Rockingham County is now in the middle of football season!
Friday night was the first game of the season for both teams. The Reidsville Rams played Western Alamance, and the Morehead Panthers went to Burlington to play the Cummings Cavaliers.
The Rockingham County Cougars went fourteen miles west to play the McMichael Phoenix in their annual cross-county rivalry game on opening night. The McMichael Phoenix were trying to end their losing run against the Cougars, which began in 2016.
Each team was a little nervous going into tonight’s games. All four teams had their quarterbacks change, two had their head coaches change, and Reidsville lost Kendra Harrison, who was the MaxPreps National Athlete of the Year.
First, let’s talk about the Reidsville Rams, who have won 23 2A titles and are currently the champions. Western Alamance was played by the navy and gold in Elon. The navy and gold scored 28 points while only letting the Warriors score one field goal.
They beat the Page Pirates 28–3, which is a good start for a team whose roster has more questions than usual lately. They will now play the Page Pirates. Reidsville’s first win came against a bigger school on the road. They will have to do the same thing again if they want to move to 2-0.
The game between McMichael and Rockingham was one of the most fun football games I have ever seen, no matter what level. The first half was all defense and chaos. It started with a quick drive by McMichael into Rockingham territory, but they lost the ball. Rockingham punted, but on their next run, McMichael lost the ball again.
Then, twice, the Cougars were stopped at the goal line when they were inside the one-yard line and had a first down. Then McMichael punched the ball out and got it back at the one, showing off some great defense! But they were backed up so badly in their own end zone when they got the ball that the last play of the first quarter was a safety.
Then, Kai Tart threw a pass that fell right into the hands of an open man running a fly route, setting up McMichael for six points. On the other hand, the Phoenix just ran out of gas in the second half, and Rockingham scored three goals to get ahead of McMichael. Three-A Rockingham won 22–12 in the end, but both teams could hold their heads high because they gave it their all on the field.
At the high school level, sometimes beating the other team’s will to play can get you a win or two. I think that both of these teams’ will to play will help them as the season goes on. Rockingham’s winning streak over McMichael in the first game of the season now stands at four games, dating back to 2016.
When they played Cummings, the Morehead Panthers were better than they were last year. At halftime, they were ahead 7–6. But in the last two quarters, fouls cost them the game, and they couldn’t hold on. Even though they lost 18–7, the team is still positive and excited for the rest of the season.
These football games last night were really fun. Most of the teams did better than expected, and if you’re like me and don’t have any ties to any one school, you should be proud that all of these Rockingham County Schools did better than predicted.
The next week, Reidsville and Page will play in Greensboro, and Wentworth’s silver-and-black team, Rockingham, will play Eden’s red-and-black team, Morehead in another cross-county grudge game. Also, when McMichael plays Firebush Falcons, it will be their first game on field this season. They hope to get their first win of the year.
I’ll be back next Saturday to talk about what happened on August 30. All of these teams deserve the best of luck. They worked hard tonight and made their schools happy.