Ragsdale Vs. Person County

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The defense played great last night as they scored on 2 fumble recoveries. The first TD by the defense was on a bad pitch. Walt Sparks made one of those plays that goes unnoticed many times in a football game but the type of play that helps your team win games. The ball was on the ground and Walt of course was going to go get it. He saw in an instant that their QB was going to beat him to the ball. Instead of going for the ball, Walt knock the crap out of the QB. That left the ball on the ground for Big D (Daniel McNeil) to scoop-up and run it in for the TD. Nice play Wally - I did not want you to think it went unnoticed!

The offense moved the ball effectively all night but turnovers killed 3 drives. Below is the only article I found on the game. It is from the Roxboro-Courier. It's a very slanted article toward the hometown team but that's OK. The first paragraph of the article states - "The final score gives the appearance of a blowout but the Person Rockets actually had chances to seriously challenge the powerhouse Ragsdale Tigers..." They had chances alright but the bottom line is that they could not move the ball at all. Other than the 53 yard TD run does anyone remember a play for Person county going for more than 8 yards?

The article also states "Person’s defense played a strong game, holding the vaunted Tiger offense to 203 total yards (just 80 on the ground) and picking off three passes." Its hard to get 350 + yards of offense when the defense scores 2 TDs and takes 2 possessions from the offense. It's also hard to get 350 + yards when you get the ball at mid-field as often as we did.

Make no mistake this was a beating. Here's the article below that tries to give the hometown team the warm and fuzzy's. Personally I like taking the win.

By Greg Phipps
C-T Sports Editor
ctsports@roxboro-courier.com

Published: Saturday, September 19, 2009 5:14 AM CDT

The final score gives the appearance of a blowout but the Person Rockets actually had chances to seriously challenge the powerhouse Ragsdale Tigers Friday night in front of a surprisingly sparse crowd at Rocket Stadium’s Connie Mack Gravitte Field, especially considering the opponent was one of the top-ranked teams in the state.

Person’s defense played a strong game, holding the vaunted Tiger offense to 203 total yards (just 80 on the ground) and picking off three passes.

Unfortunately, the Rockets committed two costly fumbles deep in their own territory that led to two Ragsdale scores, and the offense, under the direction of sophomore Keith McCain, couldn’t engineer much in a 35-7 victory for the visitors.

With the win, Ragsdale remained unbeaten at 5-0.

McCain, who was the starting QB on the junior varsity team last year, was filling in for the injured Seth Oakley and threw just four times with no completions in his first-ever varsity start.

“I think he did a great job having to step into this situation,” said Person head coach Don Donevan of McCain. “He had a few mishandled snaps but overall I think he rose to the occasion and did a good job.”

One particular series in the final minute of the first half with the Rockets trailing 21-7 turned out to be perhaps the crucial moment of the contest.

Linebacker Lance Hamlett returned an interception 65 yards to the Ragsdale five-yard line, and the hosts appeared to be in business. Carl Allen gained three yards to the two on the first play but that was the closest the Rockets would get to the end zone.

Another fumble on third down caused Person, now 2-3 on the season, to lose two yards back to the four, and instead of electing to kick the field goal on fourth down, the Rockets went for it.

A pitch to Allen failed to gain anything and, instead of a one-touchdown lead, the Tigers took their 14-point advantage into the half.

“They did a great job to stop us there,” said Donevan of Ragsdale’s goal-line stand before intermission. “I know I might get questioned about not going for the field goal in that situation, but I wanted to push it in. I thought that would give us a lot of momentum going into the half.”

Ragsdale drove from its own four to the Rocket 45 to open the third period before James Thorpe intercepted an overthrow by QB Luke Heavner (the third for Person on the night) to stall the march.

The Rocket offense got generous, however, and fumbled away the ball inside the 20, as defensive back Darius McQueen picked it up and trotted in from 12 yards out to give Ragsdale a 28-7 bulge.