By Mike London

mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY— Salisbury, North Rowan and West Rowan are preparing for second-round football playoff action on Friday.

Salisbury is favored by a surprisingly large number against Walkertown, a team that beat the Hornets early this season.

North Rowan is a slim favorite over East Wilkes in what is expected to be a shootout in Spencer.

West Rowan is given close to no chance at West Charlotte. The Massey Ratings list the Falcons as 36-point underdogs, with a 42-6 score projection. When the Falcons get on the bus, they will have a win probability of 1 percent.

Yes, 1 percent.

Salisbury wrecked Walkertown on the road in a regular-season matchup in 2023, but Walkertown avenged that loss this season on Labor Day. The Wolfpack has a special receiver and put 47 points on the Hornets, who have been really good defensively with the exception of that game.

The Massey Ratings like the fifth-seeded Hornets (10-1) to win 42-14 when the teams clash once again at Ludwig Stadium.

Seeded 12th in the 2A West bracket, Walkertown (8-3) is given only a 7 percent chance of repeating their victory over the Hornets, but Walkertown is a good team. Walkertown had a respectable loss to Reidsville, a one-point loss to North Davidson and a two-point loss to West Stokes, but no one has beaten the Wolfpack anything like 42-14.

Salisbury has a had a great season, with a stingy defense and with QB Hank Webb (30 TD passes), receivers Macari House and Jay’lin Johnson and running back Hez Krider putting up really nice numbers.

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SPENCER — North Rowan’s football team had an unusual problem in the 1A first-round win against Cherryville. The Cavaliers were scoring too quickly. Then Cherryville would keep the ball for a very long time.

But the seventh-seeded Cavaliers (7-4) got through it, 41-34, and now they’ve got another home game against 10th-seeded East Wilkes (9-2).

The score projection by the Massey Ratings is a 35-28 North victory. North is given a 61 percent win probability.

But East Wilkes has lost only to Mount Airy and Starmount, both two-TD losses, so this is a very good team, and a thin North squad will be playing at least seven athletes on both sides of the ball.

“It’s going to come down to getting some stops,” North coach Josh Sophia said. “They’re very good at triple option football. Very good quarterback and fullback.”

East Wilkes has been rolling up massive points in recent weeks, including a 49-28 playoff win against Albemarle, but the Cavaliers should be able to hold the Cardinals to three or four touchdowns.

North Rowan is 1-0 against West Wilkes and 1-0 against North Wilkes in the playoffs, but has never played East Wilkes.

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MOUNT ULLA — The West Charlotte Lions were a powerhouse team for a long time and won 4A state titles in 1995 and 2006. There were a ton of state runner-up seasons.

Now the Lions are 3A, albeit a very large 3A. The school has been growing and has more than 2,300 students now, which means they may have three Brant Grahams, three Evan Kennedys and three Jaylen Neelys. West Rowan has 956 students. West Charlotte will be moving to 8A next fall. West Rowan will be the smallest 5A.

West Rowan, which won 3A championships from 2008-10 and was runner-up in 2011, has never played West Charlotte.

“What an opportunity to go play a team with their football history,” West coach Louis Kraft. “We’ll be the first West Rowan team to face them. We’re the tip of the spear.”

Seeded 24th, West Rowan (7-4) won a hard-fought road game at Freedom last week, while eighth-seeded West Charlotte didn’t break a sweat in destroying Hunter Huss 47-0.

West Charlotte’s defense has posted five shutouts. The Lions (8-2) lost to Hough and they dropped a one-point game to Mallard Creek. Other than the Hough game, the Lions haven’t allowed much.

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Mooresville cruised into Round 2 by pummeling Alexander Central 70-0. The Blue Devils will host Northwest Guilford in Round 2. Mooresville was the only Greater Metro team to advance to the second round.