By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Sole possession of first place is at stake for a couple of area high school football teams Friday night.
Eastern Alamance and Cummings both are matched up against other teams without a blemish in their respective conferences.
Here’s a look at the games involving Alamance County teams:
Roxboro Person at Eastern Alamance
These are the only teams without a Central Carolina 3-A Conference loss. This appears to be the only significant remaining roadblock as Eastern (6-1, 3-0) aims to repeat as league champion.
The Eagles notched their first shutout since last October by hammering Cedar Ridge 63-0 last week.
Roxboro Person (5-2, 3-0) has blanked two foes this season and limited Orange to a field goal in last week’s 41-3 rout.
Cedar Ridge at Western Alamance
Western (3-4, 1-2 Central Carolina 3-A Conference) will have gone nearly a month since a victory when this game kicks off.
“We need to finish the season strong,” coach Jeff Snuffer said. “The team is getting better. The key word is finish. Finish the drive. Finish the game.”
Western’s four losses have come to teams with a combined record of 22-7. In three of the defeats, the Warriors have managed just one touchdown.
There could be concerns for Western regarding senior center Dylan Oakley, who suffered a shoulder injury on the Warriors’ touchdown play in the third quarter last week at Williams. He didn’t return to the game.
Cedar Ridge is 1-5, 0-3.
[Story continues below interview with Wide Receiver and Defensive Back Zack Oakley.]
Durham Riverside at Southern Alamance
Southern (5-2, 2-0 DAC-VII Conference) has scored at least 50 points in three consecutive games as part of a four-game winning streak.
Durham Riverside (4-2, 1-1) had a four-game winning streak end with last week’s 27-0 loss at undefeated Durham Hillside. Still, Riverside seems much improved since last year’s 55-12 home defeat to Southern.
Cummings at North Moore
Cummings (4-2, 2-0 Mid-Carolina Conference) goes on the road for the first time in more than a month, and this is a matchup that could determine the conference championship.
Andrew Carrouth, a former Southern Alamance coach, is the North Moore coach.
North Moore (7-0, 3-0) has outscored its opponents by a combined 275-48. The Mustangs’ lone regular-season loss last year came to Cummings, which defeated a then-undefeated North Moore team last October.
Graham at Jordan-Matthews
Graham (3-4, 2-1 Mid-Carolina Conference) will try to match last year’s win total.
Jordan-Matthews (0-8, 0-4) has yet to win a league game in two seasons in Mid-Carolina Conference play. That includes last year’s 56-0 loss at Graham.
