Rams host Bruins in playoff opener

Reidsville’s quest for a third straight 2-AA state championship begins Friday against a team that is playing in the 2-A class for the first time.
Beddingfield High of Wilson will visit Community Stadium for the first-round game in the 2-AA east region Friday night at 7:30. Reidsville will be seeking its 44th consecutive victory.
Beddingfield, a 4-A school when it opened in 1978, has been 3-A the last several years. This is the first year for the Bruins in the 2-A class, a result of realignment that began a four-year term this fall. They arrive as the fifth-place team (6-5, 2-4) out of the tough Eastern Plains Conference that was won by undefeated SouthWest Edgecombe.
Despite its dazzling record, Reidsville was stuck with the No. 3 seed in Saturday’s drawing, a reversal of fortune that was with the Rams in their previous four championship seasons. They were in the same hat with SouthWest Edgecombe and East Duplin, who also carried 11-0 credentials to the pairings party. East Duplin got the No. 1 nod and SouthWest No. 2. Higher seeds have the home field advantage and Reidsville has been at home throughout the regionals in all but one game since 2002.
“I knew our luck was going to run out sometime,” RHS first-year head coach Doug Robertson said. “It just happened to be my first year as a head coach.”
This year, if they keep adding to their winning streak, the Rams are guaranteed that the first two rounds of the 32-team bracket will be at home. The Reidsville-Beddingfield winner will face the winner of the game matching No. 6-seed Bunn (8-3) and No. 11-seeded Richlands (5-6).
If major upsets are avoided by the teams that are ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the state, Reidsville would visit SouthWest in Pinetops on Thanksgiving Friday.
Robertson, a former RHS player and then an assistant under Jimmy Teague the last nine seasons, said he’s looking forward to playing wherever the bracket leads the Rams.
“I don’t think where you play makes a whole lot of difference as long as the field is 100 yards long and 53 yards wide. That’s the approach we have to take.”
Not that the Rams are looking past Beddingfield.
“I think they are a very good football team,” Robertson said after watching film. “They are a very athletic group and they have some guys that can make some plays for them. They do a good job of mixing run and pass. It’s almost 50-50.”
Beddingfield finished behind SouthWest Edgecombe, Tarboro (10-1), Kinston (9-2) and Farmville Central (6-5) in the competitive conference race.
The Bruins began the year strong, going 4-1 in non-conference games and then opening league play with a 32-26 victory over Greene Central.
But a three-game losing streak followed with losses to Kinston 48-12, SouthWest Edgecombe 52-22 and Farmville 27-14. They regrouped after an open date to beat North Pitt 26-12 but closed the regular season on a dismal note, falling 55-8 to Tarboro.
Beddingfield is led by 6-foot-4 senior quarterback Lance Price, who has been the Bruins’ starter since midway through his freshman season. He’s thrown for 64 touchdowns and more than 6,000 yards in his career. This year, he’s 110 for 270 for 1,482 yards and 15 touchdowns. Interceptions have been a problem – 57 for his career and 15 this season.
Junior Daquan Langston (5-9, 180) is the go-to receiver with 55 catches for 726 yards and six touchdowns.
When Beddingfield runs the ball, the primary threat is junior Monteith Lucas (5-8, 190). He has accumulated 959 yards and seven touchdowns.
Senior tackle Milton Best (6-4, 285) is the team’s star lineman.
The Bruins are coached by Tyrone Johnson, who’s in his second stint at Beddingfield. He was the head man from 1990-99 and came back in 2006. Beddingfield was 9-3 a season ago, losing in the first round of the 3-A playoffs, 37-18 to Oxford Webb.
Offensively, Beddingfield is averaging 149 yards passing and 123 yards rushing per game. They allow 227 rushing and 36 passing as they have seen very few teams with potent passing attacks.
They will run into a diversified Reidsville offense Friday. The Rams are averaging 230.8 yards rushing and 156.1 yards passing per game.
RHS’s points-per-game average is 49.5 and not all of that can be attributed to the offense. The Rams have scored on five punt returns, three kickoff returns, two interception returns and one fumble return.
Senior Lyshod Graves returned a pair of punts for touchdowns in last week’s 56-14 romp over Providence Grove and now has four this season to go with three kickoff return TDs, both school single season records.
Graves is also a key man on offense with 18 catches for 440 yards and seven touchdowns. He averages 24.4 yards per catch, 27.3 yards per punt return and 44.2 yards per kickoff return.
Kenzel Doe is Reidsville’s leading receiver with 36 receptions for 624 yards and nine touchdowns.
Tyrell Houghton directs the RHS shotgun offense and is now close to 100 percent. An ankle injury kept him out of the Eastern Randolph game two weeks ago but he returned to play the first half in the 56-14 romp over Providence Grove last Friday. He completed 5 of 6 passes in that game for 157 yards and now is 58 of 100 for 1,061 yards on the season. He’s thrown for 16 touchdowns with just one interception. Houghton has also rushed for six touchdowns while gaining 513 yards on 61 carries (8.4 per carry).
Halfback E.J. Foster leads the Rams with 919 yards rushing and 21 touchdowns on 112 attempts.
Since all of those skill players are veterans of past seasons, the development of the lines has been a key to Reidsville’s success.
On offense, senior tackle Bryron Johnson was the lone returnee and he’s now part of a solid unit that includes center Jamie Jackson, guards Gabriel Hildebrand and Josh Wagner and tackle Danye Gorrell.
While the offensive line has been together most of the season, it was just the last couple of weeks that Robertson and staff settled on a defensive front four.
Johnson is also the leader of that foursome from his defensive end spot and is joined by fellow senior Ryan Broadnax on the opposite side. The inside features the sophomore tandem of Mike Lee and Marcus Paschal.
“Bryron Johnson is really becoming a hard guy to block on our defense,” Robertson said. “All four of those guys are getting better at the right time.”
Paschal, who was moved up from the undefeated junior varsity team a couple weeks ago, has become the missing piece of the puzzle.
Robertson is counting on the front four to provide a strong pass rush against Beddingfield’s senior quarterback.
“As far as primary passing teams, Graham sticks out,” Robertson said, noting that the Rams haven’t seen many teams that throw it as much as Beddingfield in the first 11 weeks. “He (Price) throws the ball real well. They throw a lot of short routes where he gets the ball out to their athletes. He’s a tall guy and he’s pretty good back there in the pocket.
“We’ll spend a lot of time on the pass game this week and we’ll mix in a couple of fronts. We’ll use the base defense and play some three-down also if we have to.”
Backing up the line will be leading tacklers Steve Williams (101 tackles) and Dashawn Crews (67).
Johnson leads the team in tackles for loss with 16, Lee has 15 and Williams 13.
At outside linebacker the Rams will go with a rotation that includes E.J. Foster, Deron Barnett, Christian Williams and William Welch.
The secondary will include Doe, Butchee and Graves with Denzell Blackwell and Houghton also seeing action. Doe and Butchee lead the Rams with five interceptions each.
Overall, the Rams are up 33-11 in the turnover stats.
The Rams enter the post-season without a place kicker.
After making only 9 of 23 kick attempts, the Rams scrapped plans for the one-point conversions after game eight and have gone with a two-point package designed by assistant coach Joe Beckelheimer.
It involves Doe as the snapper at the end of the line with the rest of the line spread out to the side. Butchee takes a direct snap from Doe and then has several options.
“It’s given teams a lot to prepare for,” Robertson said. “If we can get one of two we’re ahead of the game.”
In the last two games, Reidsville has made 8 of 15 two-point tries.

RAM NOTES
• The Rams are 49-17 all-time in post-season with 24 appearances in 41 years. The last time Reidsville missed the playoffs was 1999. Reidsville has a record 17 state championships. Six of those (1969, 1970, 2002, 2003, 2007 and 2008) have been as the Rams. The other 11 were in the Golden Lions era.
• Reidsville’s current 43-game winning streak is the fourth longest in the nation. Shattuck, Okla., has won 91 straight. A team from Kansas has won 77 in a row and a school from New Hampshire has won 54 straight.
• The North Carolina record for consecutive wins is held by Charlotte Independence with 109 in a row from 2000-2007. Reidsville is tied for fourth on that list with Burlington Williams, which won 43 straight from 1979 to 1982. Ayden is second with 45 (1964 to 1968) and Richmond County is third with 44 (1979-1982).
• Reidsville football’s web site, mastered by Tim Bates, had 111,463 hits on Saturday, Nov. 7, bringing the total for the year to almost 3 million. That broke the record of 2.5 million hits set last season.
The web site – reidsvillefootball.com – features photos, news articles, statistics and history.