PrepsNow Playbook: Conference races could heat up or cool off this week

Conference races are ramping up across the Triangle high school football scene.

Every conference is finally into league play – six-team conferences like the Northern Carolina 2A and Two Rivers 3A will be the last to take the plunge Friday.

The top three teams in each conference get automatic playoff bids, which is where we begin our look at each league.

Big 8 3A: Southern Durham is the only unbeaten left in league play and controls its own destiny. For now, it looks like Orange is heading for No. 2 with Cedar Ridge, Chapel Hill and Northwood battling for No. 3.

Cap-8 4A: With a win against Millbrook already in hand, Wake Forest could be on cruise control if it wins this week at Wakefield. Leesville Road has the best chance of breaking up those schools’ top-three standing.

Greater Neuse 4A: Seemingly everyone but Harnett Central (1-6) could rise up and take a top-three bid. Rolesville beat West Johnston, which beat Southeast Raleigh, which beat Garner. Yet all of that has no bearing now that Garner, like Rolesville and others, controls its own destiny.

Northern Carolina 2A: Bunn and Roanoke Rapids, each 4-2, have looked the best of the bunch thus far. Franklinton (3-3) is the best of the rest.

Others: Southern Lee (4-2) is in good shape in the Cape Fear Valley 3A but has only played one league game. North Johnston (4-2) is off to a great start, but powerhouses are lurking in the Eastern Plains 2A. Granville Central (3-3) could capture its first league title after all – half of the Tar Roanoke 1A is winless.

PAC-6 4A: Like the Cap-8, this league’s intrigue could be all but done after Friday. Hillside is the perennial favorite but only edged Northern Durham 7-3 on Monday. Cardinal Gibbons’ visit on Friday should decide No. 1, though a Gibbons loss means the Crusaders must still hold off Northern or Person for third.

Private schools: The Big East Independent and 8-man football follow different models for determining playoff appearances, but there are important league races here too. St. David’s has an 8-man title in its sights, while Ravenscroft and North Raleigh Christian jump into Big East play Friday.

Southwest Wake 4A: As it has for most of the last decade, the conference race runs through Middle Creek and Fuquay-Varina, both are undefeated and set to play head-to-head in two weeks. Holly Springs, Panther Creek, Green Hope and Apex could make for an interesting battle for third.

Two Rivers 3A: Last year was a three-way tie for first between South Johnston, Corinth Holders and Cleveland. It’s hard to separate those three entering league play as each is showing better defenses than last year.

Icing the kicker with fire

As the final minutes of West Johnston’s 29-26 win against East Wake unfolded Thursday night, it gradually became clear that the Wildcats would have a crack at a potential game-winning field goal. But West Johnston place kicker Christian Torres was far from being in a Zen-like, “clear the mechanism” state of mind on the home sideline.

Far different from the silence a pitcher working on a no-hitter would be given, Torres was being berated by a teammate on the sidelines who was yelling at Torres as he was taking his practice kicks.

“I was getting ready and I had one of my players talking trash to me on the sidelines,” Torres said. “That’s really what he was doing was talking trash to me!”

The verbal lashings seemed to have had their intended result, however, as Torres stepped onto the wet field with the game tied and 0.8 seconds on the clock, kicked the game-winning 25-yard field goal to give West its second consecutive dramatic win.

Points galore

If you like points, you got plenty of them in Panther Creek’s 69-32 win against Athens Drive. Panther Creek quarterback Dom Samson threw six touchdown passes on just 12 completions. The game featured a kickoff return touchdown and two blocked punts returned for touchdowns.

There were two touchdowns scored in the first 1 minute, 52 seconds of the game and four touchdowns – all of 54 yards or more – scored in the first 5:09. There were three touchdowns of 90-plus yards in the first quarter alone.

The Starting 11: players of the week

Number of appearances in parentheses.

Jordon Brown, Southern Durham (1): Ran 15 times for 148 yards and two touchdowns.

Chris Francis, Jordan (1): Ran 24 times for 161 yards and two TDs, added three catches for 69 yards.

Jalen Green, Southern Durham (2): Completed 7 of 11 passes for 137 yards and three TDs and ran five times for 46 yards and another score.

Blake Joyner, Clayton (1): Caught eight passes for 146 yards and three TDs.

Dexter Lawrence, Wake Forest (1): Anchored a Cougars defense that bottled up Millbrook’s playmakers.

Ricki McDowell, Chapel Hill (1): Ran 19 times for 88 yards and one score, caught three passes for 75 yards and another TD.

Matt McKay, Wakefield (1): Accounted for four touchdowns – two passing (on 6 of 13 for 56 yards) and two rushing (13 attempts for 98 yards).

Dom Samson, Panther Creek (2): Tossed six touchdown passes on 12 of 24 passing for 273 yards.

Justin Smalls, Panther Creek (2): Scored five touchdowns – three receiving, one blocked punt return and one kickoff return – while having six catches for 133 yards.

Johnathan Spencer, Middle Creek (2): Had a 100-yard interception return and a 95-yard TD catch.

Diamante Taylor, Panther Creek (2): Racked up 175 yards receiving and two touchdowns.

3-point stance: best defenses

Cardinal Gibbons: The Crusaders’ pass defense could not be improved upon. Gibbons picked off Riverside’s only two passes from scrimmage and also intercepted the Pirates’ two-point conversion to win 29-12.

Garner: Held Harnett Central to just 89 yards of offense in a 51-0 victory.

Wake Forest: Limiting Millbrook to just seven points in Monday’s 28-7 win is noteworthy.

Quick hits

▪ ▪ Word of God will visit Athens Drive on Friday, and the two sides couldn’t be more different. Athens Drive is a 4A public school that opened in 1979 and has almost 2,000 students. Word of God is a private school with less than 100 high school students that’s in just its second year of 11-man football after quickly becoming an 8-man power. It’s not often to see a school play another that’s 20 times larger.

▪ The N&O’s greater Triangle area has six winless teams and five undefeated teams. While none of the winless teams have games scheduled against other winless teams, we do have one potential undefeated showdown looming with Middle Creek at Fuquay-Varina on Oct. 23.

Postcard

Green Hope HOF night: It’s a big night at Green Hope this Friday. The school will officially induct the first four members of its sports hall of fame at halftime of its home football game against rival Panther Creek. The inductees include the school’s first Olympian (Hector Cotto, class of 2002), first female state champion (Chris Brady Wolfe, 2002), a PGA Tour golfer (Brendon Todd, 2003) and its longest-serving volunteer (Don D’Ambrosi). The game will also count towards the two’s season-long rivalry competition, the Fight for 55, named after the two-mile stretch of N.C. Highway 55 that separates the two schools.

This story was originally published October 6, 2015 at 4:23 PM with the headline "PrepsNow Playbook: Conference races could heat up or cool off this week."