By Mike London
Salisbury Post
MOUNT ULLA — It’s homecoming at West Rowan where the Falcons will try to build on the momentum gained from last week’s big win at Carson.
The HC opponent for the Falcons, who are 90-6 in games against county opponents since 2000, is South Rowan. West’s current winning streak against county opponents is 19 in a row.
South’s most recent victory against the Falcons was a two-overtime game in 2000, so those players have reached their 40s without seeing the Raiders win another one in the series.
Rick Vanhoy was coaching the Raiders in 2000. Running back Keith Garrett, who scored the winning touchdown in the second overtime — after both teams settled for field goals in the first OT session — became Vanhoy’s son-in-law, so that touchdown probably still gets discussed over Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.
The game staged 25 years ago was a classic South-West game played very early in the season, one of the handful of times in history that both programs had great teams. Both had plenty of offense and plenty of defense. Coach Scott Young’s Falcons won the South Piedmont Conference for the first time that season and finished 12-2. South was still playing a 4A schedule then and went 8-3. Garrett scored three TDs in the game, with his two scores in regulation coming on receptions. West made all kinds of explosive plays to stay in it — a 34-yard TD catch by Ben Hampton, a 58-yard punt return by youngster Joe Jackson, a 47-yard pick-six by Shrine Bowl linebacker James Francis.
West beat South 40-6 in 2024. South beat up on West for a long time, so the all-time series is still a surprisingly close 29-21-1, with the Falcons holding the edge.
West (2-3, 1-1) is favored by 35 points by the Massey Ratings in the South Piedmont Conference game. South (3-2, 0-2) got off to a great start in non-conference, but has come back down to earth in SPC losses to Northwest Cabarrus and Concord.
The game features the county’s rushing leaders — South’s Nic Woolf, who had a pair of 200-yard games early in the season, and West’s Devaunh White, who surpassed 200 rushing yards in the Carson game. Both teams have some uncertainty at quarterback. Brant Graham played a very limited role at Carson. South played the Concord game without QB1 Lincoln Carlberg. The No. 2 QB is receiver Landon Deal.
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East Rowan will dedicate its football stadium to five-time Rowan County Coach of the Year and Salisbury-Rowan Hall of Famer W.A. Cline on Friday.
The Mustangs haven’t played at home in over a month, so the dedication has been delayed for a while. They’ll honor Cline, who coached the 13-0 team of 1969, among others, at halftime, with the Salisbury Hornets providing the opposition.
Salisbury (1-4, 0-2) is favored by 36 points over the Mustangs (2-3, 0-2). The Hornets have been shut out three times, but they had a pretty good loss at Robinson last week, falling to the SPC’s top dog, 14-0. The Hornets have steamrolled East in recent seasons, but East’s defense has been playing pretty solid. Whether or not the Mustangs can get any offense going is the million-dollar question, but they should be able to make this a competitive game no matter what the Massey Ratings say.
Salisbury won 57-0 in 2024 and leads the all-time series 32-15. East hasn’t beaten the Hornets since 2016.
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Coming off a draining home loss to West Rowan, the Cougars (3-2, 1-1) have a tough bounce-back assignment on the road at Northwest Cabarrus, as the Trojans (4-1, 2-0) are clearly one of the SPC’s top teams once again.
Carson lost to the Trojans 42-7 in 2024 and hasn’t beaten NWC since 2015. Carson is 3-11 in the all-time series.
Northwest is favored by 27 points by the Massey Ratings to beat Carson again, but the Cougars are solid on both sides of the ball and should be in the game if they can avoid turnovers. Sophomore Damo’b Broussard provided Carson’s offense against West Rowan last week with two long TD runs.
Northwest is coached by Eric Morman, a former Catawba College receiver. He took over during the challenging COVID days, but has done a fine job with the program. His main man right now is running back Titus Troy. Troy was a handful for South Rowan and East Rowan to deal with the last two weeks.
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North Rowan has a serious Yadkin Valley Conference road game, the biggest YVC test so far for the Cavaliers (2-3, 2-0).
The Cavaliers, who have scored three TDs on special teams, will take on South Stanly in Norwood. The Bulls (4-1, 2-0) are confident they are contenders.
North has no shortage of firepower, with the county’s leading QB (Mike Alford) and the county’s two leading receivers (A’son Best and Dyaon Norman-Jackson). The running game, a critical element for the Cavaliers, has been improving each week. Jo Jo Tarver is the workhorse.
North is favored by 19 points by the Massey Ratings. North is 7-1 all-time against South Stanly, with the Bulls getting a victory in 2011.
The programs haven’t squared off since 2020 when North won 44-18.
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The game of the night could be in Charlotte, where the Wonders will venture to play the Olympic Trojans for the first time.
If you were around in the early 1970s, everyone knew about Olympic High because of the legendary Randy Rhino. Rhino went on to be one of the all-time great players at Georgia Tech — a three-time All-America — and he also starred in the Canadian Football League.
Believe it or not, one of the Olympic High assistant coaches during Rhino’s time was Bruce Hardin, who later coached A.L. Brown to two state championships. Hardin’s son, Justin, now coaches the Wonders.
Rhino is 71 now, so he won’t be suiting up tonight. That’s good news for the Wonders.
The schools have never met on a football field. The Wonders are 2-point favorites, according to the Massey Ratings. Both teams are (3-2, 2-0), so the winner has a good chance to win the Greater Metro Conference. Olympic won a tough one against Central Cabarrus last week, while the Wonders destroyed Berry Academy on Monday and have had a short preparation week.
