Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Winner to Earn First Picayune-Times Traveling Trophy

One of the biggest rivalries in this section of the state will take

place Friday night in Gurdon when the Prescott Curley Wolves line up against the Go-Devils.

To help spice the game the Nevada County Picayune and The Gurdon Times will award the winner of the game a traveling trophy.

The trophy will be in honor of the traditions involved between these two friendly rivalries. One of those traditions can be found in a story on page 11 concerning the 1931 Go-Devils and Duke Wells.

Prescott head football coach Eddie Jackson and Gurdon head football coach John Pace are looking forward to Friday's game between their two teams.

Despite the fact both teams will be in seperate conferences next season (proposed realignment article on page 13) both coaches hope to keep the contest between the two on schedule.

Each year the winner's name will be engraved on the trophy and the winning team will keep it until the next year, when it will go the winning school that year.

The trophy will be presented to the winning coach and team after the conclusion of the game. Presenting the trophy this year will be Ricky Ragsdale, general manager of the Picayune.

The game promises to be a good one. However, Gurdon has two key injured players: D.D. Shepherd and Nick Hughes, running backs for the Go-Devils.

The Go-Devils, who won four straight games at the beginning of the season thanks to their running game, now have three losses. Two of them are to Stamps and Nashville, both 7AA Conference opponents. It certainly won't get any easier as the season closes down.

Gurdon needs two more wins to be in the state playoffs. These won't be easy with only two games left, especially against these two: Prescott and De Queen.

Prescott is undefeated this season, although it has tied the Class AAA Hope Bobcats. But the Wolves have also defeated a Class AAA team, the Ashdown Panthers, which Hope also defeated this past week.

Prescott also leads the 7AA Conference with victories over Junction City, Nashville, De Queen and Stamps.

Gurdon's first loss this year was to the Stamps Yellowjackets. The Go-Devils' second conference loss was to Nashville Friday night. The straw that broke the camel's back in that game was the injury of Shepherd. The Go-Devils have not played a triple A team.

In addition to the two conference losses Gurdon was upset two weeks ago at Horatio. The Go-Devils are now 5-3 overall.

Their biggest win was against the Fordyce Redbugs on September 22 in conference play. Prescott's last game, next week, will be at Fordyce. Through last week the Devils are 2-2 in the conference.

The Curley Wolves have out-scored their opponents 214-63. Gurdon, on the other hand, has out-scored its opponents 172-90.

The record book tells us nothing of the feeling of the players and fans between these two schools. The rivalry is there, and either team can defeat the other. Each goes for the win when they play. This year should be no exception.

The stands should be packed on both sides of the field Friday night as the Wolves try to spoil the Gurdon homecoming.

It should be another memorable game.