It’s getting a little tougher tonight:HS football Friday Nov. 9

The high school football playoffs get started this evening and we have 11 Guilford County teams still in action.

Here is the schedule and who we think might move on to week number two:
Huntersville Hopewell at Grimsley-both teams are (10-1) but the Whirlies have faced much tougher competition, even though the Metro is not the strongest league around. Hopewell’s only loss was to 4-AA #1 seed West Charlotte and again the conference HH was in, the MECA, didn’t show us much. If Grimsley doesn’t win by 2 TD’s I will be shocked. Next week the Whirlies would face West Charlotte on the road.

Eastern Wayne at Northeast Guilford-EW brings a (5-6) record to NEG and the Rams should use this as a tune-up for round two and win by 24 or more and extend their season mark to (10-2) with the Dudley Panthers on the next horizon.

WS Parkland at Ragsdale-The Tigers are playoff tested after many years of Tommy Norwood-led altercations in Jamestown and tonight the Mustangs will go back to Winston-Salem having failed in their mane mission, defeating Ragsdale. Matt Heavner is one of the area’s best at QB and he will lead the Tigers on with a 35-21 victory.

Currituck at Dudley-DHS has been holding back on some special plans and the attack begins tonight at Tarpley Stadium. The offense has been trying to catch up with the the Panther defense and chances are Currituck won’t have enough of either one when Dudley comes out in the “I” and the wishbone and the defesne says, “not in my house”. Panthers by three TD’s and they will advance because of Defense.

Charlotte Independence at Page-No Knotts but I have a feeling the Patriots want to win one for Tommy, so they can have that rematch with Butler next Friday. Independence has a ton of talent but Page has QB Will Newman and his running alone should keep Page in it early. When it’s all said and done, I see Independence winning by 17 and Page holding tightly on to their conference championship trophy wondering, “how did we luck up and draw Independence in round one?” Page has had a great year and you still have to ponder, South Caldwell in 2006 and Independence in round one for 2007? You win the conference at (5-0) and you get hit with this deal.

Eastern Guilford at Southern Guilford-It’s William Graves, Antonio Martin, Kencie Brewer, Scotty Wayne, Darren Garcia, Tykeam Dawkins and company facing Gerrod Herbin, Jason Davis, and Will Gann. From those previous names and numbers it looks like the Storm is turning out the marque names faster than Strom Thurmond and with numbers galore, Southern wins one more, time. Last week we said it would be 28-14 and it was, and this week we are saying one step closer at 28-17 Storm.

Erwin Triton at Southeast Guilford-SEG won this same contest in round one last year but this year there is no Dion Bratcher. No need to panic because the Falcons have replaced Dion with Tivon, that’s Tivon Clark the RB that scored 3TD’s last week at Randleman. The Falcons love it at home and with Justin Venable and Luke Stewart coming toward the end of their senior year and careers, SEG has to win again and they will, 21-7. Next week they need to go down and knock off Oxford Webb, the distant cousin of Gardner Webb.

Western Guilford at Harnett Central-I haven’t seen WG or HC play but from what Jeff Carlton was telling us in today’s News and Record, HC has won six in a row. Tight call with HC(7-4) and WG(6-5), but JD Dillinger and JD Springer always said go with the home team in situations like this one and we will. Harnett Central wins it by a couple of touchdowns.

West Iredell at High Point Andrews-HPA is on a roll as of late with the wins over WS Parkland and Southwest Guilford and the close loss to WS Carver. WI is (8-3) and HPA stands at (4-6) and I’ll take the Raiders to set up next week’s second chance at #1 seed Carver. HPA wins 21-14.

High Point Central at Mount Tabor-HPC is a miss-story to many fans that still can’t believe the Black Bison got in the playoffs. Ricky Mitchell, the HPC QB, has one more shot at glory and remember that HPC beat Northwest Guilford 22-21 in OT and NWG beat Mt. Tabor on the Spartans’ field so this should allow HPC to flee with a victory. But no, Tabor takes it with their “D” (defense) in full-gear and HPC falls 28-7.