By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
The regular season in high school football wraps up this week.
State playoff pairings should be available Sunday afternoon (though in the past the North Carolina High School Athletic Association has released brackets on the day following the end of the regular season, the plan was for a Monday release this year until the governing body revised that with an announcement this week).
Here’s a look at Friday’s Mid-Carolina Conference games, which begin at 7:00 p.m.:
Western Alamance at Southern Alamance
The winner can gain a share of the Mid-Carolina Conference title if Williams stumbles at Roxboro Person.
Southern (6-3, 5-1) has defeated Western (7-2, 5-1) in each of the past four seasons. Western has scored more than 14 points against the Patriots only once in their last six matchups.
Williams at Roxboro Person
A victory would give Williams (8-1, 6-0) an outright conference championship for the second year in a row. The Bulldogs have won their last 17 conference games.
Roxboro Person (4-5, 2-4) has ended its past four regular seasons with losses to Williams.
Eastern Alamance at Southeast Alamance
This game will determine fourth place in the conference.
Eastern (4-5, 3-3) must win to prevent its first losing record in conference play in 21 years. Southeast (6-3, 3-3), a third-year school, has never finished a conference schedule with a losing record.
Eastern interim coach John Kirby said the Eagles will likely rotate quarterbacks with Zack Merchel and Braxton Ballard alternating series as they did during the Graham game.
Eastern won 63-0 in Southeast’s first-ever home game in 2023 before the Stallions prevailed 21-19 last year at Eastern.
Cummings at Graham
Cummings (2-7, 0-6) has won the last seven meetings with Graham, with shutouts in each of the past three seasons.
The Red Devils (0-9, 0-6) try to avoid their first winless season since 2019.
