All three Beaufort County schools have made it to the postseason. With the threat of bad weather in the area on Friday and Saturday, all three games will now be played Thursday at 7:30. 2-seeded Washington hosts 15-seed Nash Central, while fifth-seeded Northside welcomes No. 12 KIPP Pride to town. 9th-seeded Southside will travel to the 8th-seeded South Creek.

 

Washington vs. Nash Central

The Bulldogs (5-6, 2-3) were the last team into the playoff field. Forest Hills would’ve made the field, but a fight in their season finale resulted in a forfeit, allowing Nash Central to participate in the playoffs.

Nash Central is another Wing-T offense. Junior quarterback Jaylan Williams can sling the ball a little bit, but he’s also not afraid to take off with it.

The Washington defense has seen many variations of wing-T and loaded backfield formations within their conference and non-conference schedule, so tonight won’t be any different.

The Pam Pack is going to score points. Nash Central allowed 53, 55, 46, 27, 20 and 36 points in their six losses.

The Bulldogs only wins this season came from 3-8 North Pitt, 0-11 Farmville Central, 1-10 Bertie, 2-9 East Chapel Hill in a forfeit and 1-10 Southeast Halifax.

This one won’t be close. The Pam Pack is just too big up front, their defense is firing on all cylinders, and they’ll have too much offensive success for this game to be anywhere close beyond the first half.

 

Prediction:

Washington 51, Nash Central 13

 

Southside @ South Creek

For the second time this season, the Seahawks will have to travel to Robersonville to take on the Cougars. In the first contest, South Creek prevailed, 38-26.

This will be a slightly different contest. With Southside starting quarterback Hundley Stallings has been ruled out of Thursday night’s contest due to injury, and the Seahawks will start freshman quarterback Walker Hill. Head coach Jeff Carrow said he is comfortable with Hill at quarterback, as he has a good feel for the offense this late into the season.

Southside won’t change their play calling according to Carrow, but I wouldn’t expect Hill to throw as many deep shots as there would be with Stallings under center. I could foresee some early play-action bootlegs early in the game to give Hill some confidence, and keep the defense off-balance for the game’s duration.

All of Southside’s running backs should be good to go. Jamari Nelson, Davion Carter and Kenjray Coffield will all need to come up big to pick up their young quarterback. The defense will be missing a couple of key guys due to injury, but they have enough to disrupt the South Creek air attack. Cougars’ running back Demorian Smith had one of his better games of the season against Southside earlier this year, rushing for 253 yards and four touchdowns, but it’s tough to do that twice in a season against the same team.

 

Prediction:

Southside 29, South Creek 28

 

Northside vs. KIPP Pride

 

The Panthers are hosting a playoff game for the first time since 2016. KIPP Pride (5-6, 4-2) finished third in the Tar Roanoke 1A Conference, behind North Edgecombe and Northampton.

The conference is very top heavy, as the bottom four teams in the conference didn’t pose any threat to the top three schools within conference play.

KIPP Pride lost to Granville Central, Lakewood, Louisburg and Bartlett Yancey in its out-of-conference schedule, but defeated South Creek 46-18 in early September.

The Panthers have started to play some of their best football recently. They have limited their turnovers and the defense has played lights out. Outside of the game against Tarboro, they have led in the fourth quarter of every other game this season.

Northside is a good football team, and they have a chance to make some noise in the 1A bracket. With a win, they’ll face the second-placed team in the Tar Roanoke 1A Conference in Northampton.

A relatively healthy Panthers squad should handle their business and move on to the second round tomorrow night.

 

Prediction:

Northside 33, KIPP Pride 22