I hope some enjoyed the NE NC weekly picks this year. If some of you would like a postseason recap and maybe a look at the 2013 season let me know and maybe I could do something next week. It has been fun.


Week of December 1 (State Championships) (1 game)

Game of the Week: Murphy vs Plymouth (1A State Championship - Carter Finley)

Last Week in Review: Picked 1 out of 1 successfully. 129 of 147 on the year (87.8 %).



Murphy vs Plymouth (1A)

This one is for all the marbles starting at 11am Saturday in Raleigh. Plymouth easily advanced through a dismal 1a east, while Murphy took down Albemarle for the second year in the row to play for a ring. Both of these teams like to run the football, with Murphy looking to spread the field more and Plymouth with the traditional Wing. Both teams have good backs that run hard. A lot of people want to talk about Plymouth's speed advantage, but Murphy has good speed on the edges, the only real speed advantage for Plymouth will be their front 7 on defense. Murphy will have the big game experience advantage making their third consecutive trip to the state championship. Both teams two platoon for the most part, so stamina should not play a role. It will be interesting to see if Plymouth's offensive front can win the battle against a very physical Bulldog team. If Plymouth wins the battle up front it will be very hard for Murphy to slow down the stable of backs the Vikings possess. Like any big game turnovers and penalties could be a huge deciding factor. Don't be surprised to see Plymouth lull the Bulldogs to sleep with counter, sweep, and dive before going up top for the big play. I think if the game is close late advantage Murphy. Murphy's experience kicks in late.

Murphy 28 Plymouth 20



Week 16 (State Championships) Power Rankings


1. Northeastern (11-3)

2. Edenton - Holmes (11-1)

3. Plymouth (14-1)

4. Washington (10-4)

5. Manteo (11-2)

6. Hertford County (9-4)

7. First Flight (6-5)

8. Bertie (6-6)

9. Riverside - Martin (6-6)

10. Camden (6-5)

11. Gates County (7-4)

12. Currituck (3-8)

13. Southside (5-7)

14. Pasquotank (2-8)

15. Northside - Pinetown (4-7)

16. South Creek (1-10)

17. Perquimans (0-11)

18. Columbia (8-4)

19. Creswell (6-6)

20. Mattamuskeet (3-8)

21. Cape Hatteras (2-10)

Murphy has faced some legit talent in the west and I'm going with them also. Talk about polar opposites meeting in the championship.

I agree 100%. Take a look at 0000's top 6-7 teams in his rankings. Plymouth needs to play these teams every year to get themselves ready for the playoffs. The conference they'll be in next year is weaker than this year. They need to be tested for the back half of their year/ playoff run. I know they scrimmaged Washington back in 08-09 and got pushed around a bit and didn't like it so they started declining invited to tune up in the preseason. Washington did have pretty good teams those years but Plymonth treated it like games and went back to Washington County pissed off.