By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
The big clashes have all lined up for the Cummings football team at the end of its schedule.
Every victory has made the next assignment that much bigger for the Cavaliers.
“This is why we play these games,” coach David Grimm said. “It has kind of really gotten real. It’s gotten to football weather, a little frost on the pumpkin.”
There’s so much at stake Friday night when Cummings takes on North Moore in the middle game of the Cavaliers’ three-game stretch of Mid-Carolina Conference showdowns.
“Ready for the opportunities to show who we are,” Cummings quarterback Devin Witherspoon said. “We get to show we’re good players, too.”
One of those players is multi-purpose back Jonathan Paylor, a senior who has dented the Cummings record books as one of the program’s all-time greats. The North Carolina State commit will play in his last regular-season home game.
“It brings popularity to the school,” Witherspoon said of Paylor’s presence and production.
Cummings (7-1 overall, 6-0 Mid-Carolina Conference) could be involved in championship-type matchups three consecutive weeks against teams with one conference loss.
The Cavaliers passed the first of those tests by topping host Northwood 48-29 on Friday night. This week, the Cavaliers take on defending league champion North Moore (6-2, 5-1). That game at Cummings has been moved to Monday night at 6:30.
Southeast Alamance (5-3, 5-1) will be waiting in the regular-season finale, perhaps with championship aspirations as well.
So for Cummings, it’s all out there.
“I would like the intensity to be up a little bit more,” Grimm said. “We are playing for a championship, but so are the other teams.”
