Starmount at Mount Airy
It's looking like we are gonna get an annual playoff matchup tonight between these two. These two have a really curious history with each other in the 1A playoffs with random wins and upsets the opposite of the regular season score. Happened at least twice; but it won't be happening tonight. MA is just too athletic for Starmount to handle and their skill players aren't to the level to keep up with them yet. Plus the annoying PA and loud sound is hard to contend with unless you have the talent to hang with MA and Starmount doesn't fully yet. However if Starmount has a great game plan and gets a few breaks it might be relatively closer than many expect. Regardless of what happens I see Star doing better than the past 2 teams by a mile. Starmount's grown a ton since the first game vs the Bears as they have found new confidence they haven't had in a while and their run game has really opened up. Most importantly they have learned how to fully fight for wins and the Rams haven't done that in years. That Andrews game was won by sheer will last week; Andrews may have messed up the pitch for the fumble but Starmount's will kept them in the game when any other team woulda folded. Grinton may have something ahead with these kids; they gotta buy in fully but a decent performance tonight will help boost their offseason.
Things will get more tougher next week for MA; however they cannot afford to be overlooking the Rams tonight either.
Monroe at East Surry
East has had some good fortunes with their draws the past two weeks. Newton Conover gave them a solid game but they were that low for a reason due to the ineptness of their offense; however their D did the trick and kept the game close. Then last week East struggled vs the Bush's breakaway runs for most of the game and had to rely on their offense to keep them from going down. Thankfully some smart ball controlling kept Forbush down just enough so East could cruise by the end. However neither team's defense looked any good last week in consistent spurts. This week they face an extremely fast Monroe team who is very well coached from the top down who have just slaughtered everyone so far the past 2 and a half months. After losing the opening game to a good Marvin Ridge team they have exploded and gotten more dominant by the week. Their coaches seem to find ways to make solid adjustments in the 2nd half so East better be ready in all phases. The first two games have been ones of one side or the other covering up for the other one slacking. All three have to be good or else it will bring an end to the run of playoff dominance.
At the end of the day Monroe is just too fast and well coached for the Cards to handle; they haven't seen a team like this Monroe squad in a good while since they played Reidsville. If they had struggled vs Robinson last week I would have rated this one a tossup but they demolished that team which was surprising due to their speed and size being close to the same. Monroe is just jamming on all cylinders right now. The Cards will see what Monroe has really fast and early and they will either rise to the occasion or get lost.
It's looking like we are gonna get an annual playoff matchup tonight between these two. These two have a really curious history with each other in the 1A playoffs with random wins and upsets the opposite of the regular season score. Happened at least twice; but it won't be happening tonight. MA is just too athletic for Starmount to handle and their skill players aren't to the level to keep up with them yet. Plus the annoying PA and loud sound is hard to contend with unless you have the talent to hang with MA and Starmount doesn't fully yet. However if Starmount has a great game plan and gets a few breaks it might be relatively closer than many expect. Regardless of what happens I see Star doing better than the past 2 teams by a mile. Starmount's grown a ton since the first game vs the Bears as they have found new confidence they haven't had in a while and their run game has really opened up. Most importantly they have learned how to fully fight for wins and the Rams haven't done that in years. That Andrews game was won by sheer will last week; Andrews may have messed up the pitch for the fumble but Starmount's will kept them in the game when any other team woulda folded. Grinton may have something ahead with these kids; they gotta buy in fully but a decent performance tonight will help boost their offseason.
Things will get more tougher next week for MA; however they cannot afford to be overlooking the Rams tonight either.
Monroe at East Surry
East has had some good fortunes with their draws the past two weeks. Newton Conover gave them a solid game but they were that low for a reason due to the ineptness of their offense; however their D did the trick and kept the game close. Then last week East struggled vs the Bush's breakaway runs for most of the game and had to rely on their offense to keep them from going down. Thankfully some smart ball controlling kept Forbush down just enough so East could cruise by the end. However neither team's defense looked any good last week in consistent spurts. This week they face an extremely fast Monroe team who is very well coached from the top down who have just slaughtered everyone so far the past 2 and a half months. After losing the opening game to a good Marvin Ridge team they have exploded and gotten more dominant by the week. Their coaches seem to find ways to make solid adjustments in the 2nd half so East better be ready in all phases. The first two games have been ones of one side or the other covering up for the other one slacking. All three have to be good or else it will bring an end to the run of playoff dominance.
At the end of the day Monroe is just too fast and well coached for the Cards to handle; they haven't seen a team like this Monroe squad in a good while since they played Reidsville. If they had struggled vs Robinson last week I would have rated this one a tossup but they demolished that team which was surprising due to their speed and size being close to the same. Monroe is just jamming on all cylinders right now. The Cards will see what Monroe has really fast and early and they will either rise to the occasion or get lost.
