By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
While several area high school football teams have ventured into conference portions of their schedules, others are winding down non-league play with games Friday night.
Here’s an overview of Week 4 of the season:
Western Alamance at Eastern Guilford
The past three meetings have been decided by 11 points or less, including Western’s 28-26 non-league home victory last year.
Western (2-1) has allowed only 13 total points in the second half of its games the last two weeks.
This marks the third Western opponent that’s directed by a first-year coach. Eastern Guilford (2-0), which is coached by Tim Bagamary, was off last week.
Eden Morehead at Williams
Williams (2-1) aims for back-to-back home victories to finish non-league play.
The Panthers (0-3) haven’t been in a game where a team has reached the 30-point mark this season.
Third-year Williams coach Patrick Stokes picked up his first victory with the Bulldogs in August 2021 against Eden Morehead in the most-recent meeting between the teams.
Southern Alamance at Southern Nash
This is a non-conference game that developed when the teams needed to fill spots on their schedules. Southern Alamance coach Fritz Hessenthaler said he likes this matchup because Southern Nash has many of the same traits as the Patriots. Neither team passes the ball often.
Southern Nash (3-0) has given up a total of 14 points this season. Southern Alamance (2-1) is averaging 55.7 points per game.
Cummings at Bartlett Yancey
For Cummings, this is the third meeting with the Buccaneers in a 12-game span. The Cavaliers won 32-14 in a Mid-Carolina Conference game and 44-26 in the Class 2-A state playoffs last year. This time, the teams meet in Yanceyville.
Cummings (2-1, 1-0) has won three straight in the series.
Bartlett Yancey (0-2, 0-0) will be playing in its first home game of the season. Bartlett Yancey led 20-0 last Friday at Graham when the game when the game was suspended because of safety concerns involving a laser beam pointed onto the field. As of Wednesday afternoon, it hadn’t been determined if the game’s score was final or if it would be resumed at a later date.
Graham at Seaforth
Graham goes into this Mid-Carolina Conference game without much game time. The Red Devils (0-1, 0-0) were blowout victims in Week 1 at Southern Alamance with a running clock used in the second half before last week’s home matchup Bartlett Yancey was cut short because of security concerns. Graham trailed 20-0 in the second quarter of that game, which so far is considered suspended without a resolution on the outcome.
Seaforth (0-2, 0-0) was scheduled off last week. The Hawks played their first varsity season last year, falling 20-12 in a home game to Graham by a 20-12 score.
Southeast Alamance at Northwood
Now that Southeast has secured the first football victory in school history, the Stallions (1-2, 1-0) aim for more first-time accomplishments. They’ll go for back-to-back wins and a road triumph.
This is a Mid-Carolina Conference game with the league’s newest members. While Southeast is in its first season of existence, Northwood moved down from a Class 3-A conference because of reduced enrollment stemming from the recent formation of another Chatham County school (Seaforth).
Northwood (1-2, 0-1) opened league play by losing last week at reigning conference champion North Moore.
Reidsville at Eastern Alamance
Eastern Alamance suffered its only regular-season loss last year at Reidsville by a 35-28 score. The Rams scored the final 14 points.
The Eagles (3-0), who’ll wrap up non-league play, try to start a season with four victories for the first time since the spring 2021 season.
Reidsville (3-0) has lost a total of one non-conference game since 2019. This will be Reidsville’s first game of the year outside of Rockingham County.
