Man, am I glad I decided to compile a Rocky Mount High School football record book some five years ago.
Once B.W. Holt and his crew are finished, I would have re-written it - twice!
Even more pieces of information got typed into the record book after the Gryphons dismantled visiting Southern Wayne on Homecoming night.
Here goes!
1. Rocky Mount's 49 points in the first half was the most points a RM team has ever scored in one half of football. The most had been the 48 it put up against Wilson Fike in 1978. The Gryphons led 48-0 at Fike at intermission. In the record-setting 75-0 victory over Norfolk Catholic (most points ever scored by a RM team) in 1960, RM scored 47 points in the second half (27, third period; 20, fourth) after leading 28-0 at halftime.
2. The 35 points scored in the first period were the most points ever scored in one period for a RM team.
3. Senior kicker Nick Hahula went 9-for-9 on his PATs - tying his school record for most PATs made in a game (set vs. Gray's Creek in 2006). Hahula's nine points Friday gives him exactly 300 total points scored - pushing his all-time scoring record even higher!
4. Southern Wayne was not flagged with a penalty the entire evening. From my research, no RM opponent has ever done that. Rocky Mount hasn't kept a hankie off the field since 2001 in a 29-28 win over Tarboro.
5. Rocky Mount's winning margin of 57 points was the fourth biggest in school history.
I have no records on how fast RM has scored touchdowns, but perhaps the Gryphons created one when they got in the end zone three times in one minute, six seconds!
1st period
5:59 - Keith Strickland 53 pass from Collins Cuthrell
5:06 - Marquavis Alston 19 run
4:53 - Keith Strickland 10 pass from Collins Cuthrell
See what I mean? Imagine if there hadn't been a running clock the entire second half!
6. No Rocky Mount team, five games into the season, has ever been this prolific on the scoreboard. The 2004 RMHS squad had scored 207 points (41.4 ppg) after five contests. This 2008 team has surpassed it - scoring 228 - 45.6 points a game! The total yards per game are on a record pace, too.
And let's give the defense some attention, too. The "D' block has allowed just 40 points - basically a touchdown a game.
NOTE: Southern Wayne, for the second straight week, scored just one TD - and the Saints' defense provided both.
Against Goldsboro (a 21-6 SW loss), it scored on a 41-yard interception return. It took a 58-yard fumble return Friday to ruin the Gryphons' possible shutout.
