New look for Northwood

Chargers' switch to a passing attack pays off this season

Pittsboro Northwood will play in the third round of the state 2-AA football playoffs for the third straight year on Friday night.

But the Reidsville coaches don't need to spend much time looking at the tapes of Northwood's losses to Southern Vance the past two years.

This year's Northwood offense doesn't look much like ones the Chargers had those seasons.

Northwood coach Bill Hall thinks of himself as a traditionalist.

"Give me a good blocking tight end, a fast tailback, a pounding fullback and some offensive linemen," he said. "That's what I like."

But this season, Hall has turned to a passing game, pretty much by necessity.

"We have planned all summer to do what we usually do," Hall said. "Then, we scrimmaged Cary."

The Chargers looked so bad running the ball that on the bus ride home he made the decision to switch to a passing game.

Northwood had Sam Griffin, who had the makings of being a good passer, and plenty of potentially good receivers.

"I told our offensive coordinator [Rick Parks] to spread it out," Hall recalled. "I'm pretty stubborn, but after the scrimmage I knew we needed to do something different."

Griffin has passed for 2,439 yards and 22 touchdowns. The Chargers average 31 points per game and 349 yards in offense, including 189 yards passing per game.

Northwood is 11-2 as it prepares for Reidsville (13-0), a genuine powerhouse.

The Rams have beaten West Stanly 62-0 and North Pitt 46-6 in their two playoff games.

The Rams average 45.3 points per game and allow 5.8 points per game.

"We're going there with the idea of winning," Hall said. "The big thing for us is to avoid turnovers. They've got four or five turnovers in each of the playoff games.

"We can't afford to do that."

GREENE WILL GRADUATE EARLY: Zach Greene, Leesville Road's outstanding receiver and defensive back, will graduate in December and enroll at Duke in January.

"Zach is a very serious-minded young man and he thought graduating early and getting started at Duke would help him more than staying at Leesville and taking courses he didn't need," said Dwayne Greene, Zach's father.

The only course Zach needed to graduate at the start of the year was English, but he also took honors physics and calculus this fall.

"They were tough courses, but he wanted to prepare for college as much as he could," his father said.

Dwayne Greene, a former quarterback at N.C. State, said Duke coach Dave Cutcliffe suggested during the recruiting process that Zach consider graduating early and getting a head start academically.

"Zach will go through spring practice with the team and that should help him in the fall, but it will also set up the possibility of graduating from college early working on his graduate degree."

Zach is expected to major in economics or engineering at Duke.

KELLY IMPRESSIVE: Ravenscroft basketball forward Ryan Kelly is off to a fast start during his senior season.

The Duke recruit has managed at least 10 points and 10 rebounds in each of the Ravens' first three games. He scored 28 points in an 82-48 win over St. David's on Tuesday night.

Kelly is third on the school's all-time scoring list with 1,274 points.

WRESTLER HONORED: Former Knightdale wrestling state champion Anthony Rogers was presented the James Johnson Award Wednesday at Knightdale during the Day of Duals competition.

Knightdale was the host of the seven-team competition.

The James Johnson Award is presented to the top senior wrestler in Eastern North Carolina by the TakeDown Report.

COLLEGE PICKS: A few more college commitments have been announced.

Garner softball player Nadia Jeffries signed with N.C. Central.

Junior golfer Andy Knox of Apex committed to UNC-Greensboro.

Katie Slay, a junior volleyball player at Wakefield, has committed to Penn State.

Katie Worsdale of Green Hope signed with the College of St. Mary's in Moraga, Calif., for girls lacrosse.