Week 2 pigskin picks

With one week of local football under our belts, everyone has gotten a better grasp on the strengths and weaknesses of area teams.

While I debated back-and-forth on doing a pigskin picks for last week, I wanted to see all of the teams play their first game before truly forming an opinion. There were far too many shake-ups and roster changes from last season to solely base my analysis on scrimmages, practices, and the jamboree. While I had good guesses in my mind, I was wrong on a few, which further proved that preseason stuff is a good measuring stick, but does not truly tell everything about a team.

And week one also isn’t the end-all-be-all, either. Various changes happen week-to-week, so a team could look completely different from last week to this week, and surely will look different in week 11.

The last thing I will point out is that this isn’t me giving favoritism or bias to one team or another. This is just me, an outsider with no connections to any one particular school in the county, giving my true and honest analysis of each team’s upcoming games for the week; it is in no way designed to criticize any schooln or put another school on a pedastal. Use it as bulletin board material if you wish, but just know that my opinions are simply as someone who has a bird’s-eye view of county sports as a whole.

Lakewood @ KIPP Pride, Thursday, 7 p.m.

A rare Thursday night game will take place this week, as the Leopards travel to Gaston to take on KIPP Pride.

Lakewood came out of the gates hot last week, routing Spring Creek 60-6. A stout 4-3 defense that does show some weakness in the passing game shows its strengths against the run. A combined 22 assisted tackles, three interceptions, and a forced fumble and recovery shows that the Leopards were in full-on pack-hunt mode defensively on Friday. Dontavius Smith returned one interception for a 55-yard touchdown and added another 25-yard return on the other. He also had a 45-yard punt return for a touchdown.

Offensively, it was all cylinders firing for Lakewood, too. Calvin Lacewell, Jr. returned to his form from his freshman campaign last season, putting 113 yards on the ground and two scores on the scoreboard. Chris Carr, Rylan Godbold, and Reed Ammons also had rushing touchdowns. Godbold showed off his arm in the passing game, too, as Lakewood showed they could air it out if they wanted to.

KIPP Pride dropped their week one game against Washington County, 22-8. No statistics were available for this game.

My prediction is that Lakewood could have another blow-out win in non-conference play. Look for the Leopards to hang 50+ and allow little, if any, scoring.

Trask @ Hobbton, Friday, 7 p.m.

Hobbton was on the wrong side of their opening game at Midway last week, falling 34-0. This wasn’t a complete wsh for the Wildcats, though, as they did have shining moments against the Raiders. Their defense had Midway stumbling early with two fumbles for the home team, plus an early penalty on Midway’s first possession, and a stop on third down. Add in a blocked field goal, an interception, and multiple big stops, and defense was the name of the game for Hobbton, but ultimately they came up short.

The offense had their shining moments, too, including a coveted fourth down conversion. It seems that field position was a hole they couldn’t dig themselves out of.

Trask had a big home win over Rocky Mount Prep, 46-0, but statistics are not able to be found for that game.

My prediction is that Hobbton corrects their course and wins over Trask in front of their home crowd, 35-31.

Clinton @ Wallace-Rose Hill, Friday, 7 p.m.

The Dark Horses didn’t get off to the start they had hoped under Coach Johnny Boykin, but not all is lost. They opened their season at Northside-Jacksonville, where they lost 43-0, and had just five yards of offense.

But as alluded to earlier, week one is not the only game of the season, and the Dark Horses could easily bounce back from their opening game and turn around their team in a hurry.

The bright side to this game for Clinton could be their defense. Wallace-Rose Hill attempted eigth passes against Havelock on Friday, in a game which they lost 51-14. Three of those passes were intercepted, and only two connected with WRH receivers, for a total of 44 yards and no touchdowns.

Coach Boykin said he “cut his teeth” on defense in an earlier interview, so look to him to capitalize on forced and unforced errors by the Bulldogs this Friday night. If they can manage to couple that with offensive success, the Dark Horses could come away victorious.

This game could be a back-and-forth, but my prediction is that Clinton doesn’t quite pull it together just yet, and they fall to Wallace-Rose Hill, 42-28.

James Kenan @ Midway, Friday, 7 p.m.

Both teams laid the smack down on their opponents last week, and they are surely looking to do so against each other this week in what could be a high-scoring affair.

Midway opened their season in big fashion at home against Hobbton, winning 34-0. James Kenan traveled to Swansboro and won 48-6. This very well may be an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object, but which team is which is yet to be determined.

James Kenan passed the ball just three times for five yards in their first game, but put up 256 yards and five touchdowns on the ground. Midway’s Tanner Williams tossed it 23 times, completing it 15 times for 169 yards and three touchdowns. James Kenan had 76 total tackles and 15 tackles for loss. Midway had 72 tackles and eigth tackles for loss. This should shape up to be a battle of two titans duking it out at Tommy Sloan Field on Friday.

Barrett Sloan said the Raiders will be “mixing in different packages” as far as defense goes this season, so it will be interesting to see if they come out and stack the box against a run-heavy James Kenan team. The Tigers ran their defense of out the dime package a lot, which matched up well against their pass-heavy opponent, ultimately forcing interceptions.

For my first ever Shootout of the Week, I’m taking Barrett Sloan and the Raiders to handle business at home for the second week in a row, defeating James Kenan 54-51.

Bear Grass Charter @ Union, Friday, 7 p.m.

After a slew of injuries on Friday night, Union ultimately fell in their first game, 59-0, against American Leadership Academy Johnston.

While the status of those injured is unknown at this time, they were definitely missed on Friday. Singing the same tune I have been throughout this analysis, not everything is lost here for the Spartans. Mark Oates, head coach of Union, is very experienced in high school football. If there’s someone in the county that can turn this team around, it would be him.

Bear Grass did not play on Friday, so this will be their opening game. They had a season last year that many schools would be envious of, going 8-3 and making a run in the playoffs, and also went 6-0 in their conference. The Bears had two running backs that totalled 1,961 yards on 210 carries and 33 touchdowns last season.

But, good news for Union, those two graduated, and the younger players slotted to take their place have just a fraction of those numbers. The Bears also aren’t a pass-heavy team, so Union’s 4-4 defense should match up well against the run.

If the Spartans can heal quickly and put together a package, they could give Bear Creek a run for their money.

However, I do give Bear Creek the advantage this week, but a much closer game than some would expect, 28-17 in favor of Bear Creek.

Harrells Christian Academy @ Wayne Christian, Friday, 7 p.m.

A week off could prove to be crucial for the Crusaders, as they travel to Wayne Christian on Friday.

Harrells fell to Covenant Day in their season opener that took place a week before the public schools’, 28-6. This may have largely been attributed to a matchup discrepancy. Covenant Day aired the ball out more than many other schools in this level of high school football, which HCA might not have been as prepared for. In fact, HCA had more all-purpose yards than their opponent.

Their stacked-box defense had its shining moments, too, combining sacks and other tackles behind the line of scrimmage to give Covenent Day’s quarterback -42 rushing yards, which dropped his net yardage overall. They also had success in their rushing game, putting up 151 yards on the ground and one touchdown.

The Crusaders will need all the help they can get as they take on an Eagles team that went 11-2 last season and ultimately fell in the Division 1A 8-man football state championship. However, two things to note about that: one is that their only regular-season loss came against Harrells, and two is that last season is thrown out the window.

More good news for the Crusaders: their top two running backs, who amassed more than 2,100 rushing yards a season ago, were seniors for that season. Four of the top five receivers, who totalled over 1,100 yards, were also seniors. A strong rushing attack and the Crusaders’ smothering defense could bring them out victorious in their second bout of the season.

I think Harrells has the Eagles’ number here, but I don’t foresee a high-scoring affair — 21-17 in favor of HCA is my pick.