ALBEMARLE — While a trio of local high school football teams — North Stanly, South Stanly, and Albemarle — were included in this year’s NCHSAA state playoffs, only one of the three won its opening-round matchup on Friday night.
Playing at their home field in Norwood, the No. 8 South Stanly Bulls (6-4) defeated the No. 25 Avery County Vikings (2-8) in a 37-7 finish in the 1A bracket’s West Region.
The Bulls will now host the No. 9 Starmount Rams (10-1), who shut out the No. 24 Andrews Wildcats (4-6) 51-0 in the first round.
In its past two games, South has held its opponents to an average of 10.5 points scored, down from an average of 25.5 points in the Bulls’ previous four contests. They will likely face a tougher test against a Rams squad that hasn’t lost a game since Sept. 28 and has posted over 50 points in five of its past six matchups.
In the 2A bracket’s West Region, the No. 19 North Stanly Comets (6-5) suffered a 24-10 loss to No. 14 Burns in Lawndale; the Bulldogs (8-3) are set to travel to undefeated No. 3 Monroe (10-0), who topped No. 30 T.W. Andrews (4-7) by a tally of 69-0.
The Comets found themselves down 17-0 by the midpoint of the second quarter, allowing Burns to sit on its lead and enter halftime up 17-3.
North running back Aden Allsbrook gave his team a shot in the arm with a 16-yard rushing touchdown late in the third quarter — narrowing Burns’ lead to seven points — but the Comets were unable to score throughout the rest of the night.
Over in the 1A bracket’s West Region, the No. 23 Albemarle Bulldogs’ (3-8) postseason came to an end after a 49-28 road loss to the No. 10 East Wilkes Cardinals (9-2) in Ronda, marking the Bulldogs’ fifth loss in a span of six games.
The Cardinals advanced to play against No. 7 North Rowan (7-4), who took down No. 26 Cherryville (3-8) in a 41-34 finish.
While the Bulldogs managed to post the most points allowed by East Wilkes in six games, they had no answers for a Cardinal offense that climbed to a 27-7 halftime lead and never looked back; Albemarle’s three touchdowns scored in the third quarter proved to be inconsequential.
With second-round games set for Friday, the NCHSAA state playoffs are scheduled to have third-round matchups on Nov. 29, followed by fourth-round matchups on Dec. 6; regionals are slated for Dec. 13 and championship games are set for Dec. 20 and Dec. 21.
The 2A and 4A state title games will be played at North Carolina’s Kenan Memorial Stadium in Chapel Hill, while the 1A and 3A games will be played at NC State’s Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh.