By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

Friday’s football games …

South Rowan and A.L. Brown are open this week, as they prepare for their Sept. 8 meeting, which will be the first meeting of the Wonders and Raiders since 2016.

East Rowan plays at Salisbury in a county game. The only other traditional game this week is Mooresville at West Rowan.

Piedmont will play at Carson and North Rowan will play at Anson in games between programs that will be facing each other for the first time.

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Mooresville (2-0) at West Rowan (0-2), 7 p.m.

Since Mooresville beat the Davie County team that scored 60 against West Rowan last week, it’s a reasonable undertaking to look at the record book to research the last time a West Rowan football team started the season 0-3.

If you do that, you find an asterisk. West began the 2001 season with three consecutive losses to South Iredell, Davie and North Rowan on the field, but the 21-14 setback to South Iredell was reversed to a forfeit victory due to the Vikings’ use of an ineligible player.

Since West officially began the 2001 season 1-2 instead of 0-3, you have to go back to 1996 to find a West team that began 0-3. The 1996 Falcons opened with losses to Davie, East Rowan and South Rowan and finished 2-9.

West is a 27-point underdog against Mooresville, according to the Massey Ratings — projected score 41-14 — but that doesn’t mean the Falcons are headed to 2-9.

The Massey Ratings project West to start 0-3 but to still have a 6-4 season.

Jaylen Neely has been the brightest spot for West’s offense so far with 46 carries for 272 yards and three touchdowns.

Brant Graham has passed for 205 yards and one TD.

The Falcons have gotten no breaks so far and have lost running back Kayvone Norman and offensive lineman Tyler Cline to season-ending injuries.

Mooresville, coached by former West Rowan and North Rowan head coach Joe Nixon, doesn’t appear to be as explosive offensively as Davie, but the Blue Devils have a highly regarded defense.

Mooresville has won five straight in the series since the Falcons captured a defensive struggle in 2016. The Blue Devils lead the all-time series 30-22.

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East Rowan (0-2) at Salisbury (2-0), 7:30 p.m.

East made a significant jump from Week 1 to Week 2, improving from a lopsided 51-10 loss to North Rowan in the opener to a 37-31 loss to North Stanly last week.

East’s Gavin Walker threw four touchdown passes — all in the second half — at North Stanly. Billy Chesney had two TD catches.

East head coach John Fitz was defensive coordinator at Catawba College while Salisbury head coach Clayton Trivett was an offensive lineman there, so they know each other well.

“East has a lot more players this year and they looked a lot better last week,” Trivett said. “They did a lot of good things,”

East had over 400 yards of offense against North Stanly, although it will be tough to duplicate that kind of production against the Hornets, who have allowed only six points in their first two games.

Salisbury QB Mike Geter is 23 for 32 for 332 passing yards and six TDs in Salisbury’s first two games — with no interceptions.

Geter surpassed 3,000 career passing yards last week. He has accounted for 85 TDs in his career, with 40 passing and 45 rushing.

Jamal Rule has carried 33 times for 345 yards and five TDs for the Hornets.

Deuce Walker has 10 catches for 173 yards and three TDs.

Salisbury beat the Mustangs 35-7 in 2022 and leads the all-time series 30-15. East’s most recent win in the series was a 33-7 victory at Ludwig Stadium in 2016.

Salisbury is ranked highly by everyone who offers a 2A poll and is projected by the Massey Ratings to handle East, 47-7.

Salisbury projects to go 10-0 in the regular season — with no close games.

East is projected to go 1-9, although the Mustangs plan to do better than that. They didn’t look like a 1-9 team in the second half last week.

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North Rowan (1-1) at Anson (0-2), 7 p..m.

North walloped East Rowan in Week 1, but was shut down in the first half and lost 41-13 last week to Forest Hills.

Jeremiah Alford threw a touchdown pass and had a scoring run for the Cavaliers, but there weren’t many highlights.

Anson has solid football tradition and a reputation for turning out great athletes, but is off to a slow start with losses to North Stanly and Sun Valley.

Anson started out well against Sun Valley, but the Spartans reeled off four straight TDs in the second half to pull away for a 35-14 victory.

North has never made the trip to Wadesboro, while Anson has never visited Spencer, so there’s no history in the series.

The Massey Ratings project a 30-21 victory for North Rowan. That would be a good road win for the Cavaliers.

North is ranked in some 1A polls and is projected at this point to have a 7-3 season.

Anson faces a very difficult schedule against teams such as Forest Hills and Monroe and isn’t expected to have a winning season.

•••

Piedmont (0-2) at Carson (0-2), 7 p.m.

The South Piedmont Conference appears to be stronger this season than it was in 2022, due to the addition of a very stout Robinson program and the improvement of teams such as Concord and Central Cabarrus. Carson managed a 5-5 regular season in 2022, but it’s going to be a challenge to match that mark.

Piedmont’s early losses have been to Concord and Central Cabarrus, so this game will be a great measuring stick for the Cougars.

Carson is currently projected by the Massey Ratings to go 3-7, although the Cougars certainly could do better than that — 5-5 or even 6-4 — if they get a few bounces.

The Piedmont Panthers are currently projected to go 2-8, so this is obviously an important non-conference game for both teams. They both really need it.

Carson is favored by six points — with a score projection of 28-22.

Piedmont, which opened in 1960, is in Unionville, about eight miles from Monroe. It’s one of the schools that’s been around a long time in Union County, a county that has grown by leaps and bounds and has added many new schools in the last two decades. While Piedmont has zero history against Carson, the school is a familiar opponent of East Rowan and West Rowan.

Carson looked pretty good on both sides of the ball last week against West Stanly, coming back several times, only to lose 28-20 in overtime.

Jay McGruder, the left halfback, has been the workhorse for Carson’s offense. He had close to 100 yards in Carson’s opening loss to Mount Pleasant and topped 100 rushing yards last week.