By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY  — West Rowan and North Rowan were only off for a week, but it seems more like a month.

Welcome back, Falcons and Cavaliers.

“Off”  just means they didn’t play a game last Friday. They have been practicing, working, trying to fix some of the weaknesses that were exposed in recent weeks.

It’s easy to be down on West (5-2)  because the last time the Falcons played they got spanked by Northwest Cabarrus in a game many thought the Falcons would win.

They didn’t win. They got smacked on both sides of the ball, so their conference-championship drought will persist for another year. That’s assuming no one in the South Piedmont Conference beats Northwest and gives West a chance to be co-champion.

But a Northwest loss isn’t likely to happen. At least not until the state playoffs.

If you examine the MaxPreps rankings, the SPC, as great as it is in baseball and as good as it is in a number of other sports, has to be rated as an underwhelming football league.

There are 92 3A football teams. Just two SPC squads are ranked in the top 65 by the neutral folks at MaxPreps. That’s right — two.

What will surprise almost everyone is that the highest-rated team in the league by MaxPreps is still West Rowan. That’s a strength of schedule thing — West played Mooresville and beat Salisbury.  West is currently ranked 20th in 3A by MaxPreps, while NWC is ranked 23rd.

When the 3A West playoff bracket is announced on Oct. 29, Northwest figures to be come in with something like a No. 6 seed because it will be seeded as a conference champ, while West Rowan is currently projected (by High School OT) to be a No. 13 seed. That still would mean a first-round home playoff game. That’s not so bad.

The job for West now is clear cut — win out, get to 8-2, finish second and earn that first-round home game. Still out there for the Falcons are SPC contests with Central Cabarrus (Friday), Concord, which has been troublesome for the Falcons over the years, and East Rowan.

It’s worth noting that if West beats East Rowan, that will make it 5-0 in the county for the Falcons and a true county sweep in which they beat every other school. There haven’t been that many true sweeps. Before West plays East, I’ll consult the record book to see how many.

While the Northwest loss made it easy to get down on West and to forget all the good things the Falcons did prior to that discouraging defeat, the back-to-back drubbings by Thomasville and East Davidson made it really, really easy to dismiss North Rowan.

But the Cavaliers, still ranked 17th in all of 1A by MaxPreps, are far from done, and it’s hard to see anything going wrong for them against West Davidson (Friday) or Lexington.

Taking the Cavaliers’ unfavorable scores against Thomasville and East Davidson into consideration, it’s hard to see North Rowan challenging Salisbury, which hammered both of those teams, but that would still mean a 6-4 season for the Cavaliers.

Thirty-two of 34 teams are going to make the 1A West playoff bracket, so it’s not like North (4-3) isn’t going to be in the playoffs. They Cavaliers are already in. They’ve been in since August. There probably will be some 1-9 teams making the 1A playoffs.

North probably will get a first-round home game, as the Cavaliers can expect to be seeded 11th, 12th, something like that.

North made a nice playoff run to the third round in 2021. Most still believe this year’s team is better than last year’s. Once the playoffs start, it will be a brand new season, and who knows? North has some terrific players. Maybe they’ll find another gear.

A.L. Brown (4-3) always has to deal with wild expectations and over-reaction to every loss — that’s the price you pay for decades of supreme success — and the Wonders hadn’t won a league game until last Friday, but their league is good enough and their strength of schedule is good enough that they still project to be in the 4A playoffs. It looks like 6-4 is the most likely scenario. The South Iredell game (Friday) is a big one for both teams.

Thanks to strength of schedule provided by the teams it battles every week in the Central Piedmont Conference, Davie (2-5) is still very much alive for the postseason, although the War Eagles are hanging out close enough to the bubble that they might end up on the road at a place like Hough or East Forsyth. Those aren’t places you want to be visiting in the first round of the playoffs.

How about Salisbury?

Well, the Hornets (7-1) are cooking now and Mike Geter and JyMikaah Wells are racking up numbers reminiscent of last season’s magnificent numbers.

Salisbury fans once again are keeping track of the amazing number of points the Hornets are averaging and the number of shutouts their defense is posting.

The Hornets, ranked 12th in 2A by MaxPreps, have whipped at least one good team (Thomasville) and some decent ones, but they’ve smashed mostly weaker ones, so their seeding, even as a conference champion, isn’t going to be ideal. They currently are projected to be seeded sixth in the 2A West bracket. That would mean two home games and a tough third-round road trip. Same scenario as last year,  but, hopefully, with a different bottom line.

Carson (2-5) projects to be on the wrong side of the playoff bubble, but if the Cougars get to 5-5 — and they could — that might change. Still on the schedule are East Rowan, Central Cabarrus and South Rowan, and they’ll be favored in all three games, although the Central game is almost a tossup. Carson is ranked 70th in 3A by MaxPreps, while Central Cabarrus is 72nd.

For East (0-7), ranked 90th in 3A by MaxPreps, there are three exciting county games still ahead, a lot of play for, but the playoffs are out of reach for another year.

For South (1-7), ranked 96th out of 3A’s 105 teams, this is the open week. The Raiders will be getting ready for what they hope will be a big finish against East Rowan and Carson.

•••

Lexington (2-5, 2-1) at Salisbury (7-1, 4-0), 7:30 p.m.

The Hornets are 27-point favorites with good reason.

The last four weeks for senior back JyMikaah Wells — 833 rushing yards and 15 touchdowns. That’s a career for most people.

Wells is up to 4,677 career rushing yards and 66 career touchdowns. He’s likely to end Friday night in the top five all-time for Rowan County rushers, and he’s on track to finish this season third all-time behind Carson’s Shaun Warren and West Rowan’s K.P. Parks.

Mike Geter’s passing touchdowns finally have caught up with his rushing touchdowns. He’s got 11 of each, so Lexington’s defense has multiple things to worry about.

Lexington hasn’t scored against Salisbury’s defense in the last three meetings, including last fall’s 65-0 rout.

The Hornets have won six in a row in the series and 18 out of 19. Lexington managed to pull out a 17-14 win in 2015.

•••

North Rowan (4-3, 1-2) at West Davidson (2-5, 0-3), 7:30 p.m.

With two losses and an open week, the Cavaliers haven’t tasted victory since Sept. 16. They should be hungry.

Thomasville and East Davidson completely shut down North back Jameias Morrow (12 TDs, 6 2-point conversions) and beat the Cavaliers handily, so North has to get him back in gear.

North has gotten receiver Amari McArthur rolling after a slow start. McArthur has posted three straight 100-yard outings and he’s up to 31 catches for 490 yards and six TDs for the season.

Sophomore QB Jeremiah Alford has run for seven touchdowns and thrown for 11.

The Cavaliers are favored by 27 and should have way too much firepower for the Green Dragons to handle.

North romped 50-14 when the teams met last fall.

West Davidson hasn’t beaten North since 2008. North has won 20 of the 24 meetings between the programs.

•••

Carson (2-5, 1-2) at East Rowan (0-7, 0-3), 7 p.m.

Carson’s first-year head coach Jonathan Lowe returns to his alma mater, so there will be some emotions involved.

East is still winless, but it has reduced the killer turnovers and is getting better each week, so this certainly could wind up being the best game tonight involving the Rowan schools.

Carson is favored by 13 over the Mustangs and still has a chance to get into the playoffs, but it’s going to be interesting to see how the Cougars respond to getting blown out 48-0 by Northwest Cabarrus in a game that had a lot of hype last week.

East throws it a lot and Carson surrendered 300-plus passing yards last week, so that will be an area to watch.

It’s been a true rivalry, with Carson winning nine times and East seven.

Carson smashed the Mustangs 45-7 last fall, but East took a 40-37 decision over the Cougars in the spring of 2021.

•••

West Rowan (5-2, 2-1) at Central Cabarrus (3-4, 2-1), 7 p.m.

West is favored by three touchdowns, but Central is dangerous. The Vikings throw the ball very well and put up 300 passing yards against East Rowan last week.

Central is still in the South Piedmont Conference race and controls its own destiny, but it should be mentioned that the Vikings’ league wins have come against the two bottom teams — East and South Rowan.

The Falcons’ running game was dormant in the loss to Northwest Cabarrus, so the Falcons will try to get that facet of their game rolling again.

West demolished the Vikings 57-13 last fall, a game in which West’s senior QB Noah Loeblein set several records.

Central’s most recent win in the series came in 2013, but the all-time series is tight, with the Falcons leading 10-9.

Central head coach Zach Bevilacqua is a former West assistant coach and offensive coordinator, so he knows the Falcons well.

•••

Davie (2-5, 1-3) at West Forsyth (2-5, 2-2), 7 p.m.

There are few dull moments in this series. West Forsyth is favored by seven.

Davie won 36-35 in overtime against the Titans in the spring of 2021, but the Titans rolled 35-14 last fall.

West Forsyth started out 0-4 against a difficult schedule. The Titans won against Glenn, routed Parkland and pushed Reagan to the limit during the last three weeks.

Davie’s only league win so far came against R.J. Reynolds, but the War Eagles, who were outscored by Mount Tabor last week, still have a chance for a strong finish.

Davie kicker/punter Palmer Williams, a Baylor commit, was the only area player picked for the Shrine Bowl.

•••

A.L. Brown (4-3, 1-3) at South Iredell (4-3, 1-2), 7:30 p.m.

Both teams beat West Cabarrus for their lone Greater Metro Conference win.

The Wonders are favored by the Massey Ratings to beat the Vikings by a touchdown.

The Wonders lead the all-time series 4-1, including a 45-21 pounding of the Vikings in 2021.

South Iredell smacked the Wonders in a 2017 playoff game for their only victory in the series.