginning in August.
Burnout was a concern for Vance County Head Football Coach Wilbur Pender. With the 2020 season getting moved to the spring of 2021 due to Covid and then right back on the field in August it was a valid concern for the Viper’s coaching staff. Vance County was up to the challenge for the most part finishing with a 7-2 regular season record and 4-1 in the Northern Lakes Athletic Conference which put them second behind Southern Durham and good enough to put the team into the playoffs.
Vance County will be on the road tomorrow night as they head to Fayetteville to play the 8th seeded Westover Wolverines who bring an 8-1 record to the contest. The Wolverines have a strong passing and running game and will give the Vipers all they can handle. “Hopefully, we can put it all together,” said Coach Pender Thursday on SportsTalk with Trey Snide. “Being in the top 32 teams in the state is an honor but not where we want to be,” added Pender who hopes the Vipers can advance further than just the first round. “Playoff football is the expectation but, we don’t want to get bounce early,” Pender said of the Viper’s playoff hopes.
While players like Nazir Garrett, Dave Vines-Holder and Carl Stephens got much of the attention this season Coach Pender also singled out Omari Allen, Nate Durham and Jasir Gamble, all linemen, for their excellent play this season. They will need all of them and then some if they hope to get past the Wolverines.
The Vance Co. Friday Night Football broadcast can heard on WIZS 1450am, 100.1fm and on wizs.com beginning immediately after the Joy Christian Center Broadcast at approximately 6:50pm. Trey Snide and Doc Ayscue will have all of the action from Fayetteville tomorrow night.
According to Joe Sharrow, Assistant Principal and Athletic Director at Vance County High School, tonight’s (Oct. 29) scheduled football game between Vance County and J. F. Webb has been canceled. J. F. Webb has forfeited the game. This is the second game this year Webb has forfeited. A game against Franklinton earlier this season suffered the same fate. No reason was given for the cancellation and forfeit. Vance County will now play in the state playoffs beginning next week. The opponent for the first round playoff matchup has yet to be determined.
Shocked is the word Vance County High School Head Football Coach Wilbur Pender used to describe his and his coaching staff’s reaction to the 48-0 loss to Southern Durham last Friday night. “We knew it was going to be a mountain climbing experience,” Pender said. “We didn’t make enough plays and put our defense in bad situations,” Pender added about the Viper’s performance. Despite the great week of practice the Vipers just couldn’t get the job done against Southern Durham. “It was the perfect storm for them and a great learning experience for us,” Pender said in summation of the loss.
Even with that loss Pender feels that the Vipers have been better than expected and that he’s put a good product on the field. He’ll need it tomorrow night for the final regular season game against J. F. Webb in Oxford. The Warriors feature Javon Bullock who has torched defenses for over 1200 yards this season and the Vipers will have to shut him down and play better offense to walk off the field with a victory. With playoffs looming for the Vipers a victory against the Warriors to wrap up the regular season will add some momentum going into round one of those playoffs next week.
128 points…sounds like what a high school basketball team might score over a couple of games but, that is not the case here. This is what Southern Durham has scored in their last two football games and the high powered Southern Durham offensive show is coming to Henderson this week to take on the Vance Co. Vipers in what will most likely determine the champion of the Northern Lakes Athletic Conference.
Both teams are 3 – 0 in the conference and while Vance Co. boasts an overall better record at 6 -1 to Southern Durham’s 4-4, the Spartan’s have played a much more difficult schedule and Vance Co. is coming off a poor performance in a 21 – 8 win over Granville Central last week that saw the Vipers struggle on offense against a winless team.
Coach Wilbur Pender felt his team didn’t have their best offensive game last week but thought the defense may have turned in its best performance. “We couldn’t get out of our own way,” Pender said of the Viper’s offense. This week Pender and Vipers are working on those mistakes. “Let’s stop being our own worst enemy,” is what Pender has stressed to his team.
Pender says the key Friday night is to tackle, stop the big play and don’t allow Southern Durham to score on special teams. Practice has been much better this week so Pender hopes that will result in slowing the Southern Durham offensive machine down and will lead to a victory and likely conference championship.
WIZS will have live play by play of the games beginning immediately after the Joy Christian Center broadcast about 6:45pm with kickoff at 7pm.
In his first year as head coach of the Vance County High School Vipers, Coach Wilbur Pender has his team sitting at 5-1. Not bad for a first year coach. When asked if he expected the team to have this kind of success this season he responded, “We could be wherever we worked to be.” Right now that means sitting at the top of the conference. The Vipers are coming off their fourth consecutive victory, a hard fought 18-12 win over South Granville last week.
“They were well coached,” Pender said of the Vikings. “We took whatever the defense gave us. We were efficient enough to make South Granville’s defense stay honest,” Pender added. With only 1 victory, on paper it looked like South Granville would be easy but the Vikings put up a fight. This week, Granville Central also is, on paper, a solid opportunity for the Vipers to move to 7-1. Granville Central is 0-7 but Coach Pender, who used to coach there, says the team is building things and is very young. With Friday’s game being somewhat of a homecoming for Pender it’s likely Granville Central would enjoy nothing better than taking the Vipers down a notch.
Pender respects what Granville Central is doing but he has been preparing some new wrinkles with the Vipers. He says he isn’t adding anything new to what has worked but just a few tweaks here and there.
We’ll see those tweaks, perhaps, Friday night at Granville Central. Bill Harris and Doc Ayscue will broadcast the game live on WIZS beginning immediately following the Joy Christian Center broadcast around 6:45 with kickoff at 7 p.m.
While the Vikings of South Granville High School may not come from the land of ice and snow, as the song says, weather may very well be a factor in tomorrow night’s homecoming game at Vance County High School.
South Granville brings a 1-5 record to Henderson to face the 4-1 Vipers but Vipers Coach Wilber Pender explained that the South Granville record is somewhat deceiving. Pender said the Vikings losses have been to some very strong competition such as Orange, Hillside, Heritage, Southern Nash and Lee County. “South Granville has challenged themselves,” Coach Pender said on Thursday. “They are battle tested,” he added. South Granville will likely keep the ball on the ground which, considering the 70% chance of rain Friday night, might be smart. “They are not going to stop until you decide to stop it,” Pender said of the South Granville offense. However, the Vipers have a ground attack of their own with Dave Vines-Holder, who racked up nearly 200 yard last week against Carrboro and Carl Stephens who added nearly one hundred yards in the 36-12 win over the Jaguars last Friday night.
Coach Pender felt that while the team played well against the Jaguars he is still not satisfied. “We are making progress and improving each week. We are putting in the work and it’s starting to show on the field,” the coach said.
Those are things Pender can control but the weather is not. He says that rain is just another element to the game. He has had the Vipers practicing with a wet ball in anticipation of a wet field and while the weather may have an impact, Pender says that the game “comes down to focus”. For Vance County the rain will pose more challenges for the passing game than the ground game and the staff feels that receivers must focus on catching the ball. Those pass routes may be a bit shorter too.
As Pender prepares for the Vikings and the elements he says he has concerns about about inconsistencies with the Vipers. On some series, he says, the team looks great while others are not. As the team plays their second conference game Friday night Coach Pender says the team in the conference that gives him the most nightmares is Vance County because of those inconsistencies.
Tomorrow night will be the Vipers first home in several weeks and with homecoming taking place Pender expects to have a great home turnout, rain or not.
The Vipers kick off against the South Granville Vikings at 7:00 tomorrow night. WIZS will have live coverage with Trey Snide and Doc Ayscue beginning immediately following the Joy Christian Center Broadcast around 6:45.
“We don’t win future games from what we did in the past,” were the words of Vance Co. High School football coach Wilbur Pender when discussing the Viper’s upcoming matchup with Carrboro. The Vipers are coming off a 21-20 victory last week over Northern Durham and are looking to open their conference schedule against Carrboro with a win.
Pender said the team has had a great week of practice and said the team is back in rhythm after a two week lay off due to a Covid exposure. The effects of the layoff are quickly fading and preparation for Carrboro is the key to a victory Friday night. “If we don’t prepare well, we won’t play well,” said Pender.
The Vipers are looking to clamp down on the mistakes made last week. Six penalties in the first quarter against Northern Durham eliminated two touchdowns but Coach Pender was impressed that they were able to overcome those mistakes. “We kept fighting and chipping away,” Coach Pender said. That included two big 4th down conversion late in the game to allow the Vipers to overcome a Northern Durham lead.
Carrboro is an improving team with a strong rushing game and Pender says that the Vipers have been working on getting players to the ball, gang tackling and making sure they have the fundamentals down.
The Vipers play Carrboro at 7 o’clock Friday night. You can hear the game on WIZS beginning at the conclusion of the Joy Christian Center broadcast at approximately 6:45 tomorrow evening.
“It feels like the universe is back set right,” said Vance County High School Head Football Coach Wilbur Pender about the return of the Vipers to the field this Friday night. The Vipers have missed the last two games due to a Covid exposure. Now they are ready for some football. Northern Durham, 1-3 on the year, will travel to Henderson to take on the Vipers who put a 2-1 record on the line.
Coach Pender said the Vipers have had a good week of practice for a team coming off quarantine. He expected some drop off after missing two ball games but he and his coaching staff have worked hard to make sure any drop off has been kept to a minimum.
The last game the Vipers played was a victory against Durham-Riverside and Coach Pender said the secret of the win was that the team executed better. They will have to be consistent about execution to be the team that Coach Pender has in mind. While Northern Durham may be 1-3, the Vipers will have to be on top of executing their game plan. Northern Durham is big and their losses have been against very stiff competition: perennial state power Scotland County along with Knightdale and Wakefield. Those two Wake County teams play in one of the toughest 4A conferences in the state. Northern Durham is expected to run the ball about 80% of the time and Vipers have had some trouble with stopping the run so far this season.
Coach Pender says the Vipers will need to run the ball, help the quarterback, catch the ball and tackle better. “I’m still learning,” Pender says of his first year. “We are improving each and every day,” added the coach. “I want to be undefeated,” continued Pender. While that won’t be possible this year, the Vipers are looking to become a force to be reckoned with. “Vance County has a pretty good football team. The state is going to be knowing about that soon,” said Pender. A bold statement from a first year coach. Perhaps Northern Durham will be one of the first schools to discover just how good the Vipers are.
The game will be broadcast live on WIZS with Trey Snide and Doc Ayscue. Airtime is 6:45 with kickoff at 7pm from Vance County High School.
