By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
By the time this week’s games conclude, up to five high school teams from Alamance County could hold at least a share of first place in their respective conferences.
At the very least, Southern Alamance and Cummings will be first-place teams. In their cases, they hope they’re alone in those positions in their leagues and not co-leaders.
Some games have been moved from Friday to Thursday night because of weather concerns.
Here’s how the second-to-last week of the regular season sets up:
Southern Alamance at Eastern Alamance
Southern visits the Eagles for the second year in a row, though this time it’s a Central 3-A Conference gathering rather than an August non-league game.
By winning, Southern (7-1, 4-0) would secure the conference’s top seed for the state playoffs and at least a share of the league title. Eastern (7-1, 3-1), the conference’s two-time defending champion, has won 12 consecutive regular-season home games.[See separate story this edition.]
Cedar Ridge at Williams
Williams carries a three-game Central 3-A Conference winning streak into the home finale at Burlington Memorial Stadium.
The Bulldogs (6-2, 3-1) were off last week. If they win Friday, they’ll hold a share of first place or be alone in second place with one game remaining.
Cedar Ridge (0-9, 0-5), which will complete its season, lost 56-0 last year to Williams in the first meeting between the schools. The Red Wolves have won only two of their last 36 games across four seasons (and one year not fielding a varsity team).
Roxboro Person at Western Alamance
This game might determine a Class 3-A state playoff bid as the losing team could end up in fifth place in the seven-team Central 3-A Conference.
Western (5-3, 2-2), playing on Senior Night, is trying to avoid a third straight season with multiple home losses.
Roxboro Person (5-3, 2-2) lost home games to Southern Alamance and Eastern Alamance despite being tied with those foes into the second halves of each game.
Graham at Southeast Alamance
The Stallions (5-3, 5-1) play a home game for the first time since September 15, and plenty is at stake. A victory for Southeast would put it either in a tie for first place or alone in second place in the Mid-Carolina Conference with one regular-season game remaining.
This is homecoming for Southeast, but there are other activities such as Youth Football Night and Breast Cancer Awareness Game tied into it. As a first-year school, “We don’t have anybody coming home,” coach Tony Aguliar said.
Southeast holds a four-game winning streak, with the last three of those on the road. Graham (1-7, 1-5) can’t reach the four-win mark that it produced in each of the last two seasons.
North Moore at Cummings
Much of the pecking order in the Mid-Carolina Conference hinges on the outcome of this game, which is the home finale for first-place Cummings (7-1, 6-0). The Cavaliers would sew up a share of the league title by winning.
North Moore (6-2, 5-1) can secure at least a share of the conference title by winning this game and next week vs. visiting Chatham Central (0-8, 0-6).
The Mustangs defeated Cummings 28-25 last year in Robbins in a game that ultimately determined the league champion.
