The football season comes and goes very quickly. Though the season feels as if it has just begun, we are now ten weeks in and approaching the final week. And in this tenth week of the season, the Rockingham County Cougars defeated the Morehead Panthers, 44-12, the Bartlett Yancey Buccaneers scored a 48-16 win over the McMichael Fighting Phoenix, and the Reidsville Rams took the week off.
This was a night that McMichael would like to forget. Sitting amongst the lower ranks of teams in the 3A playoff picture, that needed to approach this game against Bartlett Yancey as a must-win. However, in a game against a similar team that was winless in conference play, the Phoenix gave up 48 points and only put up 16 in return, struggling offensively and defensively. They now fall to an 0-5 conference record and 2-7 overall.
McMichael will face Reidsville in week eleven. Reidsville has won over fifty games in a row against county opponents and over seventy straight against conference opponents. This will be a tall task for the Phoenix, who are in now in serious danger of missing the playoffs. Coming into this game, the RPI did not look pretty for McMichael, but a win tonight would have provided a significant boost to their overall RPI despite the knock coming from playing an opponent with a low win percentage. After this loss, McMichael will be in a very precarious position come November and there is a high chance that they are on the outside looking in when the brackets are released.
The Morehead Panthers fell to the Rockingham County Cougars for the third year in a row, 44-12. This is the worst point differential in a Rockingham County — Morehead game since 2011, when RCHS beat Morehead 33-0. Morehead was 0-11 that year. In the present year, this was a game in which Morehead was coming off of two one-point wins, a 55-0 shutout loss to Reidsville, and a bye week, so an odd month for the team may have contributed to the large defeat.
Morehead will be finishing their season with a home game against Walkertown, a formidable foe. Morehead was already planted ten spots ahead of the last team in for the 4A playoff standings coming into tonight’s games, so there was not a lot at risk for them in this one. With their final game coming against Walkertown, a team with an impressive record, they should expect to be in the postseason even though they sit at 2-7 on the year and 2-3 in conference play going into their last regular season game.
The Reidsville Rams are sitting high atop the conference yet again, as they continue their absurd conference win streak that dates back fourteen years. And this bye week should be a helpful reset after nine games of one of the hardest schedules in football.
In their final week, they will face the McMichael Fighting Phoenix. Mostly, the game will serve to bring Reidsville’s opponents’ win percentage portion of the RPI down, but they built up such a a strong non-conference schedule it likely will not affect their ranking. They are in a very good position to get an East one seed, but we will have to see how it plays out across the board next Friday night to see where Reidsville will land.
The Rockingham County Cougars should feel very confident after a dominant win against Morehead. After starting the season 2-4, they have defeated Bartlett Yancey, Carver, and Morehead by a combined ninety points in three weeks. The Cougars have sealed a winning record as they wrap things up at 5-4 overall and 4-1 in the conference, good for at least a tied-for-second finish in the Mid-State 3A/4A/5A.
RCHS was jockeying for position in the 5A heading into this one. While a launch into a first round bye would be difficult, it is not impossible, but the more realistic goal was bringing a playoff game to Wentworth for the first time in nearly a decade. It looks like this win will do that, but so much in the RPI formula depends on how others perform, so the last week will be one where they watch, wait, and see as they take a bye week and see where they land.
In other Mid-State Conference news, Walkertown shut out Carver, 30-0, as Walkertown continues to pick up momentum and Carver continues to fall further and further down the rankings. Next week in non-Rockingham County Mid-State action, Carver will try to change their late-season fortunes when they face Bartlett Yancey.
Here is a look at the Mid-State Conference standings. There is no conference championship and it is solely determined by win percentage. Reidsville has already clinched a share of the title and will hold it without a co-champion if they defeat McMichael next week.
1. Reidsville (5-0 conference, 7-2 overall)
2. Rockingham County (4-1 conference, 5-4 overall)
3. Walkertown (3-1 conference, 7-1 overall)
T4. Carver (2-3 conference, 6-3 overall)
T4. Morehead (2-3 conference, 2-7 overall)
6. Bartlett Yancey (1-4 conference, 2-7 overall)
7. McMichael (0-5 conference, 2-7 overall)
In the next and final regular season week, Morehead will battle Walkertown on Senior Night in Eden, Reidsville will spar with McMichael on Senior Night in the ‘Ville, and Rockingham County will watch all the action unfold on their bye week.
Stay tuned on GreensboroSports.com next Thursday, as the final regular season Rockingham County Preview edition will be published and we will look thoroughly at the RPI scenarios for each of the county teams as they approach November. Then, be back here next Friday for all of the final regular season results.