Tigers finally return home as Helene moves week 6 games to Thursday

With the newly-minted Hurricane Helene expected to sweep through the western tip of North Carolina early Friday, the strong likelihood of rain miles east has sparked a rash of Thursday night high school football games.

All but one team in the Times readership area will kick off Thursday night with North Johnston still scheduled to play at Lakewood on Friday in Roseboro. Headlining the gamut of Thursday night football is Wilson Prep’s first home game of the season. The Tigers, 3-1 overall and 2-0 in 1-A Tar-Roanoke Athletic Conference games, won’t have to fire up the bus this Friday as TRAC rival Northwest Halifax visits.

“Man, we are super excited to be back home,” Wilson Prep head coach Phillip Dickens said during a Wednesday afternoon telephone interview. “It seems like forever that we have been been away, so we’re excited, looking to put a great product on the field tomorrow night for our fans and to get our third conference win.”

Both Fike and Hunt will host 3-A Quad County Conference games Thursday with the Golden Demons taking on South Johnston and the Warriors facing Smithfield-Selma. Also in QCC fare, unbeaten C.B. Aycock welcomes East Wake.

Beddingfield is off this Friday in preparation for its 2-A Neuse 6 Conference opener next Friday, Oct. 4, at home against Goldsboro.

Southern Nash ventures up I-95 to Roanoke Rapids for a 2-A/3-A Big East Conference battle while SouthWest Edgecombe and Greene Central go at it in a key 2-A Eastern Plains Conference skirmish.

At all sites, kickoff is at 7 p.m.

NW HALIFAX (1-3, 0-2 TRAC) at WILSON PREP (3-1, 2-0)

The Tigers enter the game with the hope of meeting their goals — one of which is keeping their Points Against total at zero for the rest of the regular season.

“Our goal this entire conference, is not to let anybody score on us,” Dickens said. “I tell them that anybody scoring on us is a defeat based on our standards. One thing I’ve done as a coach is I made our team set short-term, medium-term and long-term goals. And, tomorrow night is one of our short-term goals. So the guys are excited. Everybody is locked in.”

The defending TRAC-champion Tigers beat Northampton County 30-0 to start conference play three weeks ago and hung a 54-0 whipping on North Edgecombe last Friday night in Leggett. Wilson Prep’s only loss came at 2-A and unbeaten Farmville Central after the Tigers coughed up the football six times.

Since then, Dickens has moved Travon Usher back to starting quarterback, where he played most of last season, and leading rusher Ethan Nelson from QB to running back as the Tigers settle into the rotations they hope will carry them much deeper in the playoffs in their third season of NCHSAA play.

“Well, the great thing about it is, I was telling my coaches yesterday as we were just going over different scenarios with players at different positions, and I told them, we have a great problem — and that is getting everybody on the field,” Dickens said. “Because the experience that the younger guys have gotten have them challenging now upperclassmen that were getting a lot of playing time, so we feel very good. We’re hungry after the hiccup down at Farmville.”

This is the start of a three-game homestand for Wilson Prep, which has just four regular-season home games on the schedule.

SOUTH JOHNSTON (3-1, 1-0 QCC) at FIKE (2-2, 1-0)

After fending off a potential West Johnston comeback attempt in their QCC opener at home, the Golden Demons look to take another key step towards repeating as conference champions as the Trojans visit Buddy Bedgood Stadium.

Junior quarterback Cam Pittman leads the Quad County with 668 yards on 49-of-83 passing for six touchdowns. Pittman has only thrown one interception while also leading Fike with 325 rushing yards, nearly as much as Trojans running back Holt Langston with 352 yards.

SMITHFIELD-SELMA (0-4, 0-1 QCC) at HUNT (1-3, 0-1)

The Warriors are coming off a discouraging 54-14 whipping at C.B. Aycock to start conference play last Friday night following an open week on the schedule.

Now Hunt welcomes winless Smithfield-Selma to Warrior Stadium as the Quad County schedule will get progressively harder leading to the regular-season finale at home against Fike on Nov. 1.

Warriors senior linebacker Keyshawn Richardson leads the QCC with 46 tackles and two interceptions.

SOUTHERN NASH (5-0, 1-0 Big East) at ROANOKE RAPIDS (5-0, 1-0)

After surviving back-to-back tests versus Southern Alamance on Sept. 13 and then last week in their 2-A/3-A Big East Conference opener against Nash Central, the 3-A Firebirds face another challenge in the equally unbeaten 2-A Yellow Jackets.

Roanoke Rapids will have to figure out a way to stop the state’s leading rusher in senior Tylik Mitchell, who has run for 1,069 yards — a figure that is ranked 16th nationally — and 12 touchdowns. Mitchell leads a Firebirds offense averaging more than 355 yards on the ground per game.

Roanoke Rapids has three wins against 1-A teams and another over an independent team but the Yellow Jackets have allowed just 51 points in five games.

SW EDGECOMBE (3-2, 0-1 EPC) at GREENE CENTRAL (3-2, 0-1)

The Cougars and Rams both look to end mini-skids at two games in this classic Eastern Plains matchup at the James R. “Rabbit” Fulghum Athletic Complex. SouthWest was denied 29-28 by Farmville Central while Greene Central came up short 24-22 against North Pitt in the EPC debuts for each. Only the winner of this game will have a realistic hope of remaining in the chase for the league title.

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