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Mount Airy ready for Princeton's attack
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Published: November 26, 2009
Mount Airy is bracing for a wide-open passing attack. Elkin is preparing for a hard-hitting game.
And if the Bears and the Elks pass their tests Friday night in the quarterfinals of the NCHSAA 1-A football playoffs, they'll spend next week preparing to play each other.
Mount Airy, 13-0 and the defending state champion, will be at home against upstart Princeton (10-3), and Elkin (11-2) will be at home against blue-collar Robbinsville (10-2). Both games will start at 7:30.
Mount Airy has won 29 straight games, dating to its 2008 season-opener, and has hardly been challenged along the way, especially in the playoffs. The score of last week's win (39-14 over West Columbus) was misleading, given that the Bears led 36-0 at halftime and played mostly reserves in the second half, with a running clock.
This week, Princeton's Bulldogs should test the Bears' pass defense. Quarterback David Gurganus has taken well to a spread offense put in before this season, and has completed 241 of 403 passes (59 percent) for 3,777 yards and 34 touchdowns, with 16 interceptions. Gurganus is also the leading rusher (231 yards, 10 touchdowns), but Princeton has rushed for fewer than 900 yards overall.
"They are in the Shotgun, and their quarterback is not a big fellow, but he is a good athlete and has good composure," Coach Kelly Holder of Mount Airy said. "And he makes a lot of things happen. He has a good arm.
"They don't run it very much. Most of the time they do, he gets flushed some, but that's when he is pretty good. He has good composure when that happens, and his receivers just go anywhere they want to go, and that's when you need to stay on them.
"Most of it is nickel and dime, with short passes, and then they catch you sleeping and hit the homer."
Princeton hadn't won a playoff game since 1981, and Mount Airy will test its defense with balanced offense. The Bears lean on tailback Andy Temoney (1,305 yards, 25 touchdowns) and Luke Wheeler (1,071 yards, 19 touchdowns, 10.93-yard average), but quarterback Ben Hinson has had a big first year as the starter.
Hinson has completed 73 of 118 passes for 1,321 yards and 15 touchdowns, and Justin Collier has eight touchdowns among his 24 catches. Wheeler is averaging 23 yards on 21 catches.
"Defensively speaking, we have to keep them in front of us, limit their big plays and get to Gurganus," Holder said. "We have to make sure he doesn't have all day to throw."
Elkin's game with Robbinsville will be a rematch of a 2008 quarterfinal, which Elkin won 21-20 with a late touchdown.
In a lot of ways, Coach Richard Grissom of Elkin said, the game could turn out like last season, as each team lost only a few players to graduation.
"It's pretty much the same football team," Grissom said of Robbinsville. "I think they lost a couple, but all their running backs are back, and I think their receivers are back, but they aren't throwing it as much as last year. They have two lineman over 300 pounds, and they line them up on the same side.
"I don't think they will do a whole lot different than what they have been doing. You need to do what you do best, and they need to do what they do best. If you get beat, you get beat, and if you win, you win."
The Elks defense has been stout in the playoffs and hasn't allowed a point in easy wins over Monroe Union and North Duplin. Grissom said that his biggest concerns are his kicking game, and whether his team can match Robbinsville's physical style. Running back Kurt Odom is the lead back in the Black Knights' powerful offense.
"They have always been a good, hard football team," Grissom said. "They are going to hit you good, tackle you good and keep things in front of them on defense. They play very good defense. Offensively they will try to control the line of scrimmage, which we try to do to.
"The game will be won or lost like always, up front."
mlinker@wsjournal.com.
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Friday: Mount Tabor in Class 4-A
NCHSAA playoffs
Friday's third round
(All games Friday at 7:30)
Class 4-AA East
No. 5 Fuquay-Varina (11-2) at No. 1 Wake Forest Rolesville (13-0)
No. 7 Lumberton (9-4) at No. 3 Fayetteville Britt (12-1)
Class 4-AA West
No. 12 East Mecklenburg (8-5) at No. 1 Matthews Butler (13-0)
No. 6 Charlotte Independence (12-1) at No. 2 Richmond Senior (12-1)
Class 4-A East
No. 5 Wilmington New Hanover (9-3) at No. 1 Southern Durham (12-1)
No. 3 Apex Middle Creek (12-1) at No. 2 Harnett Central (13-0)
Class 4-A West
No. 8 Mount Tabor (10-3) at No. 4 Asheville Reynolds (11-2)
No. 3 Ragsdale (13-0) at No. 2 G'boro Dudley (12-1)
Class 3-AA East
No. 12 Fay. Byrd (9-4) at No. 1 South Johnston (12-1)
No. 11 Southern Nash (9-3) at No. 2 Gray's Creek (11-2)
Class 3-AA West
No. 12 Anson (9-4) at No. 1 Northern Guilford (12-1)
No. 7 Belmont South Point (11-2) at No. 3 Kannapolis Brown (10-2)
Class 3-A East
No. 5 Eastern Alamance (12-1) at No. 1 Raleigh Cardinal Gibbons (13-0)
No. 3 Havelock (12-1) at No. 2 Hertford (13-0)
Class 3-A West
No. 4 Waynesville Tuscola (11-1-1) at No. 1 Lenoir Hibriten (13-0)
No. 3 Asheville (11-0-1) at No. 2 West Rowan (13-0)
Class 2-AA East
No. 9 Kinston (10-2) at No. 5 Pittsboro Northwood (12-1)
No. 3 Reidsville (13-0) at No. 2 SW Edgecombe (13-0)
Class 2-AA West
No. 8 Salisbury (9-4) at No. 5 Canton Pisgah (10-4)
No. 7 Newton-Conover (12-1) at No. 3 East Lincoln (11-2)
Class 2-A East
No. 5 Jordan-Matthews (10-2) at No. 1 East Bladen (13-0)
No. 7 Whiteville (9-3) at No. 6 Tarboro (12-1)
Class 2-A West
No. 9 Lexington (7-6) at No. 4 Thomasville (9-4)
No. 6 Lincolnton (10-3) at No. 2 Burnsville Mtn. Heritage (11-2)
Class 1-AA East
No. 4 Pender (11-1) at No. 1 SW Onslow (13-0)
No. 14 Rocky Point Trask (6-7) at No. 2 Goldsboro (11-2)
Class 1-AA West
No. 4 Swain County (9-3) at No. 1 Albemarle (13-0)
No. 7 West Montgomery (10-3) at No. 3 Hendersonville (11-2)
Class 1-A East
No. 9 Plymouth (9-4) at. No. 4 Wallace-Rose Hill (10-2)
No. 7 North Edgecombe (8-4) at No. 6 Jones (9-4)
Class 1-A West
No. 4 Princeton (10-3) at No. 1 Mount Airy (13-0)
No. 3 Robbinsville (10-2) vs. No. 2 Elkin (11-2)
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