Here goes my picks:
West Lincoln at Bunker Hill-This should be a really good game. Look for the Bears to bow up at the Rebels and play them hard but West is more battle tested, so I'll pick West in a close one.
Newton-Conover at East Burke-Hmmm. NC by a narrow margin. They think we stole one from them last week and they're probably mad.
Maiden at West Caldwell-The Blue Devils are 6th in the Simmons ratings, 6th in the Charlotte Observers Sweet 16 and 1 in the Max Preps West poll and Max would have them number 1 overall if the East and West 2A Polls were combined. It would take Shelby just to play with these guys. I'm sorry Warriors.
Lincolnton over Bandys in a close one...Disclaimer: as matter of the heart I cannot pick against the Wolves, not now and not ever. It will be awfully hard to beat the Trojans, even at home.
*A bit of trivia: Like Bandys, The University of Southern California's athletic teams, as everybody knows, are also the Trojans. USC fans have a two-finger symbol same as the so-called peace sign and what British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called the victory symbol, after World War II ✌️ (Bandys, of course, doesn't use this sign for athletics, or at least I haven't seen it used by them).
I had heard that the story behind USC's use of this symbol was borrowed from Ancient Troy. When the original Trojans would conquer an enemy they would cut off the index and middle fingers of the defeated. Their reasoning was it disabled or hindered them from using a sword against them at a later time. When the conquered people would pass by, the Trojans would hold up their two fingers to show them they still had theirs, as a taunt. The next time you see bright-eyed, enthusiastic USC fans displaying their fingers it may not be to spur on victory or wish someone peace.
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