By Mike London

mike.london@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY— It will be Thursday varsity football for most Rowan County teams this week.

North Rowan made a decision on Monday to move up its huge home game with Thomasville. Other county schools arrived at the same conclusion on Tuesday, as the weather forecast for Friday remained bleak. Heavy rain is expected.

It’s homecoming at East Rowan. East has moved its game with Northwest Cabarrus back to Monday, Sept. 30.

Other local games moved up to Thursday were West Rowan at South Rowan; Robinson at Carson, and West Davidson at Salisbury

It seems like the season just started, but it’s already homecoming at East. Northwest isn’t the ideal homecoming opponent. The Trojans (3-1, 1-0) have been overwhelming teams the last few weeks after being stunned on opening night by coach Brian Hinson’s West Cabarrus squad.

Northwest Cabarrus is a 42-point favorite to extend East’s struggles.

East (0-4, 0-1) has underwhelmed on the scoreboard — three straight shutout losses — but did make some progress against Concord last week.

East is 17-22 against the Trojans all-time. Northwest won 44-0 in 2023 and has won the last five meetings since East’s wet 8-0 victory on a Wesley Porter pick-six in 2016.

•••

The chance of an exciting game when West Rowan visits South Rowan isn’t great. The Falcons are favored by 34 points by the Massey Ratings, with the Raiders (1-3, 0-1) given a 3 percent chance of shocking the world.

West (2-2, 1-0) won the matchup 54-28 in 2023 and has beaten the Raiders 20 times in a row since South’s 31-24 overtime victory in 2000. The last close South-West game was in 2014 when the Falcons prevailed 21-13.

West’s Brant Graham is third in the county in passing yards (586). Jaylen Neely is second in the county in rushing yards (380), while Evan Kennedy ranks fourth in receiving yards (313).

•••

Back in 2012, Carson’s KJ Pressley set the school record for receiving yards in a game with 241 against Robinson.

Nothing resembling that is expected to happen against Robinson this time. Robinson (4-0, 2-0) is one of elite teams in 3A and has crushed four straight opponents, including two 4A neighbors.

The Bulldogs are favored by 36 points over the Cougars (2-2, 0-1). Carson is given a 1 percent chance of an upset that would make headlines from North Carolina to the North Pole.

The Bulldogs are 7-2 all-time against Carson and have won the last seven meetings. The score was 26-6 in 2023. Carson’s most recent win against the Bulldogs occurred in 2010.

•••

It’s also not expected to be close at Ludwig Stadium, as the Salisbury Hornets will host West Davidson.

Salisbury is a 42-point favorite, according to the Massey ratings.

Coming off a big win against Thomasville, Salisbury (4-1, 1-0) is a given a win probability of 100 percent, even though the Green Dragons (3-1, 0-0) are off to a solid start, including a 35-0 drubbing of Ledford.

“West Davidson is not the most athletic team we’ll face, but they are big and physical and they can control the ball,” Salisbury coach Clayton Trivett said on Tuesday.  “They understand what they do best and they’re very good at it.”

West Davidson’s strong start under former South Rowan standout Brian Billings is going to be tested. The Green Dragons face four teams during the next four weeks— Salisbury, Thomasville, Lexington and North Rowan — wh0 have the speed to turn a football game into a track meet.

It should be noted that West Davidson beat three very good Salisbury teams in three consecutive years from 2005-07.

The first Salisbury-West Davidson meeting was in 1985. Salisbury leads the all-time series 15-4. West Davidson’s win besides the three-peat came via forfeit in 2015. The Hornets have won the last 12 on the field, including a 42-0 romp in 2023.

Salisbury’s Hank Webb is second in the county in passing yards (886) and TD passes (11). He leads the county with nine field goals and 22 extra points (18 kicks and two runs). He’s a weapon punting and kicking off.

Salisbury has two of the top three in the county in receiving yards in Jay’lin Johnson (339) and Macari House (316).

•••

Thomasville’s trip to North Rowan is where most of the excitement is expected to take place this week.

The Cavaliers (3-2, 1-0) are favored by a single point over the Bulldogs (2-3, 0-1). The Massey Ratings give North a 52 percent win probability with a 28-27 score projection.

As far as the postseason, this is a humongous game, as the Central Carolina Conference is a split 1A/2A league. The North-Thomasville winner is going to be the league’s top seed for the 1A playoffs.

North is getting healthier by the day, especially in the receiving corps, and quarterback Brian Alford is expected to return to his linebacker spot this week. He got banged up (left elbow) in the Forest Hills game, so the Cavaliers have been resting him on defense, even though he’s still been taking all the QB snaps.

Alford is the county leader in passing yards (1,002) and TD passes (15), after throwing seven and breaking records last week. Jo Jo Tarver is the county’s leading rusher with 576 yards. Emari Russell leads the county with 387 receiving yards.

The North-Thomasville series dates back to 1958 when Spencer and East Spencer were consolidated into North Rowan. Thomasville ruled the series until North achieved a breakthrough win in 1981, and the Cavaliers beat the Bulldogs six times in nine meetings in the 1980s when the rivalry burned with fierce intensity.

The programs didn’t square off often in the 1990s and 2000s, and North went 25 years between wins against the Bulldogs (1988 to 2013).

Thomasville beat the Cavaliers in 2021 and 2022 after returning to the CCC, but North had a 16-12 victory in 2023 that was one of the key nights in a great season.

Thomasville leads the all-time series 16-10.

•••

A.L. Brown at Lake Norman is still scheduled for Friday.

The series stands 3-3. A.L. Brown won the first three, but the Wildcats have won the last three, including a 24-21 victory in 2023.

Lake Norman (3-1, 0-0) is coming off a big win against Marvin Ridge and is favored by 22 in the Greater Metro Conference game. The Wonders (3-1, 1-0) are given only an 11 percent win probability by the Massey Ratings, but they should have a better chance than that.

The Wonders finally beat Hickory Ridge last week after three years of losing to the Bulls. Lake Norman is better than Hickory Ridge, but the Wonders have a shot.