My goodness no love for North Lincoln up in this room LOL. No direct all in fans either. Lincolnton and Maiden have alot of those poster fans which is good they keep us going in the CVAC room love these guys and some chime in here too. No NL posters, me I just kinda adopt them into my circle of team interest and of course I like underdog stories and NL seems to be a big one considering all the seasons they’ve struggled over the course of 20 years but yet some of those years were pretty good and coach Beam in the past and currently coach Bazzel have done a killer job with these guys.
My take on this game: Y’all know I’m a realist and I don’t pick a team to win no matter how loyal I am to that team all depending on who they play and such. I do that with East Burke. Whew I hope they get something turned around down there but anyway I’m favoring Hickory to win like anyone else just common sense however I’m not favoring a blowout like many are predicting, could I end up wrong and it be a blowout, oh absolutely but not seeing it and here’s why:
1. defense seems to have gotten better at the start of the playoffs, some might think we’ll the 1st 2 teams were easy, yes they were BUT, they showed they can hang when they limited Ashbrook, a team that beat amother team(South Point) twice that beat Crest during reg season. The thing that’s suspect of North Lincoln is their limited offense 2nd half of game against ABrk.
2. There is a moral and a boost and a fire in these boys for making history Friday and no doubt this was a team goal, to even make it to the 4th round. An honor and a victory by itself and if that’s as far as they go they got nothing to hang their heads about should they/most likely lose to such as high caliber team like Hickory.
3. Hickory obviously shows they can be scored on and get the chains moved on. Nothing wrong with that but they’re stilll good enough to get the win and came through against Crest.
4. North played Hickory better and closer the 2nd meeting last year and Wingate was even limited on touches then. 2nd time this time by the way they going it will and could be a better game. Gotta think too, North committed 4 to 5 fumbles last meeting. They limit that, be closer. It was one fumble against Ashbrook and you know how it went, those that were there.
My crazy guess Hickory 35 North Lincoln 21 or sightly more
