Staff report

CONCORD — Concord threw the first punch — and the second one — but A.L. Brown’s football team rallied for a 31-14 victory on Friday in one of the state’s storied rivalries.

The Wonders have won 10 in a row in the long-running series, a feat which once seemed impossible. A few generations ago (1961-70), the Spiders were beating A.L. Brown 10 times in a row.

The reward for the Wonders (5-5) in the high-profile non-conference game could be a berth in the state playoffs. The Wonders are right on the bubble. Early Saturday morning, they had moved up to No. 31 in the 4A West RPI rankings, but results continued to trickle in, and they were No. 32 on Sunday morning.

Thirty-two teams make the bracket.

Concord (4-6) had two long drives early in Friday’s game. Both were capped by Alex Petroff TD runs, and the Spiders led 14-0.

The Wonders didn’t panic, stayed patient and began taking control with their running game in the second quarter. It was 14-all at the half.

Quarterback CJ Gray’s 66-yard TD run early in the third quarter was the play of the game and put A.L. Brown ahead to stay at 21-14.

The Wonders made it 28-14 with a touchdown with 9:47 left to play, and Brian Rojo tacked on a field goal with 1:18 remaining.

Gray had a terrific game, throwing for 144 yards and running for 90. He threw a touchdown pass to Jesse Morton and had two rushing TDs.

Mekhi Herron ran for 94 yards and a score. Bryce Morgan pounded out 107 yards on 16 carries.

Parker Lauglin led A.L. Brown’s defense with an interception and a fumble recovery.

Isaiah Wright had an interception. Demarius Barr recovered a fumble.

The Wonders had a 4-2 edge in the turnover battle.

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With the RPI system, the three things that matter are your winning percentage, the winning percentage of your opponents and the winning percent of your opponent’s opponents. Because of the third component of that formula, games that might seem totally irrelevant mattered on Friday. Davie’s loss to Glenn mattered because even though the Wonders didn’t play Davie or Glenn,  Davie played A.L. Brown opponents such as West Rowan and Mooresville. Even Marvin Ridge’s result mattered because Marvin Ridge played Lake Norman.

Complicating projections a bit are the teams in the western part of the state that were affected by Hurricane Helene, although there aren’t many 4A teams in the mountains. Asheville has played only six games. TC Roberson has played seven. Watauga and McDowell have played eight each.

Official playoff seeding and pairings were pushed back to Nov. 10 to allow teams an additional week to play more games. There were even a few Tuesday games last week.