2 weeks Ago
Staff report SALISBURY — Salisbury’s football team will be comfortable with a rematch with familiar foe West Davidson in the first round of the 2A West state playoffs, and the Hornets will have a chance to earn a rematch with Walkertown in the second round. Salisbury is seeded fifth. West Davidson, the fourth-place finisher in the Central Carolina Conference, was a surprise team, beat Thomasville, among others, and went 6-4.
Seeded 12th in the 2A West bracket, Walkertown, a good team that went 7-3, outscored the Hornets 47-33 in Week 2. Salisbury head coach Clayton Trivett believes his team would be 10-o right now, instead of 9-1, if it had played Walkertown on a normal Friday night. That was a lightning-plagued weekend, and the teams wound up playing on Labor Day after being out of school three days.
Salisbury just didn’t handle it very well at that point in the season. “We only had two Friday home games in the regular season,” Trivett said, shaking his head. “Played one home game on Thursday and two on Monday.
We actually played better on the road than at home.” This one will be at home at Ludwig Stadium this Friday. Walkertown will be looking to advance when it takes on No.
21 seed East Surry, but there aren’t many sure things in the middle of the playoff brackets. ••• North Rowan will be eager to return to action after disappointing losses to Lexington and Salisbury ended the regular season, and then the Cavaliers had to wait an extra week for the playoffs as mountain teams played makeup games. North (6-4) is seeded seventh in the 1A West bracket and takes on No.
26 seed Cherryville. North finished 13th in the final RPI 1A rankings but moves up quite a bit for the playoffs, as the Cavaliers are seeded as a conference champion. They finished third in the CCC, but they were the top 1A team in a split 1A/2A league.
Cherryville (3-7) finished fifth in the 1A/2A Southern Piedmont Conference. North can’t look ahead, but (23) Albemarle or (10) East Wilkes would be their second-round opponent, and they would stay at home. ••• West Rowan, third-place team in the South Piedmont Conference, is seeded 24th in the 3A West bracket and got about as good a draw as it could have hoped for as a 24 seed.
The Falcons (6-4) will travel to Morganton to play ninth-seeded Freedom (6-4). Freedom finished third in its conference, but is seeded as a conference champion as it was the top 3A team in a split 3A/4A league. In the RPI rankings, West and Freedom finished neck-and-neck — No.
23 and No. 24 — so this is basically a 50/50 game, even with the Falcons on the road. The winner would take on (8) West Charlotte or (25) Hunter Huss.
••• Back in the 3A West playoffs for the first time since 2009, South Rowan (5-5), the fourth-place finisher in the SPC, will be a big underdog on the road but the Raiders didn’t get the worst draw in the world for a No. 26 seed. South will play at No.
7 West Henderson (7-3). West Henderson played in an interesting league, the Mountain 7, and was part of a three-way tie for first place with Pisgah and Smoky Mountain. West Henderson was clobbered by Smoky Mountain, but edged Pisgah.
Pisgah won against Smoky Mountain, so they were all 5-1 in the league. In the 3A West RPI rankings, those three teams finished 13-14-15. West Henderson was 13th, so it’s seeded as the conference champ.
••• A.L. Brown squeezed into the 4A West bracket at No.
31, but will play at No. 2 Weddington (9-0), a potential state champ, in the first round,. The Wonders (5-5) are happy to be in the playoffs, but will have their hands full.
••• Other first-round games 1A: (22) Thomasville at (11) Robbinsville 2A: (20) Lexington at (13) Forest Hills 2A: (26) West Lincoln at (7) Mount Pleasant 3A: (29) NE Guilford at (4) Robinson 3A: (18) NW Cabarrus at (15) Ashbrook 4A: (28) South Iredell at (5) Hough 4A: (20) Lake Norman at (13) Mallard Creek 4A: (27) Alexander Central at (6) Mooresville 4A: (23) West Cabarrus at (20) Northern Guilford.
