NORTHWESTERN GAME RECAP/ 1ST ROUND PLAYOFFS PREVIEW

INDIANS FALL SHORT!

The Gaffney Indians came up short in their goal of winning the Region 3 4A Championship Friday night at The Reservation. It took a state record setting performance by Northwestern's WR Robert Joeseph, who had 22 receptions to break the record of 20 receptions in a game that was set nine years ago by Lamar's Derrick Higgins. Northwestern QB Justin Worley came within 1 pass completion of setting a state record of his own in the game as he had 36 completions. The young Indian's defense had a hard time stopping the Trojans offense all night. In the first half neither defense could stop the other offense as the Indians led 16 to 14 at the half. The game would come down to which ever defense could put together a few stops in the second half. The Trojan's defense did just that as they stopped the Indians 3 and out on their first four possessions of the second half as their offense built a 30 to 16 lead in the 4th quarter. The Gaffney offense finally got on track as QB DeEdward Burris found WR Mike Wood for a TD with 7:10 left in the game. The Indians would get the ball back two more times with their last possession getting to the Northwestern 26 yard line with less than a minute to go in the game. Burris then tried to hit Khris Brown with a pass that was over thrown and picked off by Northwestern's Denetri Hemphill who returned the ball deep into Gaffney territory to seal the Region Championship for Nothwestern 30 to 23.

THE DIVISION 1 4A PLAYOFFS FOR THE INDIANS

The Gaffney Indians wound up with a NO. 7 seed in the playoffs and will host NO. 10 seed Stratford Friday night in the first playoff game at The New Reservation. The winner of this game will play the winner of the game between NO. 2 seed Summerville and NO. 15 seed Lexington. So lets look at Friday's game for the Tribe.

WEEK 12 FIRST ROUND OF THE PLAYOFFS

Stratford @ Gaffney..... The Stratford Knights have a big play passing offense which features two very good WRs in Shrine Bowler Brant Salley who is 6'2" 200 pounds who has a 35-inch vertical leap and runs a 4.5 in the 40 yard dash. The other side has North -South selection Francis Lloyd who is very good as well. The Knights have a very capable QB in Chris Hanna who runs their offense. The Knights have something Northwestern didn't have a very good running game led by RB Devin Washington. Stratford has a 7 and 4 record and they have scored 261 points for an average of 21.8 points per game. The Knights defense has given up 218 points for an average of 18.2 per game. The Knights have a record of 2 and 3 away from home this season. The Gaffney Indians have scored 347 points this season for an average of 28.9 points per game. The Indians defense has given up 256 points for an average of 21.3 per game. The Tribe is 4 and 1 at home this season. The Gaffney offense is led by Junior QB DeEdward Burris who averages 263.6 yards of total offense per game. The Knights and Indians have a history of some very memorable games as the series is tied at 4 and 4. The Gaffney Indians have won 4 out 6 of the playoff meetings. I look for another high scoring game this Friday night with the Indians finding away to win the game..... Gaffney 34 Stratford 27

TRIBE FACTS..... The Gaffney Indians have not lost a home playoff game since 1984.

FORMER INDIANS UPDATE

Trevon Greene was a very good running back for the Tribe, but has moved to linebacker for William Penn University which is located in central Iowa. As a junior last season he had 93 tackles and was voted his teams most valuable defensive player. Trevon has 61 tackles so far this season. He was redshirted as a freshman and moved into the starting lineup as a strong safety the next season. He has been an outside linebacker since his sophomore season.

Until Next Time.