Time: 7:30 p.m.
Records: North Iredell 1-4, 0-0 NPC; South Rowan 4-2, 0-1 NPC
Series: South has won all six meetings
Last meeting: Rowan’s Raiders crushed Iredell’s version of the Raiders 52-0
Last week: North Iredell beat West Lincoln 14-0 for its first win; South Rowan lost 28-0 at West Rowan
Next week: North Iredell is home against West Iredell; South is open
Game notes: This game will be mostly about how South bounces back from last week’s disappointment. The Raiders couldn’t do anything positive offensively against West Rowan and now find themselves at 0-1 in the league and fighting to finish in second place.
Still, it would not be wise to write South off just yet. This is a team that beat A.L. Brown and Salisbury. West Rowan coach Scott Young offered praise for South’s defense, which includes end Kyle Rolla and linebackerRandy Maxwell.
South, which will drop its nonleague loss to Northwest Cabarrus when teams are seeded for the playoffs, still has the opportunity to enter the postseason with a lofty seed as a 9-1 team. Between now and the playoffs, however, South faces many intense NPC games, including rivalry struggles with red-hot East Rowan and surging Carson.
South got 100-plus rushing yards from QB Blake Houston and running back D’Andre Harris in destroying North Iredell last season in a game that was 31-0 at halftime.
Coach Shannon Ashley’s North Iredell squad does appear to have a pretty good defense this time and has held four of its five opponents to 21 or fewer points. QB Chris Van Hoose has provided most of the offense. He’s rushed for 156 yards and thrown for 352.