By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
There will be a championship tone at Alamance County football stadiums Friday night.
The regular season winds down and championships will be solidified in the Central 3-A Conference and Mid-Carolina Conference.
Six of the seven Alamance County teams will play within the county’s borders. Games start at 7:00 p.m.
Southeast Alamance at Cummings
The Mid-Carolina Conference championship will be decided in this game in east Burlington, where the Stallions pulled a second-round upset in last year’s Class 2-A state playoffs after Cummings won the regular-season tilt.
This year, Southeast (9-0, 7-0) has scored 408 points, while allowing 52. Cummings (8-1, 7-0) has posted 405 points, while yielding 137.
Graham at Jordan-Matthews
The winner of this game finishes seventh in the ninth-team Mid-Carolina Conference.
Graham (1-8, 1-6) is trying to eclipse last year’s win total. Jordan-Matthews (2-7, 1-6) ended the Red Devils’ six-game winning streak in the series by winning 22-12 last year.
Roxboro Person at Williams
Williams (8-1, 5-0) can win the outright Central 3-A Conference title by defeating the Rockets. The Bulldogs have an eight-game winning streak, scoring at least 33 points in all of those games.
“We really got to win this game on Friday,” senior quarterback Dan Mahan said. “Undefeated conference champs is better than a tiebreaker conference champs.”
The Rockets (5-4, 2-3) have averaged 14.75 points in their four losses. Roxboro Person’s margin of defeat in three conference setbacks has been by a total of 13 points after back-to-back one-point losses to Eastern Alamance and Western Alamance.
Southern Alamance at Western Alamance
The winner of this game will hold second place, with a shot at co-champion status in the Central 3-A Conference if Williams loses to Roxboro Person. If Southern wins, it will be the fourth year in a row finishing first or second in conference play.
Southern (6-3, 4-1) held on to win 16-14 in last year’s meeting. That marks only one of three times in Southern’s last 33 games that it failed to score at least 20 points.
Western (7-2, 4-1) has its most victories since a 9-1 mark in the pandemic-adjusted season held in winter / spring 2021. The Warriors have won a game by a one-point margin in two straight seasons, after topping Roxboro Person 20-19 last week.
Orange at Eastern Alamance
The Eagles (2-7, 2-3) aim for their third victory in the last four games, likely securing a spot in the state playoffs if doing so.
Eastern has defeated its neighbors the past three seasons, though last year’s 41-27 decision was the closest of those.
Other than defeating winless Cedar Ridge, Orange (2-7, 1-4) hasn’t won since August. The Panthers were off last week.
