It’s getting down to the nitty-gritty. There are just three weeks left in the regular season of high school football, and easily the most important for teams jostling for position within their conferences. The Pam Pack has a date with South Lenoir on Friday night in Deep Run, and Northside will host South Creek for homecoming. Southside will be off this week, as their game against Jones Senior was forfeited. The Seahawks improve to 3-5 on the season with a 1-3 conference mark.

 

Northside vs. South Creek

This should be a fun one. The Panthers (5-3, 2-1 Coastal Plains 1A) have led every game in the fourth quarter at one point this season, and Friday night won’t be any different. The Panthers have been relatively impressive this season. If a few things go their way, the Panthers could just as easily be 7-1 or 8-0 at this point in the season.

South Creek (4-4, 2-1) have made a big turnaround this season. After beginning their season 2-0, they dropped three straight in a 44-22 loss to Riverside, 46-18 loss to KIPP Pride and 42-0 route from North Edgecombe. Since then, they’ve gone 2-1 with a 26-6 win over Riverside at home. A lot of the Cougars’ offensive success has come from Demorian Smith, who has reached 1,000 rushing yards through eight games this season with 11 touchdowns.

The Cougars’ offense may be tough for the Panthers to defend with the way they spread the field. Northside’s linebacker corps is young, but they have gained valuable experience thus far through the season and have done a relatively nice job. The back end has been solid, and they’ll need to be again on Friday night.

South Creek is going to run four and five wide receivers on the field and try to take advantage of one-on-one situations. The Cougar quarterbacks have had an abysmal season to this point, combining for a 26-of-85 (30.5% completion percentage) mark for 497 yards with three touchdowns to nine interceptions. Look for the Panthers to create a couple turnovers on their way to a 6-3 record on Homecoming.

 

Prediction:

Northside 41, South Creek 28

 

Washington @ South Lenoir

 

The Pam Pack is coming off of a disappointing loss to D.H. Conley, after having the Vikings on the ropes. This week, they’ll travel to South Lenoir to take on the Blue Devils (2-6, 0-4). The Blue Devils’ only wins this season came against Jones Senior and Spring Creek.

Xavier Mitchell, junior running back for South Lenoir is leading the team in rushing with 342 yards, while sophomore running back Joseph Cobb leads them in touchdowns with four.

South Lenoir’s offense isn’t much different than the vast majority of teams the Pam Pack have seen this season. They’ll put a couple of backs with a wing man in the backfield, and use some misdirection with who’s getting the ball with some moving pieces. Outside of the Tarboro game, the Pam Pack defense has done a good job of snuffing out the run a filling their gaps.

The Washington offense can score points in bunches, and they’ll likely do so again against a South Lenoir team that’s given up at least 45 points to six different opponents this season, and three of those reached the 50’s.

The Pam Pack will likely run away with this one, but with a win, they’ll battle for the conference championship next Friday night against West Craven.

 

Prediction:

Washington 57, South Lenoir 13