Wilson Prep visits Warren Co. with Tar-Roanoke title at stake

With just three weeks left in the high school football regular season, the separation of contenders from pretenders amps up as there’s not much margin for error for teams with aspirations of a conference championship.

The most compelling case in week 9 in the Times readership area is a battle in Warrenton that should decide the 1-A Tar-Roanoke Athletic Conference. Defending champion Wilson Prep and host Warren County — both 5-0 in conference play and 6-1 overall — go head-to-head in what is shaping up to be the conference championship game with a No. 1 seed for the upcoming NCHSAA playoffs at stake.

Wilson Prep, which started playing football in 2022, has won 15 straight Tar-Roanoke games dating back to that first season.

In the 3-A Quad County Conference, C.B. Aycock got the jump on the weekend with a Thursday night homecoming game against West Johnston. The 29-0 romp was the eighth victory for the unbeaten Golden Falcons, who are a win from clinching a share of the QCC title for the second time in three years.

The Wildcats’ loss leaves Hunt and Fike temporarily tied for second place with both Wilson teams on the road Friday. The Warriors will visit South Johnston while the Golden Demons are at East Wake.

Beddingfield will visit Eastern Wayne in a desperate attempt to stay in the 2-A Neuse 6 Conference race after losing to North Johnston on homecoming last week. The Panthers, tied with Eastern Wayne for first place at 2-0, will host winless Goldsboro.

In the 2-A/3-A Big East Conference unbeatens Southern Nash and Northern Nash look to be on a collision — again — to settle the league title but the Firebirds must navigate past a resurgent Rocky Mount on Friday night in Stanhope.

In the 2-A Eastern Plains Conference, SouthWest Edgecombe comes off its open week with a shot at newly minted leader Ayden-Grifton while Greene Central looks for its fifth overall win as it hosts West Craven.

At all sites Friday, kickoff will be at 7 p.m.

TRAC TANGLE IN WARRENTON

Wilson Prep enters Friday’s showdown as whole as it’s been since the season-opening 34-28 overtime loss at Ayden-Grifton, which currently sits atop the 2-A Eastern Plains Conference. Senior middle linebacker/offensive guard Jeremiah Williams is back from a knee strain that has sidelined him.

The Tigers have opened up their offense this season with head coach Phillip Dickens going to the air as much as the ground in recent weeks. Wilson Prep threw for 445 yards in 2023 and so far this year has accumuluated 1,620 yards through the air with junior quarterback Travon Usher accounting 1,515 yards and 13 touchdowns.

That sort of passing attack hasn’t come at the expense of the ground game that has averaged 331 yards per game. Junior Ethan Nelson has 788 yards and senior Xavier Williams has 426 while Usher is a threat to run with 392 yards.

It’s that kind of balanced attack that Dickens bet fellow Tar-Roanoke teams would struggle to defend, even Warren County, which is as tough a TRAC opponent as the Tigers have faced in two seasons.

“I think we’re going to play well against them,” Dickens said during a telephone interview Thursday evening. “I think they match up with us pretty well, but I think we’re clicking majorly on offense. And I don’t think many people can slow that offense down right now. And defensively, we know they’re going to try to attack us in the secondary, since KIPP exposed us there a little bit last week, but I’ve made the adjustments with that, so you know, we’re going to take away that and really attack their quarterback. He loves to get out and run, and our guys plan to put the hat on him a lot tomorrow night.”

The Tigers pitched shutouts in their first three conference games and hoped to run the table in the Tar-Roanoke without ceding point but Weldon scored two TDs and KIPP Pride reached the end zone three times last week. With games against winless Rocky Mount Prep next week and at Southeast Halifax on Nov. 1, the Tigers have an easier postgame path than Warren County, which still has to play Northwest Halifax and a tough Weldon team.

Dickens pointed to the No. 1 seed in the NCHSAA playoffs that comes with a conference title as huge. A win means the Tigers could conceivably stay at home for the first three or four rounds, if they keep winning.

QUAD COUNTY SCRAMBLE

C.B. Aycock (8-0, 6-0) all but clinched the QCC title with its 29-0 beatdown of a West Johnston team hoping for an upset. Senior Ricky Elliott rushed for 132 yards while Caleb Frederick and Zimere McClarin each ran for one touchdown and caught a pass from quarterback Sidney Lancaster for another TD and the Falcons posted their first 2024 shutout Thursday.

That leaves Hunt and Fike still hoping for an unlikely CBA stumble in its last two games against Quad County bottom-dwellers Southern Wayne and Smithfield-Selma.

The Warriors and Demons, both 4-3 overall and 3-1 in QCC games, are more likely playing to keep pace with one another heading into their Nov. 8 showdown at Hunt for the Wilson County Schools Championship and a guaranteed playoff spot as the Quad County runner-up.

Hunt has a slightly tougher draw in traveling to Four Oaks to face South Johnson (4-3, 2-2 QCC) while Fike heads to Wendell to face East Wake (2-5, 1-3). The Demons host Southern Wayne next week while Hunt welcomes West Johnston.

BRUINS’ BACKS TO THE WALL

The Bruins (1-5, 1-1 Neuse 6) lost all four of their nonconference games (and had one rained out) but opened conference play with their best performance of the season in a 49-6 rout of winless Goldsboro two weeks ago. But Beddingfield’s penchant for self-inflicted wounds rose its head in a 52-30 homecoming loss to North Johnston last week.

Eastern Wayne (5-2, 2-0) will be a tough nut for the Bruins to crack but if they want to stay in the running for the Neuse 6 title, at least a share, and state playoff spot, Beddingfield has to win Friday.

North Johnston, under first-year head coach Kyle Schenk, has won four straight heading into Friday’s home game against winless Goldsboro. The Panthers will host Eastern Wayne next Friday, Oct. 25, in a game with major implications all around.

FIREBIRDS-GRYPHONS SET STAGE

Southern Nash has been eyeing next Friday’s showdown with Northern Nash since preseason practice began July 31 because that’s been the biggest regular-season matchup on each 2-A/3-A Big East Conference rival’s schedule for the past few years. Southern Nash is the defending champion after beating the Knights in the 2023 regular season but then was eliminated by Northern Nash in the second round of the NCHSAA 3-A playoffs for the second year in a row.

It would be very easy for Firebirds players and coaches to look past this week’s foe, Rocky Mount (4-3, 3-0 Big East). The 3-A Gryphons lost three of their first four games this season but have been on fire since Big East play started. And Rocky Mount is the Big East team with the most recent state title (2015) that nobody in Stanhope is going to look past.

But Gryphons head coach Jason Battle  and his staff will have to formulate a plan to slow the Firebirds ground game down. Southern Nash is averaging 379 yards per game on the ground with senior Tylik Mitchell accounting for 220.3 yards of that. His 1,542 rushing yards leads the entire state, per MaxPreps.com , and his 21 total TDs ranks third.

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