Rockingham prepares for high-flying Nighthawks

Although many focus solely on Keenan Allen, the Northern Guilford Nighthawks are more than just that.
Northern, which disposed of McMichael in convincing fashion 56-7 last Friday night, enter Friday’s game with Rockingham County with one blemish on its schedule. Minus a loss to Greensboro Dudley and the Nighthawks (7-1, 4-0) would be starring at an unbeaten season.
Allen, who had 1,263 rushing and receiving yards last season, is ranked No. 89 on ESPN’s 150 list of top national recruits. He has 15 Division-I scholarship offers to such schools as Oregon, Penn State, Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee and the 6-3, 200-pound senior is that good.
However, don’t sleep on junior Maurice Harris (6-3, 195), senior Joseph White (5-8, 155), senior Matt Farris (6-0, 215) or junior QB Rocco Scarfone – whose name sounds like a character out of The Godfather or Goodfellas, but Scarfone is a dangerous signal-caller.
Last week against the Phoenix, Scarfone threw three touchdown passes – two going to Harris on plays of 15- and 92-yards and one to White, a 23-yard hookup in the second quarter.
Northern wasted little time building a 28-0 first-quarter lead and breezed to a 42-0 halftime edge.
Oh, then there’s Allen who scored three times – two on runs of 45- and 14-yards and one coming via a 71-yard punt return.
Currently ranked fourth in the state’s 3-A poll, head coach Johnny Roscoe has Northern Guilford is averaging 38 points per game on offense and allowing an average of 18 per contest. However, factor into their 146 points allowed 36 came in the season-opener to Western Guilford, 27 to Northwest Guilford and 23 to Eastern Alamance – all wins. Against Dudley, the Nighthawks lost 12-7.
And it is not like the Nighthawks have scheduled Cupcake High School. All seven of their opponents currently have winning records a combined mark of 37-20-1, including 7-1 marks by Eastern Alamance and Dudley.
The Cougars (2-6, 0-4) have lost six straight games and with Northern and Eastern Alamance looming ahead, that number could rise to seven or eight but Rockingham closes out the season at Morehead (2-6, 0-4).
Rockingham could easily be 5-3 having lost fourth-quarter leads to Eastern Guilford, Burlington Williams and McMichael.
Last week, the Cougars led 7-0 at Eastern Guilford until a pair of Josh Morehead touchdown runs put an end to that.
Over the past five weeks, the Cougars have struggled to run the football and control the clock. On the other side, Rockingham has found success through the air as senior QB Cody Munson is averaging 192 yards per game passing (769) and has thrown three TDs.
Chris Lea, Jordan Keen and Rob Fields have all emerged as receiving threats for RCHS, but maintaining field position, ground and clock control in paramount over these next two weeks.
Friday’s game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. in Greensboro.