— by Jeff Jenkins
Northern Vance and South Granville, – both sets of the Northern Carolina’s 2A Vikings – will kick off their conference schedule tonight (Friday) at Creedmoor, and these two teams could not be more different right now: Northern Vance is 0-3 after is three nonconference outings, and did not locate the goal line until last week at 28-12 home loss against a tough Beddingfield squad out of Wilson. Both of those touchdowns came from Sophomore quarterback Samien Burwell, who started his first game last week and passed for one, 64 yards to Phadol Jorden, and ran 30 yards for the other. The Northern defense, in spite of allowing an average of 23 points per game in the first quarter of the season, has shown some ability to defend the passing game with good pressure on the passer and close secondary work that has produced at least one interception per game. But they do not do well against a good solid running offense, and that will be a BIG problem tonight.
South Granville, under veteran coach Mike Hobgood, has always relied on running for its offensive production, a strategy has taken those Vikings to the state playoffs for six years straight. Last year’s offense was abit more varied: with QB Tucker Brown passing for over 1200 yards and 11 TDs and leading the team in rushing with just under 800 yards, South finished 8-5, averaged scoring just under 30 points and allowed 20 per game. So far this season, QB Brown, now a senior, hasn’t even been called on the pass the ball much. At 3-0, the South Vikings squeaked by 4A Person County 7-0, easily handled 3A South Johnston 21-7, and then ran wild over independent Ravenscroft 41-12, all by rolling up an average of 273 yards per game on the ground (over 300 in the last two game), to only 9 yards passing. Brown has continued to run the ball, with 50 yards per game, but late-blooming Sr. RB Allajah Mitchell, a 6-1 220 lb D-I college prospect, is leading the team with just under 120 yards per game so far (he only had 21 yards rushing total last season). 5-7 170 lb Sophomore FB Bryson McCall, who had a good freshman year with just under 50 yards per game, rushed for 114 yards against South Johnston this year. The South Granville defense is led by their linebackers, including Mitchell, who starts at OLB and has 7 tackles per game, fellow Sr. Sean Deuger, who, at just 159 lb, has 10 per game, and Jr. Justin Bullock, the 198-lb middle Linebacker, who also has 10 stops per game.
