It\u2019s the penultimate week of the high school football season.<\/p>\n
You read that correctly. After this week, there one remaining week of the regular season before the start of the NCHSAA playoffs.<\/p>\n
The local game of week is Jacksonville’s at D.H. Conley in a game that should determine who second place in the Big Carolina 6-A\/7-A Conference. The Coastal 5-A\/6-A Conference clash between Northside and Swansboro is also an interesting contest.<\/p>\n
Who wins Friday\u2019s week 10 games? Here are my thoughts and predictions:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jacksonville (5-2, 2-1) at D.H. Conley (6-2, 2-1)<\/p>\n
Jacksonville had its best offensive performance last week in a 62-30 win over South Central. The Cardinals look to keep the momentum at D.H. Conley in a Big Carolina Conference clash.<\/p>\n
Jacksonville, D.H. Conley and New Bern (6-2, 2-1) are tied for second in the league behind J.H. Rose (8-0, 3-0). New Bern and J.H. Rose play Friday.<\/p>\n
The Cardinals have the advantage over the Vikings, judging by the scores against common opponents.<\/p>\n
In addition to the victory over South Central, Jacksonville topped New Bern 47-6. D.H. Conley defeated South Central 26-22, but fell 42-35 at New Bern last week.<\/p>\n
The Cardinals have won three consecutive games in the series, including 41-24 last year. The Vikings\u2019 last win was a 34-28 victory in 2022. Jacksonville won the first meeting 53-8 in 2009.<\/p>\n
Prediction: Jacksonville 35, D.H. Conley 17\u00a0<\/p>\n
Northside (8-0, 4-0) at Swansboro (6-2, 2-2)<\/p>\n
Northside clinches at least a share of the Coastal Conference title with a win at Swansboro.<\/p>\n
The Pirates look to play spoiler following their 53-19 loss at Havelock while the Monarchs look to handle business before next week\u2019s showdown with the Rams.<\/p>\n
The Monarchs lead the series 18-1 with the Pirates’ lone win a 34-0 victory in 2001 in the first meeting.<\/p>\n
Prediction: Northside 34, Swansboro 13\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pender (3-5, 1-2) at East Duplin (7-1, 3-0)<\/p>\n
East Duplin will virtually capture the East Central 3-A\/4-A Conference crown with a victory over Pender.<\/p>\n
The Panthers put themselves in this position with last week\u2019s 35-21 win over Clinton. The Patriots ended a five-game skid with a 60-14 win over South Lenoir.<\/p>\n
The series is tied 8-8 after East Duplin won the previous two meetings, 38-18 last year and 48-44 in 2021. Pender won the inaugural meeting 18-16 in 1979.<\/p>\n
The Patriots beat South Lenoir 60-14 last week, but will likely be on the other end of the spectrum against East Duplin.<\/p>\n
Prediction: East Duplin 42, Pender 7\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dixon (2-6, 0-4) at Richlands (1-7, 0-4)<\/p>\n
Dixon and Richlands look to end long skids when they meet in a Coastal Conference contest.<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs have dropped five consecutive games while the Wildcats have lost seven straight. Richlands leads the series 41-6, including 41-26 last year. The Wildcats have won four straight meetings with the Bulldogs\u2019 last victory a 21-20 win in 2021.<\/p>\n
Richlands won the first meeting 27-7 in 1967.<\/p>\n
The Wildcats have struggled to score, but the Bulldogs have struggled to defend. Dixon\u2019s single-wing offense will have an edge.<\/p>\n
Prediction: Dixon 28, Richlands 13\u00a0<\/p>\n
South Lenoir (3-5, 0-3) at Southwest (3-5, 2-1)<\/p>\n
Southwest has not won three consecutive games since a four-game streak in the second half of the 2023 season. The Stallions look to change that when they host East Central Conference foe South Lenoir, which has lost five straight.<\/p>\n
Southwest has surpassed its win total from the previous two years. Look for the Stallions to have this contest settled by the third quarter.<\/p>\n
Southwest leads the series 15-2 and has won nine consecutive games against South Lenoir, including 14-8 in overtime last year. The Blue Devils\u2019 last victory was a 20-17 win in 2006 while their other triumph was an 8-7 win in the first meeting in 1979.<\/p>\n
Prediction: Southwest 47, South Lenoir 12\u00a0<\/p>\n
Croatan (7-1, 3-1) at West Carteret (3-5, 2-3)<\/p>\n
Croatan follows its open date by visiting Carteret County rival West Carteret in Coastal Conference action.<\/p>\n
The Cougars last played on Oct. 9 when they topped Richlands 49-8. The Patriots snapped a three-game skid last week with a 14-13 win at Richlands.<\/p>\n
West Carteret struggles to score against better competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Patriots lead the series 22-4, but the Cougars ended an eight-game series skid with a 49-21 victory last year. The Patriots won the first meeting 7-6 in 1999.<\/p>\n
Prediction: Croatan 42, West Carteret 12\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pamlico (2-6, 1-2) at Lejeune (2-5, 1-2)<\/p>\n
Lejeune looks for its second consecutive win when it hosts Coastal Plains 1-A\/2-A Conference foe Pamlico.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Devilpups won 40-0 at Jones Senior last week. The Hurricanes have lost two straight following a 56-22 win over Jones Senior.<\/p>\n
Pamlico downed Lejeune 42-19 last year while the Devilpups won 30-27 in 2024.<\/p>\n
The Hurricanes lead the series 30-19 with the Devilpups winning the first meeting 44-6 in 1962.<\/p>\n
Prediction: Lejeune 14, Pamlico 6\u00a0<\/p>\n
White Oak (2-5, 0-3) at South Central (3-5, 0-3)<\/p>\n
White Oak visits Big Carolina Conference foe South Central looking to rebound from last week\u2019s 62-0 defeat to J.H. Rose.<\/p>\n
The Falcons lead the series 4-1, including last year\u2019s 35-30 victory. South Central also won in 2009, 2010 and 2012 while the Vikings won 19-6 in 2011.<\/p>\n
Prediction: 30, White Oak 14\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wayne Prep (2-3-1) at Liberty Christian (6-0)<\/p>\n
Liberty Christian is favored to close its regular season with a nonconference win over second-year Wayne Prep Academy.<\/p>\n
This marks just the second time this season the Heat have played games in two consecutive weeks as Liberty has had four open dates.<\/p>\n
The Heat held off Sandhills Classical Christian 36-30 last week. Expect Liberty to score early and often in its inaugural meeting with Wayne Prep.<\/p>\n
Prediction: Liberty Christian 48, Wayne Prep 8<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s the penultimate week of the high school football season. You read that correctly. After this week, there…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,110],"class_list":["post-433781","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\/433781","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=433781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}