By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Longtime rivals meet in a pair of intra-county high school football games Friday night in Alamance County.
The Western Alamance/Eastern Alamance game appears to be a huge matchup in the Central 3-A Conference.
Cummings is on an early roll in the Mid-Carolina Conference and visits nearby Graham.
Here’s a look at this week’s matchups:
Western Alamance at Eastern Alamance
Eastern Alamance (4-0, 0-0) was off last week following a conquest of previously undefeated Reidsville the previous week. That result provided more evidence of the possibilities for the Eagles.
“Motivation for what we can do this season,” Eastern senior running back Josh Murray said.
Eastern and Western Alamance (4-1, 1-0) have split their last dozen meetings. The Eagles go for their third straight victory in the series after last year’s 22-16 road escape.
Western could benefit from James Newton returning to a more major role after suffering an injury against Cummings in the season’s second game.
The receiver is a key playmaker, but he played sparingly against North Stanly before missing the Eastern Guilford game. Newton was the Warriors’ leading receiver with four catches for 61 yards last week vs. Orange.
Western and Eastern each played close games with Reidsville, with the Warriors falling in a road game to open the season. Reidsville receiver Que’shyne Flippen missed that game with an injury but was back for the Eastern game. Against Eastern, Reidsville was without standout linebacker and running back Paul Widerman, a selection for the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas who had been injured a week earlier.
Cedar Ridge at Southern Alamance
This is the first of three consecutive out-of-county Central 3-A Conference opponents for Southern Alamance (4-1, 1-0), which is one victory away from clinching its sixth straight regular-season record of .500 or better.
Cedar Ridge (0-5, 0-1) has scored 13 points this season and those all came against Granville Central in the second game of the season.
Southern won the only previous meeting by 55-7 in 2017 in Hillsborough.
Williams at Orange
Williams has won three in a row in the series, giving up a total of seven points in those romps. Last year’s score was 70-0.
Williams (3-2, 0-1) is coming off three consecutive home games.
Orange (2-3, 0-1) is without a victory in league competition against an Alamance County team since the formation of the current Central 3-A Conference. That’s a 0-7 record for the Panthers in those games.
Cummings at Graham
This is the first Mid-Carolina Conference game of the season that will pit two Alamance County teams against each other.
Cummings (4-1, 3-0) has scored 38.4 points per game.
Graham (0-3, 0-1) has struggled mightily on offense as it has produced eight points all season.
The Cavaliers have won five straight in the series with Graham, including last year’s 55-0 result. The Red Devils have been shut out in three of those five games.
