On a rainy Friday night in the Piedmont Triad, Reidsville and Morehead achieved pivotal wins, McMichael took a non-conference loss to Southwest Randolph, and Rockingham County’s face-off with Walkertown was canceled due to the weather.
The McMichael Fighting Phoenix traveled about an hour south to meet a 3-2 Southwestern Randolph team, and things started off well for the royal blue and gold. However, as the second half moved forward, the Cougars pulled away, ultimately winning 50-26. A completely useless fact is that McMichael has now given up 50 points to teams named the Cougars twice in eight days. Now, the Phoenix sit at 2-3 with five conference games left on their schedule, and their loss to a non-conference team hurts the rest of the Mid-State Conference when it comes to the RPI since the Mid-State has no more non-conference games on anyone’s schedule. They are all playing a zero sum game with one another now when it comes to wins and the opposing win percentage factor to the RPI. Though some may have thought that conference play would matter less due to the playoff rules this year, this has been proven wrong in the Mid-State Conference, as the playoffs picture solely depends on how these conference teams match up over the final five weeks. Next up for McMichael is a rematch of last year’s nightmare game with the Morehead Panthers, when McMichael was shocked by their cross-county rivals that were 700 days removed from a win, 27-0. Revenge is sweet, and they have their shot on Friday.
In Eden, Morehead put away Bartlett Yancey for their first win of the year. An odd game to say the least saw Morehead not line up a return man and instead go for blocked punts, which they achieved twice, multiple fifty-plus yard touchdowns, and a scoreless second half. The Panthers finished the job with an Elijah Townsend interception in the end zone before running out the clock to get their first win in 350 days. BY, competing in their first conference game after taking a bye last week, is now 0-1 on the conference, and Morehead improves to 1-1 in Mid-State action. Up next, Morehead heads just down the road to Mayodan for a showdown with the Phoenix.
The Reidsville Rams picked up another big conference win in a row. Last week it was Walkertown; this week it was Carver. Both times they scored 44 points, giving up 28 last week but only 8 this week. The ‘Ville still ran Braxton Johnson at quarterback, which was a question mark after the transfer of Southern Durham quarterback Tyson Broadway, but Broadway got some snaps once Reidsville had gone up big. The Rams improve to 2-0 in conference play, sitting high atop the Mid-State Conference as they head into their matchup with Rockingham County next week. They’ll go ten miles north to face a team that will either be 2-3, 3-3, or 2-4, depending on if or when the Rockingham County — Walkertown game is played.
The rain hit Forsyth County terribly. Rockingham County’s game with Walkertown was canceled before they were able to take the field. This was going to be a telling matchup on where these teams were really at, so it is disappointing to see the game not be played. There is no word on when it would be replayed, but RCHS’s only opening on the schedule is Halloween, when Walkertown will be playing Morehead. The playoffs start immediately after. My assumption is that they will play on Monday, but even if that is the plan, there is rain on the forecast then as well. Either way, Rockingham County will have a home game against Reidsville next Friday.
Next week for the non-Rockingham County Mid-State teams, Walkertown and Bartlett Yancey go at it while Carver takes a breather.
The following are the Mid-State Conference standings. There are not head-to-head tiebreakers involved because football is a sport that crowns champions based on regular season standings rather than a postseason tournament or title game, and the NCHSAA crowns co-champions in those sports instead of utilizing tiebreakers. That is why Morehead and Carver are tied for third instead of Carver being ahead of the team that they defeated last week. And, as is mentioned every week, the conference standings do not dictate the playoffs standings, which I updated in the Rockingham County Preview later in the week, but conference titles still go on banners.
1. Reidsville (2-0 conference, 4-2 overall)
2. Rockingham County (1-0 conference, 2-3 overall)
T3. Carver (1-1 conference, 5-1 overall)
T3. Morehead (1-1 conference, 1-5 overall)
T5. Bartlett Yancey (0-1 conference, 1-4 overall)
T5. McMichael (0-1 conference, 2-3 overall)
T5. Walkertown (0-1 conference, 4-1 overall)
I will be providing updates on the Rockingham County — Walkertown game and when it will be played, and later on this week, I will be posting the Rockingham County Preview, where we check out the playoffs standings of each team in Rockingham County and preview their Friday matchups. Stay tuned for next week’s edition of the Rockingham County Review, which features coverage of two rivalry games in McMichael vs. Morehead and Rockingham County vs. Reidsville.