nTime: 7:30 p.m.
nRecords: East Rowan 6-1, 2-0 NPC; Statesville 2-4, 0-1 NPC
nSeries: Hounds lead 7-1
nLast meeting: Statesvile handled the Mustangs 37-14 in 2008
nStreaks: The only time East beat Statesville was 35-34 in overtime in the first round of the 1991 playoffs. East lost to the Greyhounds in the 1996 playoffs.
nLast week: East won at Carson 29-26; Statesville was beaten 50-22 by Lincolnton
nNext week: East is open; Statesville is at West Rowan
nGame notes: East’s past against Statesville isn’t pretty.
The Greyhounds have beaten East in all six meetings since the series became almost an annual clash in 2001 (the schools didn’t meet in East’s two years in 4A in 2005-06).
The scores of those Greyhound victories have been 48-27, 41-0, 42-8, 32-25, 35-14 and 37-14, with the obvious theme being that East hasn’t been able to contain Statesville’s speed and the Greyhounds have scored lots of points. Even when East was good in 2007, it lost by three TDs to Statesville.
Having gone through all that history, East still looks like the superior team this season in every way and would seem to be the obvious favorite even in Greyhound Hollow.
Carson romped at Statesville 40-14 two weeks ago, which has to have East fans licking their chops.
East doesn’t have a Shaun Warren,but it has a physical O-line and a quarterback in Jamey Blalockwho can manage a game. Evan Hiatt and Wesley LeRoy made big plays in the secondary last week.
The Hounds have not thrown it well and don’t own a TD pass this year.
They’ll try to establish a ground game that features Keyon Harris (388 rushing yards, five TDs).
ó Mike London