Rocky Mount High wins first football state championship since 1963

Telegram photo / Abbi O’Leary
Rocky Mount High School celebrates their victory against South Point High School at the NCHSAA 3-A State Championship Friday at Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill, N.C. Rocky Mount High won 24-21 in over time.

Telegram photo / Adam Jennings /
Rocky Mount High running back Nick Bynum runs the ball during the Gryphons NCHSAA 3-A state championship win over South Point on Friday at Kenan Memorial Stadium.

Telegram photo / Abbi O’Leary /
Rocky Mount running back BJ Sanders runs the ball around the South Point defense during the NCHSAA 3-A State Championship Friday at Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill, N.C. The Rocky Mount Gryphons won 24-21 in overtime.

Telegram photo / Adam Jennings /
Rocky Mount High linebacker Sherrod Greene, right, reacts with teammate KK Edwards following the Gryphons NCHSAA 3-A state championship win over South Point on Friday at Kenan Memorial Stadium.

Telegram photo / Adam Jennings /
Rocky Mount High running back BJ Sanders reacts following the Gryphons NCHSAA 3-A state championship win over South Point on Friday at Kenan Memorial Stadium.

Telegram photo / Abbi O’Leary /
Rocky Mountвs Deangelo Collins, right, catches a pass as South Pointвs Mario Brandon tries to defend him during the NCHSAA 3-A State Championship Friday at Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill, N.C. The Rocky Mount Gryphons won 24-21 in overtime.

CHAPEL HILL – Rocky Mount High came to Kenan Stadium on Friday with the weight of 52 years of close calls and of good-but-not-quite-good-enough football seasons on its shoulders.

They came from a town of nearly 57,000 and a 252 area code that too often chews up and spits out its young people before they can even dream of playing for, let alone winning, a state championship.

None of that matters now – at least not until the elation wears off.

Gryphons place-kicker Chase Miller drilled a 20-yard field goal in the first overtime period to give Rocky Mount High its first football state championship since 1963 with a 24-21 win over 3-A West champion Belmont South Point.

“This is something people in our community, our town, can be proud of,” Miller said. “I’m lost for words right now. Little kids can look to us and say, ‘I want to be where they are, to do what they’ve done.”

Rocky Mount High coach Jason Battle said the Gryphons (14-2) had been in the same position they were in late in Friday’s game: trailing by seven in the fourth quarter and needing a clutch drive on offense.

It showed.

“Never did I look at (my players) and see eyes that looked like 50-cent pieces,” Battle said. “They were keyed in.”

The Gryphons began at their own 11-yard line with 10:29 remaining and behind South Point, 21-14.

Quarterback Forrest Bell (15-for-21, 210 yards), the game MVP, hit Jaclayton Freeman for a 9-yard gain on a 3rd-and-8, then made his most important – and perhaps most unlikely – decision of his senior season on 3rd-and-17 from the Gryphons’ 29.

Bell looked to throw deep, but the Red Raiders’ secondary had every receiver bottled up. So Bell, not the fleetest of foot by his own admission, took off to his right, pump-faked a South Point defender in the air several yards past the line of scrimmage, and fought for a 19-yard gain to preserve the drive.

“I didn’t see anything (downfield), so I didn’t really have a choice,” Bell said.

Freeman then picked up 26 on a catch-and-run on 3rd-and-6, and Chris Richardson caught an 11-yard pass from Bell on 3rd-and-14 to set up a 4th-and-3 from the South Point 15 with 4:39 remaining.

South Point sacked Bell deep behind the line of scrimmage, but a facemask penalty on the Red Raiders gave Rocky Mount High life and a 4th-and-1 try. Nick Bynum (21 carries, 83 yards, two touchdowns), the Gryphons’ offensive MVP, converted with a 2-yard gain.

On 3rd down from the South Point 4-yard line, Bynum scampered in for the game-tying score with 3:06 remaining. Miller connected on the 35-yard extra point try after a Gryphons unsportsmanlike conduct penalty to tie the game at 21.

“We just continued to make plays,” Battle said. “It felt like the Eden Morehead game (in the third round), where you just had to have it.”

South Point got in position to try a 44-yard field goal for the win with four seconds left, but junior place-kicker Thomas Lempereur hooked his kick – which had plenty of distance – wide left.

Rocky Mount High held the Red Raiders to six yards on three plays from the Gryphons’ 10 in overtime, forcing Lempereur to come on for a 21-yard field goal try for the lead.

He missed.

Bynum picked up five yards on the first play of Rocky Mount High’s overtime possession, and Tyrell Forbes got two more.

Battle sent Miller on for a glorified extra point to win Rocky Mount High the 3-A state championship, and his kick was true.

“Chase Miller deserved that opportunity to kick the game-winner,” Battle said.

South Point outrushed Rocky Mount High, 279-135, but it completed only one pass all night.

BJ Sanders, who saw few chances to return kickoffs all season for Rocky Mount High because opponents simply would not (or could not) kick the ball deep to him, got a rare chance on the game’s opening kick.

Sanders grabbed the ball at his own 19, sprinted left as part of a misdirection return, kept the ball and raced down the left sideline, cutting inside at the South Point 30 en route to an 81-yard touchdown return and a 7-0 lead for Rocky Mount High just 10 seconds into Friday’s game.

South Point’s vaunted triple-option, which had racked up 4,414 rushing yards on the season entering Friday, went to work right away on a Gryphons defense that did not see many opposing offenses like it all year.

Quarterback Diontre King ran three separate times for 18, 12, and 11 yards, and Ryland Etherington capped off an eight-play, 59-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown run to knot the score at 7 just 3:09 later.

A high school football state championship game wouldn’t be complete without a little – or a lot – of wackiness. It began on Rocky Mount High’s next possession.

The Gryphons started from their own 11, but Bynum wriggled out of three tackles in the backfield and bulled his way to a 20-yard gain. Bell hit Freeman for 12 yards on a 3rd-and-7 and again for 14 yards on a 3rd-and-10 screen pass from the South Point 32.

But facing 4th-and-2 from the Red Raiders’ 10, Bell handed to Forbes on a sweep, and a gaggle of South Point defenders was on hand to snuff out the perimeter run for a 5-yard loss and a turnover on downs.

After the first quarter ended, South Point marched toward Kenan Stadium’s East end zone with ease, but Etherington was held to one yard on 3rd-and-6 before Gryphons linebacker Rod White stuffed King for a 3-yard loss on 4th-and-5.

Not to be outdone, Rocky Mount High went for a conversion on 4th-and-4 from the South Point 39, but Bell’s throw had too much zip and bounced off the hands of KK Edwards for another turnover on downs.

The Gryphons had a chance to take the lead with the final play of the first half on an untimed down. Bell completed a tipped, hail mary pass to Deangelo Collins for a 39-yard gain to the South Point 3 with 3 seconds left, and a pass interference call on the Red Raiders gave the Gryphons a free play from the 1. Bynum came up short, and the score was tied at 7 at the break.

Battle wasn’t concerned.

“We didn’t execute, and maybe got a little greedy,” he said. “But we came here to play for keeps.”

Rocky Mount High 24 Belmont South Point 21 (OT)

RMH 7 0 7 7 3 – 24

BSP 7 0 7 7 0 – 21

First Quarter

RMH – BJ Sanders 81 kickoff return (Chase Miller kick), 11:50

BSP – Ryland Etherton 2 run (Thomas Lampereur kick), 8:32

Third Quarter

RMH – Nick Bynum 15 run (Miller kick), 8:12

BSP – Etherton 5 run (Lampereur kick), 4:45

Fourth Quarter