Wake Forest moves up after beating an unbeaten team, while the top teams remain steady
Another team fell from the ranks of the unbeaten Friday night when Heritage couldn’t come back against Wake Forest. Meanwhile, the rest of the Top 7 won without facing one another, so there’s little movement there.
In that Wake Forest win, running back Michael Dipasquale took command of the game for the Cougars, showing off his skills at both the short-game and long game. The result moved Wake Forest (6-2, 3-0) into sole possession of first place in the Northern Athletic 4A Conference.
Three teams previously unranked in the Top 16 slid into the rankings, led by Fuquay-Varina’s vault to 12th position.
Also of note, there remains two unbeaten teams in our Sweet 16: Cleveland at the top, and Princeton at No. 7.
Here are this week’s rankings:
Triangle area Sweet 16
| Rank | School | Record | Prev. |
| 1 | Cleveland | (7-0) | 1 |
| 2 | Cardinal Gibbons | (6-2) | 2 |
| 3 | Wake Forest | (6-2) | 7 |
| 4 | Leesville Road | (6-1) | 4 |
| 5 | Heritage | (7-1) | 3 |
| 6 | Millbrook | (7-1) | 5 |
| 7 | Princeton | (7-0) | 6 |
| 8 | Middle Creek | (6-2) | 8 |
| 9 | Rolesville | (5-3) | 9 |
| 10 | Panther Creek | (6-2) | 10 |
| 11 | Hillside | (6-2) | 11 |
| 12 | Fuquay-Varina | (6-3) | NR |
| 13 | Sanderson | (4-2) | NR |
| 14 | Wakefield | (4-4) | 13 |
| 15 | South Johnston | (6-2) | 16 |
| 16 | Smithfield-Selma | (5-3) | NR |
This story was originally published October 17, 2021 at 6:00 AM.