No. 6 Northern Guilford 25, No. 10 Northwest Guilford 24 : News-Record.com : Greensboro & the Triad's most trusted source for local news and analysis

GREENSBORO — Northern Guilford quarterback Daniel Downing drove his team 73 yards in a little over two minutes at the end of the fourth quarter with his team down by six.

And then things got interesting.

Downing threw two incomplete passes to stop the clock in between being stuffed on a run to bring up fourth-and-goal at the 1 with eight seconds left. The Northern Guilford quarterback cracked the end zone on fourth down and kicker Kris Gafford converted his first extra point of the game to lift the No. 6 Nighthawks to a 25-24 win over the No. 10 Vikings.

Downing barely crossed the plane but the real fun began on the extra point. Northern was called for a penalty and Gafford, who earlier had a kick blocked and had another hit both the upright and cross bar before landing no good, missed.

But the Vikings were called for a roughing penalty, which gave Gafford another shot.

“I just tried to get by myself to get in the zone,” Gafford said. “I knew I had to hit that last one. I got a little nervous after the penalty but we got the penalty going our way which helped calm me down.”

The Nighthawks kicker, who made 68 straight extra points a season ago, made the kick to give Northern the win.

“We’ve got to go in and see the film to see who it was” Northwest coach Joe Woodruff said. “I asked every one of the referees and no one could give me a number. I don’t know what that means."

It was the culmination of a wild fourth quarter, which began with a 67-yard touchdown run by T.J. Logan to give the Nighthawks an 18-9 lead.

But the Vikings battled back. Nolan Carper scored on a 14-yard run and after Austin Pauley scored his second rushing touchdown, quarterback Matthew Pawlowski gave the Vikings a six-point lead when he scored on a two-point run.

But Downing, who earlier in the fourth quarter left the game with cramps, came back to lead the winning drive.

Northern Guilford	6	6	0	13	—	25
Northwest Guilford	9	0	0	15	—	24

NWG – Safety, punt snapped out of end zone

NWG – Austin Pauley 2 run (Stuart kick)

NG – Downing 1 run (kick blocked)

NG – Maurice Harris 82 pass from Downing (pass failed)

NG – T.J. Logan 67 run (kick failed)

NWG – Nolan Carper 14 run (Stuart kick)

NWG – Austin Pauley 1 run (Pawlowski run)

NG – Downing 1 run (Kris Gafford kick)

	N. Guilford	NW Guilford
First downs	10	12
Rushes-yards	28-198	48-229
Passing yards	147	70
Comp-Att-Int	5-15-0	6-8-0
Punts-average	2-35.5	4-35
Fumbles-lost	1-0	1-1
Penalties-yards	3-25	5-41

ejnichol

September 11, 2010 - 6:49 am EDT

The game would have ended differently if the time keeper had been competent. Several times during the final qtr. clock was incorrectly stopped and then restarted inexlicably for a total of 15 - 20 seconds. Also was a call against Viking ball carrier that should have been called on defensive player. High School sports could use better officiating.

Good game to watch. I'm sure Northwest fans have complaints as well. I'll say it again we need better officiating.

Spartan Girl

September 11, 2010 - 8:07 am EDT

It was a great game to watch. I hope the Northwest boys hold their heads up high. You guys played great!
I agree with you, jnichol, that our high school games need much better officiating. It is only fair to them. They have worked so hard and deserve better. We no longer have boys playing but in all our years of attending HS football games there always seems to be poor officiating. I too, like Coach Woodruff, am anxious to know if there really was a roughing the kicker or not. Interesting that the officials couldn't give a number of 'who done it!' Wasn't watching the kicker, my eyes were on the uprights. Also, the unsportsmanlike conduct call against NW was a lesson for the young sophomore...they always see the 2nd guy! Unfortunately, had they also called the blatant late hit by the Northern player and had offsetting penalties it could have changed the flow of that drive and led to more NW points. In the end, I know the NW players are disappointed but we are proud of you and hope you can look ahead to a great rest of the season!

tgwrightsr

September 11, 2010 - 9:05 am EDT

It was a good game. Nice job to all the young men and the coaches.

ankersaway

September 11, 2010 - 9:27 pm EDT

ejnichol and spartan girl,

blaming the refs for losing a game is crazy!! both teams had multiple chances to put the game away....NW was up 9-0 early w/ momentum but could not capitalize....mistakes were made and the penalties called were justified....#6 ran into the kicker but the game was lost because NW couldnt stop NG in the last 2:50 of the game...as far as the clock goes...the game was at NW...that school appointed the clock operator.....GO NIGHTHAWKS!!

September 11, 2010 - 9:48 pm EDT

anchorsaway, You are misunderstanding my previous post. I am not blaming the loss on the refs...just wondering why they couldn't tell the coach who it was. Not saying it didn't happen. I do agree with you that the game could have been put away by either side and Northern played great in the last few minutes. And players on both sides played with class...not so sure the students at Northern had much class though. There were some that constantly came over to NW side and tried to provoke the fans. Not cool. And why does Northern still have a few players on their team that don't live in the Northern zone? Players still flock to your school somehow, even though they are not suppose to play there. Not saying they shouldn't play...just that they should play at their correct school.

September 12, 2010 - 8:14 am EDT

Spartan Girl,
If they gave the coaches a number....what would that have changed?...absolutely nothing...trust me it was #6. As far as class goes...this is the beginning of a long rivalry....the kids eat this up.....funny thing is there were NW kids walking through the visitor stands....i don't see this a classless....it's football and some people just get it....those kids were originally from NW before the re-zoning so the apple doesn't fall far from tree, eh?..I guess I'm not surprised that you would stoop to a low level and make accusations that NG has kids living outside NG school zones. If you have facts then you should report this to the school board immediately.

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