Football Friday: Northern Durham at Jordan

This week was our “home game,” if you can call it that, as we stayed around Durham and headed to Charles E. Jordan High School to watch the Falcons face off against the Northern Durham Knights.  It was homecoming at Jordan, plus we had a special 5th Quarter over at Yates Baptist Church after the game.

Northern Durham looked good early, recovering Jordan’s onside kick on the opening kick-off and marching down the field scoring on a 10 yard run four minutes in to take a 7-0 lead.  After a Falcons fumble, a trade of punts, and a interception over a five-minute span, Jordan ties the game at 7 on a 71 yard pass.  Three minutes in the second, Jordan strikes again through the air on a 50 yard pass, and scores again with a minute before the half to take a 20-7 halftime lead.

In the second half, the Falcons offense took the opening kick-off back to the Northern 26 yard line and threw a touchdown pass on the next play 30 seconds in to take a 27-7 lead, but the Knights were not to be counted out just yet.  After the teams traded a couple of possessions, the Northern offense came to life and marched 60 yards down the field scoring on a 1 yard quarterback run to cut the lead to 27-14 with less than five minutes left in the third.  A Falcons fumble on the next possession set up Northern at the Jordan 20 and on the next play the Knights scored, making it 27-20 with less than a minute left in the third.

Halfway through the fourth, Northern tied the game at 27 on a 25 yard pass, and momentum completely shifted at this point.  Jordan would take the lead again on a 2 yard run with a little over three minutes left.  Northern would have one final chance, but after having the ball on first and goal at the Jordan 9, the Falcons defense stopped the Knights four straight times, including a screen pass completion that was stopped just short of the goal line to make the final score 34-27.  Jordan would run out the clock and improve to 5-2 while keeping Northern winless at 0-7.

Things of note:

• Attendance wise, it was a great night.  Homecoming had a lot to do with that, but the Jordan side was packed.  The game kicked off at 7:00 PM, but a crowd was still lined up outside the metal detectors well after 7:30 PM.
• Facilities at Jordan are good.  We had a great view of the field, and they’ve built a new concession stand at the stadium.  My only complaint about the field is that they don’t put the Falcon in the center, but between the hash mark and the numbers on the 50 yard line closest to the home stand (see picture above).
• Speaking of concessions… I’m going to put this a nicely as I can, but that was the WORST HOT DOG I’VE EVER HAD!  Thoughts of the letter to the church at Laodicea came to my mind as I bit down into a luke-warm hot dog, wanting to spew it out of my mouth.
• As mentioned earlier, it was homecoming, and during halftime, we experienced the shortest homecoming ceremony ever.  As the court walked down the track, the announcer rattled off the names, then quickly announced the homecoming king and queen, and it was all over in less than three minutes.
• Jordan’s band is very good.  As a tradition on homecoming, they march the halftime show in various costumes, including super-hero characters, fast-food characters, Disney characters, and characters from TV and movies.  The most amusing part was watching the Chick-fil-A cow playing trumpet and marching around.

Despite the miserable food experience, it was a good night.  Northern almost came back to get their first win of the year, but it was not to be.  Jordan will continue on and make the playoffs while Northern will remain in sort of a rebuilding mode this year.

Next week, we had to one of our favorite places, Eastern Alamance High School in Mebane to watch the Eagles take on the Western Alamance Warriors.