North Stokes at MA
Not much of a write up here. N Stokes had a first half lead over Patrick County before choking it away epically in the 2nd half last week. MA meanwhile had an option clinic up on a rainy mountain night in West Jefferson. That collapse is one that’s gonna hurt the Vikes as they needed the win for a better playoff seed, and this week won’t be much fun for them either. Next week they have a serious shot at a win but they gotta stay healthy and focused and be ready for a war. Gotta make it through this one 100%.
MA by whatever they want. They gotta focus and stay healthy for next week. Starters probably won't make it a quarter, 2 if N Stokes does okay enough but that's pushing it.
North Wilkes at Surry Central
A big week for the Hays Vikings, they start conference season anew and have plenty of a slate to make the season better. But they have a bad luck of the draw and drawn a hot on offense Surry Central team on their homecoming. The Golden Eagles ran the opening kickoff to a fast paydirt and they stoped Elkin’s opening drive and never looked back to a solid but not sexy win over the Elks. They still have kinks to work out to being truly solid but getting a near shutout last week was a nice step up. North Wilkes meanwhile is in a very drought stricken atmosphere as they haven’t scored a single point in now 3 weeks. Granted they’ve faced some good teams, but that’s not a good look at all for any team. Especially after they scored in 2 of those 3 games last year. They’ve badly got to shake the monkey off their back to get in a better spot. This is a good week to do it as it won’t get any easier the next month for them.
Both of last year’s games were super close between these two. JV wise NW had a 2 TD lead before epically blowing it into an OT loss, meanwhile on varsity NW had a 10 point halftime lead they blew on homecoming night.. Both were loses they’d badly love to have back. But on the bright side they both were signs they were gonna make it out of the muck. They won their only game of the season for the program on JV the next week over WC and they lost by a point to the Eagles the next night. That was the highlight of their season. This year they are off a JV win over SC and have some momentum there.. Can it be enough to inspire the big boys?
Much like last week the SC defense will be under the microscope here. If they are going to be in the mix for the Foothills they gotta prevent NW from scoring until late in the game or get that shutout. Both teams are similar depth wise so I don’t think that will be an edge. NW just needs to be able to move the ball. If they can’t then it won’t be pretty. They will but I think Jewell will be too much for their defense. However you never know with these two, they are too similar to each other and have always had a fun rivalry over the years.
South Stokes at Elkin
My post in the 1A thread about this game says how I feel about this game so I won’t waste much time here.
West Stokes at HP Andrews
The Wildcats are as good as advertised, but time will tell what they can do. They don’t have the speed of the 2011 or 2019 teams but they are an efficient offensive squad and do what they need to do to win. That being said Walkertown and Reidsville will give them good tests and I think North Forsyth will do so on defense too, they gotta stay focused and efficient. Up this week is the hardest stadium they got to play in in Simeon and HP Andrews. HPA’s much improved from the doldrums of the post McKoy era, but they still aren’t there yet to the point of being what they used to be. Last week they hung with North Rowan and played a hard 2nd half but it wasn’t enough. However they did beat Thomasville in week 3 so the Raiders won’t be a push over.
West has had HPA’s # this alignment as they won all 3 contests over the Raiders. The last time these two played at Simeon West won 14-13 in a barn burner in 22. West has to come ready to play not just HPA but that atmosphere. I think they will do so, but HPA may show up and make it close for a little bit. This will be a good test to see how WS handles success and consistency. I think West is just coached better than HPA is.
West Wilkes at Forbush
A very hard choice here as neither team has done what they need to do to be truly competitive yet. West nearly had an upset last week as they gave West Iredell a fit all night until WI woke up at the end of the 3rd quarter. WW collapsed under a bunch of mistakes including a bad timed safety when WI had a 3 point lead. They almost had the win to change their season, but like the old man with the fishing hook said in that old commercial: “You almost had it!” The Bush meanwhile had a hideous offensive outing in their last game vs Starmount as they barely got 100 yards of offense while Starmount ran it all over them at will and when they wanted to they passed it too. Forbush just was outdone at every end of the game that night and it was back to the drawing board for them.
When these two play it usually tends to be very hard hitting and very sloppy. Last year it went to OT after West collapsed before they pulled it out, Bush won in 22 in another close one. These two tend to bring the worst out of each other in the ways sloppy football purists just love. I expect another one here. Bush won beating a very bad McMichael team in week 2, but that was just due to MM being terrible. They let victory slide into defeat that night. West meanwhile had a shutout over a bad Elkin team, so they at least one upped the Bush. West has a little more speed in their skill spots than the Bush does, and I think that will help a lot. Bush hasn’t recovered yet from Taylor leaving, if he was around I probably would have picked them. West I just think is better and more used to close games, and it’ll prove to be just enough here.
Starmount at Alleghany
The Rams are quite frankly looking amazing right now, this is the team the folks in Boonville have been waiting a decade for. They look as fresh and solid as the teams I used to play against in Johnson’s hayday, and they are a week out from having the chance to do something they’ve been waiting years for vs Mount Airy. But they cannot overlook the Trojans on that mountain-top. The Trojans record hasn’t been the best so far but they are off a very solid performance vs Mitchell where they held them to a classic 21-14 score in a near upset. I don’t think Mitchell was ready for what the Trojans offered and it showed. Starmount can’t afford to overlook anyone right now, it’ll be a great mental test for them and their line to see how they handle that physicality Alleghany offers. MA will bring it next week albeit faster, if Starmount struggles at any point this week they will have a hard go next week. So they gotta be at their most focused here.
Starmount wins here but Alleghany may very well score, which they didn’t last year. They are better than the past 2 teams they’ve played.
www.nchsaa.org