Junior High Football Just As Exciting![Photos]

I have to say,  I get just as much enjoyment out of junior high football as I do high school or college.   Thursday,  I witnessed my son's first game of the season for Carthage Bulldogs as they took on arch rival,  Chapel Hill.

First,  there was the 7th grade B-team game,  followed by 7th grade A-team, and then 8th grade B and A team games.

Wow!  Was  I ever excited to watch Shane's B-team game that ended up a real thriller.  It was  so  close,  with one touchdown answered by another until it came down to the last play of the game, with Chapel Hill  leading by 6.

Amazing to me, was that  Chapel Hill down close to the Carthage goal- line decided to throw the ball.  That pass ended in an interception that the Carthage Dawgs  ran back, with Ethan Rymel tripping over his shoe lace that had come untied,  and falling near the 20-yard line.

The yells and screams from both sides of  Carthage stadium were deafening, I'm still not sure when I'll get my voice back, but one thing's for sure,  parents and their kids are what it's all about.

Next up was the 8th grade A team game, and I've never seen a player so big and strong and incredible as No. 74 ,   Josiah Hollister.  "Joe-Joe" or "Joey" is what his mother,  Patricia and dad,  Jesse, call him ( they were sitting in front of me so we struck up a conversation) .

I couldn't take my eyes off him because he was a gigantic over six-feet tall, heavy player,  but fast, breaking through the line on offense to block down his opponent, and then also playing defense,  and making a bunch of tackles.

Carthage won that game, with a score of about 30 to 12 when we left the stadium with a few minutes left.

Pep rallies before the games pumped up the crowd, the band, the players and the cheerleaders.