Wake Forest-Rolesville escapes Kyle Headen of Southern
Nov 14, 2008
WAKE FOREST — Earl Smith has been to the playoffs a number of times in his high school coaching career, and this season his Wake Forest-Rolesville Cougars will go in with the No. 3 seed.
"When I talked to the team, dangerous is the word I used," Smith said. "If you look at a lot of the 13, 14, 15, 16 seeds across the board, you're looking at 4-6, 5-5 teams, and here they are 7-4. Their four losses were to very good conference teams."
Jordan entered the PAC 6 Conference with an unscathed record, but in conference play, the Falcons fell at the hands of the three co-conference champions and Northern Durham.
Chapel Hill demolished Jordan 48-20, but the Falcons only lost to Hillside by five-points, and found themselves down six-points after the Southern Durham game.
Wake Forest-Rolesville also lost to Southern Durham by six.
"You look at the athletes they have on the field, two of them are blue chippers, they're dangerous," Smith said.
J.R. Rhodes is going to be the biggest offensive weapon Wake Forest-Rolesville will face Friday. Rhodes has put up big numbers all season.
Wake Forest-Rolesville has had a solid defense all season, though, and last week's season finale performance against Leesville Road they didn't allow the Pride running game to get anything started.
Smith said that he was more than pleased with how his team is entering the playoffs. "We've got to do what we do best, and that is what we did last Friday night. That was as complete a game as I've coached in a long time - here or [at Millbrook] - against a good football team."
If the Jordan defense steps up and contains the running game of Brexton Young and Trea Jones, this game could come down to special teams and field position.
Smith said that they have practiced every possible punt formation, every possible kick off situation, and watched how Jordan lines up for kick returns.
Why?
The Falcons are one of the most dangerous kick return teams in the area with players like Rhodes and T.J. Thorpe.
"I was watching the Chapel Hill tape the other night, and Chapel Hill was scoring, but every time they'd kick it off, they'd kick an onside kick to try to keep it away from any of those three [Jordan has] back there," Smith said. "Well, somehow one of them slipped up there and got a hold of the ball and took it to the house. Those are the kinds of things that scare you."
Despite their 9-2 record, Smith expects to see a hard fought game on Friday night. "You always expect a close game, you never expect to blow anybody out," he said.
"The bottom line is, every body's equal right now. The conference championship stuff doesn't matter anymore, it's where you are now."
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