Mother Nature certainly wreaked havoc on the first week of the area high school football season as inclement weather completely cancelled two games, moved one game up a day, push three to Saturday and two to Monday.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s keep our fingers crossed that Friday\u2019s local week two schedule won\u2019t be affected by poor weather because we got quite an Onslow County clash between Northside and Jacksonville.<\/p>\n
But while the meeting between the Monarchs and Cardinals highlight this week\u2019s action, the area\u2019s other nine teams also hit the field.<\/p>\n
Here are my thoughts and predictions for Friday\u2019s week 2 games:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Northside (0-0) at Jacksonville (1-0)<\/p>\n
Does Jacksonville have an edge after having played a game while Northside\u2019s contest at White Oak was cancelled?<\/p>\n
On paper, this is a toss-up game between city rivals as the Monarchs and Cardinals are the area\u2019s two most athletic squads.<\/p>\n
Jacksonville has won six consecutive games in this series, including 64-0 in 2024 and 48-27 last year. Northside\u2019s last win over the Cardinals was a 40-14 triumph in 2019.<\/p>\n
Jacksonville officially leads the series 13-11, including a forfeit win in 2015 in a game where the Monarchs won 21-7 on the field.<\/p>\n
The emotions ran high in last year\u2019s game, and expect even more this season as Northside looks to snap its skid against Jacksonville. Look for this to be a back-and-forth affair with plenty of big plays.<\/p>\n
The game may come down to which team has the final possession.<\/p>\n
Prediction: Northside 34, Jacksonville 28\u00a0<\/p>\n
White Oak (0-0) at Richlands (1-0)<\/p>\n
(Thursday)<\/p>\n
White Oak has won the last three games with Richlands, including 34-21 last year. The Vikings lead the all-time series 18-6.<\/p>\n
White Oak\u2019s game with Northside was cancelled while Richlands rallied for a 15-14 win over Southwest on Monday. Normally a team having a game under its belt comes in handy, but it may not be an advantage for the Wildcats, given their game was Monday.<\/p>\n
Still, look for Richlands to play inspired following another emotional win over Southwest.<\/p>\n
The Richlands-White Oak games have typically been competitive, and look for the same in this one. Look for this to be close with perhaps an extra point being a difference.<\/p>\n
Prediction: Richlands 21, White Oak 20<\/p>\n
North Raleigh Christian (1-0) at Southwest (0-1)<\/p>\n
Southwest managed to secure a full 10-game schedule by picking up North Raleigh Christian.<\/p>\n
The NCISAA Knights have been at or near .500 the last three seasons, but are coming off a 33-13 win over Wake Prep. Eli Johnston completed eight of 12 passes for 270 yards and four touchdowns in that game.<\/p>\n
While we don\u2019t know too much more about the Knights, expect the Stallions to come out want to put Monday\u2019s defeat at Richlands quickly behind them.<\/p>\n
Southwest has not won a home opener since a 48-26 victory over East Carteret in the 2021 spring season.<\/p>\n
Prediction: Southwest 27, North Raleigh Christian 20<\/p>\n
Beddingfield (0-1) at Dixon (0-1)<\/p>\n
Dixon didn\u2019t get the result it wanted last Thursday as the Bulldogs dropped their opener 20-8 at Topsail.<\/p>\n
Look for the Bulldogs to take out their frustrations against Beddingfield, which lost 40-0 to North Johnston on Thursday. Dixon topped Beddingfield 57-6 last year.<\/p>\n
While I don\u2019t expect a 51-point game this time, I see the Bulldogs finding needed offensive success that should allow them to pull away by the third quarter.<\/p>\n
Prediction: Dixon 30, Beddingfield 16\u00a0<\/p>\n
East Duplin (1-0) at Princeton (1-0)<\/p>\n
East Duplin didn\u2019t have too much time to celebrate Saturday\u2019s 16-14 win over Wallace-Rose Hill as the Panthers had to quickly turn their focus on competitive Princeton.<\/p>\n
Teo McPhatter rushed for 298 yards and four touchdowns for Princeton in Thursday\u2019s 34-9 victory over Ayden-Grifton. I expect another strong defensive showing this week for the Panthers after they held Wallace-Rose Hill to just 43 yards of total offense in the first half.<\/p>\n
Look for East Duplin to sustain enough drives to emerge victorious.<\/p>\n
Prediction: East Duplin 21, Princeton 13\u00a0<\/p>\n
Swansboro (1-0) at Pamlico (1-0)<\/p>\n
Swansboro plays its second game this week as the Pirates visit Pamlico. Swansboro is coming off a last-second 23-18 win at South Columbus on Monday.<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes, who went 2-10 last year, perhaps enter with confidence following a 34-26 win at Kipp Pride, which beat Pamlico 72-7 last year.<\/p>\n
This is the first Swansboro-Pamlico meeting since the Pirates downed the Hurricanes 47-0 in 2016. Pamlico\u2019s last win was in 2015. The Hurricanes lead the series 21-10-1.<\/p>\n
Prediction: Swansboro 38, Pamlico 16\u00a0<\/p>\n
Croatan (1-0) at Topsail (1-0)<\/p>\n
Croatan\u2019s game at Topsail may be one of the most competitive games in the East as both the Cougars and Pirates are coming off wins.<\/p>\n
Croatan expectedly took care of business in a 50-0 win over East Carteret on Saturday while Topsail snapped a 14-game skid with a 20-8 victory over Dixon on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Special teams may decide this game.<\/p>\n
The Cougars lead the series 10-9, including last year\u2019s 49-7 victory.<\/p>\n
Prediction: Croatan 27, Topsail 17\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lejeune (0-0) at Lakewood (0-1)<\/p>\n
Lejeune\u2019s opener last week against American Leadership Academy was cancelled, meaning the Devilpups will play their first game Friday at Lakewood, which lost 35-19 to Clinton on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Lejeune fell 40-0 to Lakewood last year.<\/p>\n
Prediction: Lakewood 33, Lejeune 12\u00a0<\/p>\n
Community Christian (0-0) at Liberty Christian (1-0)<\/p>\n
Liberty Christian Academy plays its home opener against Community Christian, which hosts Wake Christian on Monday.<\/p>\n
The Heat and Cyclones split their two games last year with Community winning 38-20 in the first game and Liberty winning 35-22 in the rematch. Liberty had an open date last week following a 26-14 win at Father Capodanno on Aug. 14.<\/p>\n
Prediction: Liberty Christian 30, Community Christian 20<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mother Nature certainly wreaked havoc on the first week of the area high school football season as inclement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381654,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,110],"class_list":["post-381653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381653\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381654"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}