Vance County Friday Night Football coverage on WIZS this week will feature Southern Vance at Warren County and Northern Vance hosting Granville Central. Join us on air and online for the live play by play. 1450 AM on your radio dial and wizs.com on your phone, tablet and smart TV. Airtime is 6:45 for a 7 o’clock kickoff. You can also use the Tunein Radio App.
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Scouting Report — Southern Vance at Warren County — Friday 10/20/2017
Going into tonight’s games, Roanoke Rapids, Southern Vance and Warren County are jostling each other for third place in the Northern Carolina Conference (South Granville and Bunn are both 5-0 NCC). All three teams are 4-2 in the league, but Roanoke Rapids has an edge with a 7-2 overall record and a win over Warren, while Warren has a 6-3 overall record, and Southern Vance is 5-4 after winning 4 of their last 5 games, including a surprising but decisive 44-27 victory over Roanoke Rapids. Tonight’s meeting between Southern Vance and Warren County could sort out that group, since a win for the Raiders would put them in front of both of the other teams by way of head-to-head wins. A win for the Eagles, on the other hand, would severely damage Southern’s chances for a playoff spot, since the Raiders would drop to 5-5 overall. Roanoke Rapids is idle this week, getting ready for its own showdown with Warren County next Friday.
The teams are evenly matched, at least on paper: Warren County scores an average of 29 points per game, and allows 25. Southern has gotten better every week, and now averages 30 points scoring per game, while allowing 28 points. These stats suggest that both teams have trouble on defense. Both teams are also prone to mistakes, and penalties and turnovers nearly cost the Eagles an upset loss to Webb last week, when Webb forced an overtime with a late field goal, and the Eagles had to win it with a 3-point kick of their own. Warren will not have to worry about offsetting field goals tonight, since Southern Vance has no kicker, even for extra points. This has not been much of a handicap for the Raiders so far – their only close loss, a 34-30 disappointment to Bunn, would not have been helped by a kicker. Against Warren, however, with the teams so close on paper, three points may well decide the outcome.
Much is riding on tonight’s game for both teams, and the determining factor could well be who scores the most in the first quarter, and how effective each pass defense can be. Raiders QB Elijah Stewart has only thrown 2 interceptions this season, but Warren’s secondary has 10 picks, with Cornell Hendrick has accounted for an amazing 8 of those himself. Eagles QB Cornelius Davis has been picked off 8 times this season, but the Raiders have been a easier to pass against, with only one takeaway.
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Scouting Report — Granville Central at Northern Vance — Friday, October 20, 2017
One and seven Northern Vance had an open week to regroup from a 54-7 thrashing from Bunn, and to find its way back to the winning ways that began on September 29 with the Vikings’ first victory of the season, a 17-14 squeaker over 1A conference member Louisburg. Tonight and next Friday the Vikings have the opportunity for back-to-back wins over 1A Granville Central and 2A Webb, which would improve their record to 3-7, and give them some momentum going into their season finale – the Optimist Bowl against Southern Vance (currently 5-4, 4-2). Northern Vance is grouped with Webb, Louisburg and Granville Central at the bottom of the Northern Carolina Conference, all at least 3 games back of Warren County, which currently sits right in the middle of the pack. All four teams suffer from similar deficits – low scoring an soft defenses – but Northern and Granville Central both have one conference win, and tonight’s match up will move one of those teams one game above that bottom level, at least for a week.
On paper, Granville Central has a slim advantage over the Vikings. The Panthers from Stem are 3-5 overall, and won their two nonconference games (a 7-6 thriller over 2A Bartlett Yancey and a 33-8 morale booster over regional 1A doormat KIPP Pride). But GC was rudely introduced to its new 2A conference mates with a 46-0 loss to Roanoke Rapids in their conference opener. The Panthers showed spunk in their 50-19 loss to Southern Vance (in the Raiders highest scoring game of the season), and took a 38-7 licking from Warren County. Then, however, after a 28-0 nonconference loss to North Duplin, the Panthers defeated cross-county rivals J. F. Webb 20-14 and held Bunn to 17 points, although they were unable to score themselves. Granville Central averages just under 11 points per game on offense, and allows over 25 points. Northern Vance has scored 8 per game and has allowed opponents 31 per game. The Vikings should therefore hope that tonight’s game will be a low-scoring affair, like their 17-14 win over Louisburg, while the Panthers will be looking for a game like their 20-14 win over Webb. The final outcome could therefore be decided by a field goal or a two point conversion.
