North Forsyth stumbles against Southern Guilford
Blown assignments attribute to loss
BY CRAIG T. GREENLEE
FOR THE CHRONICLE
The struggle continues for North Forsyth in junior varsity football.
This time, it was a case of mental miscues that occurred at the most inopportune time. The Vikings climbed back in contention late in the first half in their game against Southern Guilford. But blown assignments on kickoff coverage contributed heavily to their 28-16 home loss last Thursday, Sept. 24.
It was the Mid-Piedmont 3-A Conference opener for both teams.
For most of the first half, Southern Guilford (5-0) dictated the tempo with a bullish ground game and stifling defense. Hakeem Knight repeatedly battered North Forsyth’s defense with his inside runs. Knight scored on touchdown runs of 5 and 34 yards to put his team up 14-0.
The Vikings finally responded with a score with 9.3 seconds remaining in the second quarter. Chris Myers bulled his way into the end zone from 3 yards out and Brandon Davis ran for the two-point conversion to cut the deficit to 14-8.
On that drive, Davis scrambled for big yardage on two plays that put the ball at Southern Guilford’s 35-yard line. On fourth down and short yardage, Myers broke three tackles to get a first down inside the Storm’s 5.
After that first score, it seemed that North Forsyth (0-4 as of Sept. 27) would make a game of it. But on the ensuing kickoff, poor special teams play spelled doom for the home team. For unknown reasons, the Vikings took poor pursuit angles on coverage, which allowed Matthew Hedrick to score a touchdown on an 87-yard kickoff return. Patrick Clegg ran for the PAT to extend the Storm’s lead to 22-8.
So, instead of being down by six points at the half, the Vikings trailed by double digits. As things turned out, it proved to be too much for Coach David Hill’s squad to overcome.
“Toward the end of the first half, we scored and picked up some momentum and that gave us courage,” said Hill. “But then we give up a long touchdown because we made mistakes in our alignment on the kickoff team. That was the dagger, and we couldn’t fully recover.”
Southern Guilford added its final score early in the third quarter when Clegg broke free on the left side on a 15-yard touchdown run.
The Vikings scored again with 1:47 left to play on Myers’ 3-yard run. Davis threw a pass to Triston Vanhoy for the conversion. The key play that set up North Forsyth’s second-half touchdown was a 19-yard scramble by Davis.
Even though North Forsyth has got off to an unexpected sluggish start, Hill is confident that his team will eventually find its way.
“We’re showing some promise on offense,” he said. “All season we’ve had to depend on the defense to keep us in contention. But now we’re showing a little more consistency on the other side of the football. It’s not as much of a struggle as it had been earlier.
“Hopefully, our kids will stay hungry and keep working so we’ll score more points in the games to come. There’s no doubt that we’re going through an adversity stage. We just have to stick together as a team and fight our way out of it.”
