MA at Ashe County
The Bears are rolling after a near scare, they let SC get a lucky drive and score then proceeded to sent them into a mental breakdown after that 2nd quarter last week. The Bears proved their mass breakout offense is still in pretty good shape. This week they head up the mountain to play a very hard to figure Ashe County team who’s overperforming. They beat WC in surprising like a drum fashion in the opener, then shutout North Wilkes. Last week’s game was a very ugly win vs a struggling West Wilkes team, so very hard to judge this team. Either they will overperform and have a surprising effort here, or MA wil roll.
I lean more towards the latter, but won’t be surprised to see Ashe put points up. Hampton keeping it on Friday is his trademark, he loves the rain. We used to have to practice in it when ti was awful. He wants that edge.
East Surry at South Stokes
Not much of a write up here.. East’s gonna be very upset and motivated for this one. They nearly got their upset last week but West got out with it instead barely. South managed to overperfom my expectations last week by nearly beating a very bad McMichael squad, but they let it slip. However they will have chances starting soon to get a W. East let South hang around last year, a lot of that was due to the athletes from the basketball team playing. They aren’t around this year, so East will use that as motivation and cruise by whatever they want here.
Elkin at SC
Elkin makes the short trip up Interstate 74 to play SC after a much needed bye week. Elkin lost a very boring and winnable game to a struggling West Wilkes team 2 weeks back. A game so boring I fell asleep after 3 minutes of the NFHS feed. Elkin came out and fumbled off the bat trying to run out of the shotgun and it never got any better for the Elks as West’s size wore them out. West meanwhile was inept on offense and made it closer than it should have been. Elkin couldn’t have been any more lucky to lost it the way they did. SC won’t be that easy this week. SC had their dreams squashed early last week and want to rebound. I think they will do more than that this time. I expect a performance similar to the opener vs Alleghany here, Elkin can’t handle the pass well at all and I expect Jewell to chunk it early and often tonight. Real thing to watch here is SC’s defense and how they react. Tonight could be a waking up night for them as Elkin is struggling to find any consistency on that side of the ball with their option offense not working. Their new HC is slowly becoming like how Mr Mackey was with the security system constantly not working. Until he can stop the downpour of bad things, it’ll be a rough go in Elkin land. 6 straight losses now for them.
SC will get a big morale win before conference starts.
North Stokes at Patrick Co, VA
The Danbury Vikes sure are overperforming my expectations and I love it. Adding Coach Diamont to the staff and getting some new assistants is helping to put some grit into their steps and it showed last week as they managed to hold on enough to knock South Davidson off. That loss for SD is gonna be fatal for them as that was more than likely their last best chance at a W for the year, so sad there. But North Stokes is used to that, and they are in a completely other direction for the first time in a while. If they can stay healthy there’s no reason why they can’t not finish out of the cellar for the first time in a while.
Up next is their longtime rivals in Patrick County who are underperforming. Their depth’s not great, them and N Stokes are almost close in roster size, and they got thudded by Bassett last week after beating a bad Martinsville team. It’s honestly hard to read them, but my gut says North Stokes here. They have more to play for honestly, a win for them would get them 3 and almost help them get a playoff spot. If Elkin keeps struggling there may be a barnburner between those 2 in a couple of weeks. Plus the South Stokes game I rate as winnable for N Stokes as well if they do what they need to do.
East Wilkes at Wilkes Central
Talk about a Tale of Two Cities! Our old buddy Dickens would be proud of that reference, but nothing is more fitting for these two programs as the Ronda Cards head to Moravian Falls for a huge county bragging rights matchup. The Eagles have had the Card’s feather as of recently in this game, last year’s game was a solid W for them before things got dramaful and fell apart. Meanwhile ever since East’s been motivating and building theirselves up for this one for revenge, and tonight’s the night for it. WC’s # issues is reality, they had 29 kids on the sideline last Friday and only 25 could play. East actually is close to having as many if not a little more perhaps.
WC is proving they can score points as they are averaging 20 a game, but they are in return are giving up over 50, not good. East meanwhile is having a coach’s dream year in terms of being an option team. They are playing teams as bigger and more athletic as them fits all over the place, while being productive as heck. Honestly on paper this one shouldn’t be close, it’s gonna be a solid mental test for the Cards in terms of seeing if they can handle the pressure of being favored and to get the chip of the shoulder. I think they will.
West Wilkes at West Iredell
This game is actually a lot harder to pick than most figure as both of these teams are struggling a bit. West Wilkes offensively isn’t doing what they need to do as they are beat up on the RB side and trying to spread it out. However their size is giving teams fits as they limited Ashe to almost 0 rushing yards last week so that’s a good sign for them on defense. However Ashe’s O line is young and not that big so hard to tell what they will do vs teams of size. Tonight will be a good test as they head down south to play a very athletic West Iredell team in the middle of a coaching change. They are 1-1 off a way too close win over West Caldwell, so it’s like a blind vs the blind matchup in a lot of ways. But I feel more optimistic in West Iredell. They won last year’s game by a good margin, and won on JV as well by a good margin, one of their 7 wins last year.
West Wilkes will keep it close due to their size but I see WI’s athletes just taking off and doing what they need to do.
North Wilkes at Starmount
Much like with East Surry not much of a write up here. Starmount’s jamming hard right now, they limited Forbush to only 105 yards last week and moved at will all over them all over the field. It wasn’t a bit close and a nice revenge for Forbush beating those kids back in the day so many close times. North Wilkes meanwhile is struggling very hard on offense, after that upset over Elkin in OT they haven’t scored a single point in 2 weeks. It has potential to get very messy very fast. It’ll be another good test for the Rams’s mental focus. NW scored 2 times on them last year off their bad mistakes, so they want to get out of there scoreless this tear.
Rams by whatever they want.
North Forsyth at Oak Grove
NF’s struggles on offense are continuing as they only put 21 on Atkins last week in a result that shoulda had them scoring at least 10-14 more. Defensively they are still very good. Oak Grove meanwhile is jamming and looking at this game as a tuneup before Hibriten, so NF will be expected to lay an egg but it’ll be a good chance for them to surprise perhaps by playing harder than expected. Do think they will turn it around come conference time and at least will be stubborn as heck to beat.
Walkertown at North Davidson
It’s looking more and more apparent that the Wolfpack are for real, but this week’s game is huge as ND is a big game for Honeycutt and it’s a big game for the program. If they win it’ll be one of their biggest wins, I do think there is a very good chance of it. ND’s a mess right now. However they could pull one out too. Expecting an either or game here but I’ll pick Walkertown.
Bishop McGuiness at Wheatmore
Bishop’s jamming right now and proving they are a very stubborn squad. They beat Providence Grove last week which was a huge win for them, and now they got Wheatmore who’s rebuilding and could be another solid win for them. Looking like Bishop and Carver may have a doozy in a few weeks when they play.
Alleghany, Carver, Forbush, WS Prep are off this week.
