ES at Robbinsville
Time for the Pilot Cards’s new era to start anew while they travel into the twilight zone of Robbinsville. These two have always had some really hard fought games dating back to the 90’s so I expect nothing less than a good old fashioned physical hit fest. The pressure lies all on the Cards’s backs here; they are pretty much brand new in a ton of ways. Rville meanwhile is a trusted reliable force in 1A ball. They are usually pretty solid on the line and they love to thud you without thinking twice. East definitely needs to make the long haul with some wheaties in their diet.
This one will go either two ways: 1. It’s a barnburner with a win for either team, or 2. Robbinsville wins it going away. I just don’t see it working out either other way.
Robbinsville has sold me a little better in hindsight. East has a lot of ? marks and the coaching staff has changed so much to what it was, they have to find ways to improve every week moving forward. This week they go to one of the harder places to play and will get hit in the mouth. Can they respond properly to it? If not it will get even harder next week. A lot of the time season openers are proving grounds to see what you are destined for, definitely a case here for the Pilot Cards.
Surry Central at Alleghany
Time for another solid old school rivalry. Not many people realize these two have played for decades, in fact Central’s last win before the long losing streak of the 80’s was Alleghany in 1986, and these two played some hard games in the 90’s as well. I was really glad to see this schedule renewed recently and last year’s matchup was one of the finest and funnest games I watched last year, with Alleghany’s late comeback from the dead, which showed Central’s struggles the rest of the year in spades. This year I expect another close matchup. Alleghany is coming off a solid scrimmage last week while Central struggled some with their previous matchups. Alleghany is favored as an X factor in their conference, Central meanwhile is more hard to predict. They have a very solid QB in Jewell and a decent sized senior group, however their defense has got to improve and find some consistency to contend. This game will show how that is going.
At this point i can’t pick a winner here. It’ll be an old fashioned hit fest between these two, like they all enjoy.
North Wilkes at Elkin
The Scott Wood tribute bowl starts another season between these two squads. Both will feature brand new talent all over for the most part, Elkin brings up a respectable JV team while North Wilkes is completely barren of the seniors who won 7 games out of nowhere last year. North Wilkes has some of the most ? marks around them out of any varsity squad around here as they just haven’t had a good run on JV the past 2 years, they’ve went 0-18 in the past 2 years on JV. This game will help to show a lot of what they will have moving forward. Either they just didn’t focus on JV and this team will be more talented than we think as the better kids were up, or the results don’t lie and it will be a tough repairing journey for the Vikings.
Elkin meanwhile has nothing to lose, they’ve been in that same spot for 2 years. This group now is quite a step up from last years team in talent. Their QB runs the option fundamentally the best out of any QB they’ve had since the Strickland days 10+ years ago. Their line has some size and they don’t run anything super fancy.
Elkin badly needs a good start to the year and I think they will get it here, granted it might be closer than we expect.
South Stokes vs West Stokes
Battle of 2 new faces in King as Rodgers and South Stokes heads up West to play UpChurch and the Wildcats. West has had South’s # the past 2 years as the number and athlete edge has been in their favor especially in 2021, that game was beyond ugly. This year it looks like things will be more different than it has been to the nadir of the Sauras. West has gained some size with the transfer of Whitt from ES, that changes their line up quite a bit. South meanwhile has a couple big players to match but not the most huge I’ve seen either. South meanwhile has an experienced QB and some athletes to match, but West brings up a solid core of new skill players. It’s like West has something to match in every way. The South Stokes game has always been one of UpChurch’s finest performances, he only lost to them just a couple of times. I don’t see it being #3 this week.
Trinity at Starmount
New era for the Rams tonight as they host a very athletic and good sized Bulldog squad from deep in the Triad. These two had a very entertaining scrimmage last season at South Stokes as it was a literal slugfest for the entire time. Starmount controlled the ground and pounded them, but Trinity would come right back with a deep bomb for 6 as the Rams couldn’t control their passing game. It woulda been a high scoring slugfest much like the CSD game was for the Rams last year.
This year these two face off again completely different than from last year. Starmount’s the most athletic they’ve been in a while as they have a more open offense than in a good while. Trinity meanwhile is a lot younger in the backfield than they have been. Line wise both look to be about equal in age, Starmount has the biggest player out of both this year, but Trinity is more consistent across the board with their size. They return a really solid RB, so we will get to see what the Rams have vs the run off the bat.
This is the Rams’s biggest game pre September 22nd vs MA. A lot of the season’s direction depends on this game, if they win here they can cruise to that game if they dedicate and find the consistency the program’s lacked for a few years. A loss means they have to fight through adversity. A lot on the line more than people figure here. We will see.
