By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — Week 1 of the high school football produced road wins for South Rowan, Salisbury, A.L. Brown and North Rowan, while West Rowan, East Rowan and Carson lost at home.

None of those results created shock waves.

A.L. Brown-West Rowan was expected to be the best game for spectators, and that certainly proved to be the case. West stuffed the stat sheet, dominating yards, first downs and TOP, but the Wonders won the game, 28-26. Things generally go A.L. Brown’s way against the Falcons — they’ve won 19 of 20 since the first meeting in 1965 — and to their credit, the Wonders have a habit of making plays to make things go their way. They’ve done that to a lot of people, not just West.

Fans like to check out the Massey Ratings to assess their team’s chances for Friday’s games, but the Massey folks are still trying to get a handle on a new season. They favor Davie by 25 against West Rowan and Forest Hills by 16 against North Rowan, odds that may have made some sense in 2023, but probably don’t right now.

It’s still non-conference stuff across the board for local teams in Week 2, with many of the games on Friday’s menu being the opposite of traditional rivalries. South Stanly-South Rowan, West Stanly-Carson and Salisbury-Walkertown are match-ups that are taking place for only the second time.

Forest Hills will be taking on North Rowan for only the fourth time.

There are three traditional battles between neighbors. Start with West Rowan-Davie, although the schools aren’t nearly as close as they were before Davie moved up the road in 2017.

There’s also Northwest Cabarrus-A.L. Brown and East Rowan-North Stanly.

There are a ton of home games on Friday. West is at Davie and A.L. Brown is at Northwest Cabarrus, but East Rowan, South Rowan and North Rowan, Carson and Salisbury all are playing at home.

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The last time South Rowan started 2-0 in football was 15 years ago when the Raiders opened with victories against Salisbury and A.L. Brown.

It could happen. The Raiders are favored by the Massey Ratings against South Stanly, even though the Bulls beat them 27-10 in Norwood last season.

South Rowan senior quarterback Brooks Overcash and freshman running back Jayden Arthur combined for more than 300 yards of offense on opening night.

South Stanly (1-0) will arrive in southern Rowan on an emotional high after beating West Stanly for the first time in 10 years.

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East Rowan’s opener against North Rowan wasn’t fun — a 46-6 avalanche for the visitors — but new head coach Brian Flynn is ready for serious progress this week against North Stanly’s Comets.

North Stanly (1-0) whipped Anson, 28-6, on opening night.

North Stanly took a 37-31 tussle from the Mustangs last season and is favored by the Massey Ratings.

The schools are separated by about 17 miles of Highway 52 and have played often over the years. This will be the 29th meeting. East leads the series 18-10. The Mustangs’s most recent win against the Comets occurred in 2019.

WSAT will broadcast the game.

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Carson’s first encounter with West Stanly in 2023 produced a 28-20 overtime loss.

Carson (0-1) started the new season with a loss to Mount Pleasant, but impressive performances from young players such as sophomore back Rosean Perkins and freshman back Damo’n Broussard have everyone thinking optimistically.

West Stanly’s Colts (0-1) will be looking to rebound from the upset loss to South Stanly.

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Davie snowballed West Rowan 60-28 in 2023, although a repeat of that catastrophe seems to be unlikely for the Falcons.

Davie was trounced so thoroughly by Mooresville in Week 1— it was 35-0 while fans were still finding seats and 66-20 when the running-clock game ended — that there are only two possible conclusions that can logically be drawn. Either Davie is down or Mooresville is one of the greatest teams of all-time.

Despite the 0-1 start, West did a lot of things right last week. Quarterback Brant Graham and backs Jaylen Neely and Cooper Martin combined for almost 450 yards of offense against the Wonders.

Davie also won’t be thrilled to see that Evan Kennedy is still on West’s roster. He set a school record two years ago against Davie with 227 receiving yards.

Now this is a serious rivalry. The schools have played 55 times. Davie leads the series 32-21-2. West’s most recent win was a 35-34 thriller in 2022.

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Salisbury didn’t scare anyone in last week’s 20-12 struggle at North Davidson, but there are no bad road wins.

Hank Webb, Hez Krider and Macari House are following tough acts in Mike Geter, Jamal Rule and Deuce Walker, but they held their own in a challenging opening game, A rebuilt defense looked sturdy, and it looks like the Hornets will win their share.

Salisbury exterminated Walkertown in 2023. The final was 62-6. That sort of rampage isn’t likely to be repeated, but the Hornets are favored to get to 2-0. Walkertown (1-0) beat Atkins on opening night.

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North Rowan didn’t do much wrong in blowing out East Rowan last week. Jeremiah Alford threw accurately and ran over people when necessary and Jo Jo Tarver rolled for 172 yards in his first game as the feature back.

Forest Hills lost at home to Ashbrook, 29-13, last week.

Forest Hills creamed the Cavaliers 41-13 in Marshville in 2023, but this is shaping up to be a terrific game at Eagle Stadium.

North leads the all-time series 2-1, with the most recent victory for the men in green coming in 2014.

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A.L. Brown and Northwest Cabarrus will meet for the 49th time.

There was a 40-year stretch (1977-2017) when A.L. Brown won every game that was played between the two programs.

The Wonders still lead the series 41-6-1, although it should be noted that half the Trojans’ victories have come in recent seasons. That includes 2023 when NWC won 30-19.

Favored by 3 points by the Massey Ratings, Northwest will be looking to bounce back from an upset loss to West Cabarrus on opening night.

The Wonders will look to build on their great escape against West Rowan. They got smashed on the stat sheet, but blocked a field goal at the end to hold on. CJ Gray had a passing TD and a rushing TD.