There are some interesting storylines developing in the western 1A ranks, and here are just a few of my observations:
Western 1A Conferences
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The Northwest Conference at the moment seems to be a 2 horse race between East Surry and Mount Airy as both have already beaten state 1AA runnerup Starmount to begin the season....Mount Airy did lose last night to 2A West Stokes, while East Surry is unbeaten after 2 games....The Cardinals will face their toughest test of the season this coming friday when they travel for the first time this season to County rival 2A North Surry....The Darkhorse team from this conference is Walkertown who doesn't play a 1A team until they begin conference play on Sept 25th....Argubly, one of the toughest 1A schedules in the state(@Rockingham,@West Forsyth,@R.J.Reynolds,vs Parkland and vs West Stokes should get the Wolfpack battle tested for the NWC, and should also help them in their home games against both East Surry and Mount Airy....
When I started a thread last week about the Southern Piedmont Conference, I was interested in finding out about the newest member of the SPC, Mountain Island Charter....Of course, it didn't take long for the Raptors to get noticed as they hosted the regining 3-time SPC champ Bessemer City last friday in their first home varsity game, which was also the Raptors first SPC game....Unfortunately for the Raptors, the game against the reigning SPC champs didn't turn out as planned as turnovers and a stiff Bessemer City defense shutdown the Raptor attack, and the Yellowjackets won(28-7) going away to open SPC play with an impressive road win before September....As for the rest of the conference, watch out for the Community School of Davidson as the Spartans and talented Sr. RB Joey Benardini have steamrolled their first 2 opponents at home....We'll learn a lot more about the Spartans after their next 3 road games @ Lake Norman Charter, North Mecklenburg and Davidson Day....
In the Mountain Valley Conference, there appears to be a new 1A team on the rise, and they are the Cardinals of East Wilkes who have started the season 2-0....The Cardinals will have a week off before a vastly improved North Stokes team comes to town....Starmount is still the favorite to finish as the top 1A team from the MVC, and the top spot for the 1A team from this split-class conference will likely be determined on October 23rd when the Cardinals travel to Booneville to face the Rams...
The Yadkin Valley Championship will still run thru Mount Gilead this year, and the Warriors are off to a 2-0 start after road wins at Jordan-Matthews and West Stanly....The battle for 2nd is going to be fun to watch as Albemarle seems improved as is East Montgomery and North Moore, and then there's North Stanly with dynamic RB Antonio Wiliams to contend with.....The one thing about a 9-member conference is that you don't have to wait too long before the answers start rolling in....Some of those answers will come on 9/11 when Albemarle travels to face an East Montgomery team that is soaring after a big win on friday at Eastern Randolph...Other answers will come on 9/18 when West Montgomery travels to Robbins to face a much improved North Moore Mustang team that narrowly lost(19-14) to 3A Union Pines on friday night...North Stanly has the fortune of hosting Albemarle,East Montgomery and North Moore, but will have to travel to West Montgomery in Mid-October in a game that could determine the YVC title?
When the season began in the Western Highlands Conference, there was a lot of talk about Hendersonville,Polk County and Mountain Heritage....All pretty good 2A members from the WHC....Folks were also talking about Mitchell County as the top 1A team from the WHC....After the first 2 games of the season, folks might now want to talk about the 1A Mountaineers as not only the favorite to take the top 1A spot, but also a favortie to take the outright WHC title?....The Mountaineers will get to rest after hosting a pretty good 3A North Buncombe team on 9/18 as they will have the following week off in preparation for conference play that will open with a bang with road games at Owen and Polk, which should tell us all a lot about just how good this Mitchell County team is this year?
After a great start to the season with all 7 Smoky Mountain Conference teams winning their openers, the league came crashing back to earth this week as the Big 3(Murphy,Swain and Robbinsville) all lost to their 2nd opponent of the season....It's kinda hard to know exactly what we've learned thus far about these 3 teams as Franklin, Charlotte County Day and Smoky Mountain are all very good opponents for 1A teams....The Smoky Mountain shutout of Swain County(10-0) did surprise me because the Maroondevils have basically owned the Mustangs since they consolidated, but I knew that this Smoky Moutain team appears to be just a little better than they've been in the recent pass as it took a successful 2pt conversion last week by Robbinsville to edge the 2A mustangs by a point in Sylva....Just curious, when was the last time that a non-conference foe went into Bryson City and shutout the Maroondevils?....As for Murphy losing to Franklin, most expected the Panthers to prevail in the Pit, and Bulldog miscues certainly aided the Panthers victory, but Murphy will be tough to handle the rest of the way IMO....Robbinsville's state 1A best 17 game winning streak is over as Charlotte County Day beat the Black Knights on friday night at Big Oaks Stadium....As for the rest of the conference, Andrews, Hayesville and Rosman remain unbeaten, but those unblemished marks will be seriously challenged in each of those teams' next game...For Rosman, the results thus far have been impressive, especially from a defensive standpoint as the Tigers have allowed a TD each in their first 2 games with one of those being an INT return for a TD, while the other resulted in a short field after a botched punt return...The possible loss of 3-yr starting QB Josh Rice could derail an otherwise promising start by the Tigers who will learn more about themselves beginning next friday night at Madison County...As for Andrews, the Wildcats are off to a 2-0 start after edging Tellico Plains Tennessee on friday in their home opener...The Wildcats have a major challenge next week when they travel to face a Mitchell County team that throttled an improved Cherokee team on friday night...As for Hayesville, the Yellowjackets knocked-off their 2nd out-of-state opponent in as many weeks, beating Copper Basin Tenn. rather handily in their home opener on friday night...The Yellowjackets will be OPEN this coming week before traveling to face a much improved 3A Enka Jet team that has already beaten Owen, and gave Pisgah all they could handle before losing to the Bears on friday night....Looking down the road to conference play, the new rotating schedule makes for some very interesting early season matchups with perhaps the biggest coming in early October when Robbinsville travels to face Murphy....All-in-All, it looks like a fun season in the SMC, awaits the 7 members...
Comments as usual are welcomed and appreciated!
Roar Tigers Roar!
