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The last time Rocky Mount High beat both Wilson Fike and Wilson Hunt in the same season – 2008 – most of coach Jason Battle’s players were still tykes playing Pee Wee football.
Perhaps that explains why Battle and his Gryphons were giddy like children on Friday night, after a comprehensive, 35-20 win over Fike that sets up a winner-take-all game next Friday against Southern Nash for the Big East title.
“This team is different, man,” Battle said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. There’s no ‘I,’ and they love each other.”
Rocky Mount High (7-2 overall, 3-0 Big East) scored 21 points over a 2-minute, 11-second stretch in the second quarter to erase an early 14-point deficit. The Gryphons had left their confidence on the bus, Battle said, and hadn’t yet settled in.
The Golden Demons (5-4, 1-2), on their homecoming night, reached the end zone on two of their first four drives, while Rocky Mount High went three-and-out on its first possession and missed a 41-yard field goal try on the next drive.
But Nick Bynum, who led the Gryphons with 183 yards on 19 thumping carries, put Rocky Mount High on the board with a 6-yard score at the 4:49 mark of the second quarter.
Enter Sherrod Greene.
Fike’s AJ Hines, on the first play of the Golden Demons’ ensuing drive, lost control of the handoff exchange from quarterback DJ Daniels and fumbled forward. Greene scooped it up – with two other teammates trying to fall on the loose ball – and sprinted untouched for a 26-yard touchdown return.
Rocky Mount High had erased a two-touchdown hole in just 17 seconds.
“Big time players step up in big games,” Battle said, borrowing a famous quote from former Miami star Santana Moss.
Bynum, after a Fike three-and-out, capped the flurry with a 68-yard touchdown run with 2:38 remaining before the intermission, breaking three tackles near the line and outrunning a Fike hoard to the end zone.
“The defense had been down, and we needed a pick-me-up,” Bynum said. “All these boys, we’re hungry.”
Rocky Mount High’s ground game was again the difference, as the Gryphons rushed for 319, mostly thanks to Bynum’s 183 and another 124 from BJ Sanders.
Sanders’ 15-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter was a microcosm of the night for the Gryphons, at least once they got going.
On 3rd-and-11, Sanders took what looked like a power handoff off right guard and got into the Fike secondary.
The Golden Demons’ Shakuan Daniels, who Sanders had stiff-armed to the turf earlier on the drive, was the only man remaining between Sanders and the end zone – and the Gryphons’ junior ran right over him and into the end zone.
“Rod (White), he kept telling me them boys couldn’t tackle us,” Sanders said. “We knew it, too. They got tired.”
When the Gryphons required a big-boy drive to put away Fike, they got exactly that. Fike punted to the Gryphons at the 9:57 mark of the fourth quarter and pinned Rocky Mount High’s offense at its own 6-yard line.
Bynum picked up 3 on a crucial 3rd-and-3, before the Gryphons truly went to work, leaning on a gassed Fike defense. Bynum broke off runs of 12, 20, 11, and 16 yards, sandwiched around a 14-yard gain from Sanders.
Bynum capped off a seal-the-deal, 13-play, 94-yard drive that took up 8:02 with a 4-yard touchdown run with 1:55 to go.
“That was an ‘us’ win, all these boys and coaches together,” Battle said. “I can’t say enough about ’em.”
Rocky Mount High 35
Wilson Fike 20
RM 0 21 7 7 – 35
WF 7 7 6 0 – 20
First Quarter
WF – DJ Daniels 1 run (John Gilarmis kick), 5:06
Second Quarter
WF – Lavaris Speight 14 run (Gilarmis kick), 8:10
RM – Nick Bynum 6 run (Chase Miller kick), 4:49
RM – Sherrod Greene 26 fumble return (Miller kick), 4:32
RM – Bynum 68 run (Miller kick), 2:38
Third Quarter
WF – Speight 2 run (kick missed), 9:19
RM – BJ Sanders 15 run (Miller kick), 5:03
Fourth Quarter
RM – Bynum 4 run (Miller kick), 1:55
RMWF
14 First downs………….13
39–319 Rushes-yards…..45–171
31 Passing yards……….51
4–7–0 Passes…………..2–6–0
350 Total offense………222
1–0 Fumbles-Lost……..1–1
5–40 Penalties-Yards…..2–10
Individual Statistics
Rushing – RM: Bynum 19–183; Sanders 11–124; Deangelo Collins 3–18; Tyrell Forbes 5–0; Forrest Bell 1–(-6). WF: AJ Hines 17–103; Speight 10–65; Kenny Johnson 1–7; Daniels 17–(-2).
Passing – RM: Bell 4–7–0, 31. WF: Daniels 2–6–0, 51.
Receiving – RM: Chris Richardson 1–13; Bynum 1–10; KK Edwards 1–5; Collins 1–3. WF: Isaiah Oakes 1–40; Johnson 1–1
By Foster Lander
Sports Writer/Rocky Mount Telegram
Saturday, October 24, 2015
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