Staff report

SALISBURY — Nicole is still a tropical storm officially, but is tracking toward Florida and is expected to reach hurricane strength when it makes landfall.

The storm is expected to bring heavy rain and strong wind by Friday morning as it makes its way up the coastline to North Carolina.

Nicole’s impact on the second round of the high school football playoffs has been huge,

Friday Night football has, in most cases, been transformed into Thursday Night Football for this week, with games being moved up a day to beat the rain.

At least one game in the East already has been pushed back to Saturday.

Nicole has meant a short week of preparation for Salisbury and particularly North Rowan, which has to make preparations for a road trip.

Sixth-seeded Salisbury will take on No. 11 Pine Lake Prep at Ludwig Stadium on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Both teams are 10-1, but the Hornets are favored by several touchdowns.

The 2A West playoff bracket is so strong that only one of the 16 teams that survived the first round has a record worse than 8-3.

Seeded 13th, North (7-4) goes to No. 4 Mount Airy (10-1) for a 1A West game. That’s another 7:30 p.m. kickoff on Thursday.

The Cavaliers will be substantial underdogs.

West Rowan’s road game in the mountains is still set for 7:30 p.m. on Friday.

Seeded 15th, West Rowan (9-2) will play at No. 2 West Henderson (11-0).

Despite the seed differential, that’s projected to be a tossup game.