North is ready for Ragsdale

Fri. November 04, 2011 at 12:27 a.m. | By Mike Duprez

It looked for a while like when the preliminary brackets came out that North Davidson was going to get Dudley (5-5) in the first round of the 4-A state playoffs, which begin Friday night.
But then North coach Mark Holcomb got a call from Ragsdale coach Tommy Norwood. The Black Knights were going to have to play the Piedmont Triad Conference co-champion Tigers instead. And they’re 8-2.
“Good skill kids, good quarterback,” Holcomb said. “They’ve got good timing in their passing game but they really look like they want to run it. Defensively, their strength is probably their linemen. They’ve got one linebacker who can really play.”
The only two blemishes on Ragsdale’s slate are a 35-14 loss to Page on Sept. 9 and a 31-28 defeat to Northwest Guilford on Oct. 7.
North (8-3) fell 21-14 to Thomasville in its season opener, 47-28 to Mount Tabor on Sept. 30 and 31-16 last Friday to Davie County. The last loss is one the Knights would rather avoid repeating as quarterback Chase Mitchell threw five interceptions and the defense yielded 385 yards, including 238 on the ground.
“Our overall offensive numbers don’t look bad,” Holcomb said. “We need to be a little more consistent. It seemed like we were in third and long the whole night. We’ve got to do a better job of not turning the ball over.”
Mitchell has thrown for 1,073 yards but he has been intercepted 16 times. He has two good targets in Charles Brunson (44 catches, 515 yards) and Ashton Phillips (30 catches 414 yards). The Knights have struggled to run the football as their leading runner, Devonte Moore, has rushed for 511 yards.
Ragsdale has a pair of players who are sure to pressure North’s offense. Larry Ogunjobi, a 6-foot-3, 265-pound lineman, has 11 1/2 sacks and cornerback Duncan Sparks has six interceptions.
Holcomb has mixed in star defensive back Tevin Tuttle for some wildcat-type quarterback plays and that should continue Friday. Tuttle started getting some reps behind center when Mitchell was injured in the Mount Tabor game. The 5-foot-9, 165-pound Tuttle has run for 370 yards and four touchdowns and passed for 155 yards and a TD.
“We’ll use him some at quarterback,” Holcomb said. “It’s going to depend on how he’s doing on defense and the flow of the game.”
Ragsdale can also threaten through the air as quarterback Garrison Herndon has thrown for more than 1,300 yards and 12 touchdowns. One of those was a 58-yarder to speedy wide receiver Anthony Stewart.
Getting off to a good start will be key for the Knights, who want to establish the run. That proved difficult to do after the War Eagles took a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, forcing North to unsuccessfully play catchup the whole game.
“We wanted to do that last week but we got behind early and had to throw it a little more,” Holcomb said.

Mike Duprez can be reached at 249-3981, ext. 218 or mike.duprez@the-dispatch.com.