Vance County Friday Night Football returns to WIZS 1450 AM and wizs.com Friday night at 6:45 p.m. for airtime and 7 p.m. for kickoff.  Double coverage of Southern Vance hosting Roanoke Rapids and Northern Vance at Bunn.  Tune in for Live Play by Play and score updates of both local teams.

The Yellow Jackets of Roanoke Rapids are unbeaten this season, which places them alongside South Granville at the top of the Northern Carolina Conference. With no open date so far this season, Roanoke Rapids is 7-0 while South Granville is 6-0. So when those Jackets come swarming into Southern Vance’s Raider stadium this Friday night, it will be the second week in a row for the Raiders facing off with a high-powered conference opponent. Southern Vance took a 52-6 beating from South Granville last week, losing starting QB Elijah Stewart to a foot injury in the first half, and his status is unclear for this week’s game. Stewart’s backup was also knocked out of last week’s game, so Coach Darry Ragland might be improvising against the Jackets.

Roanoke Rapids might be looking at this game as a chance to stay loose going into their own home game with South Granville next week – a matchup that should decide the conference championship, although both of the top dogs must still tangle with Bunn, which, although not in top form, is still a formidable team and the 2-time defending league champion from 2015 and 2016. Although not as dominating on paper as South Granville, which has 3 shutouts this season and has broken 50 points in 3 games, Roanoke Rapids has a right to feel confident this week. The Jackets are averaging scoring 39 points per game, and they allow their opponents under 10 points per week. That’s a bit better than South Granville on offense, but a looser defense than South, which has allowed under 4 points per game. The Yellow Jackets have no 50-point games (but 3 games in the 40s) and their only shutout was a 46-0 pasting of 1A Granville Central. Northern Vance has played both teams, and while the Vikings were shut out by South Granville 54-0, they scored 10 points on Roanoke Rapids before falling 35-10.

Southern Vance started the conference season with a tough 34-30 loss to Bunn, which gave them the confidence and momentum they needed to rack up their two road wins before colliding with South Granville. The Raiders came into their South Granville game last week with a satisfying 3-3 overall record and back-to-back conference wins over Webb and Granville Central. Along the way they improved on their stats: the Raiders averaged scoring 31 points per game, and allowed 26, BC (Before Creedmoor). This is not a formula for a brilliant championship season, but it can certainly get a team to over .500. They are now 3-4 and 2-1 in the league and are firmly established in the middle of the conference standings just below Warren County, which has not yet played either of the top two.

AC(After Creedmoor), however, the Raiders’ scoring average dropped to 28, and the points against rose to 30 points per game. If last Friday’s massacre were just a bad loss, Southern would be in a better position to bounce back against Roanoke Rapids, but the loss of some key players, especially Stewart, my be too much to overcome. At least this game is at home for the Raiders, because playing in Roanoke Rapids is always a disadvantage.

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The Bunn Wildcats host Northern Vance this Friday, planning to bring the Vikings back down to earth after Northern collected its first win of the season last week against 1A conference opponent Louisburg. It was a happy Homecoming last Friday at Northern Vance, but the narrow 17-14 victory over the Warriors may not provide enough momentum for the Vikings to match up well with Bunn. The Wildcats, with their first new coach in almost 30 years, have been struggling a bit this season, at least by “Bunn standards.” The two-time defending conference champions, who fell a couple of touchdowns short of the state 2A championship in 2015, were 1-2 going into conference play, and have not blown conference opponents off the field with their running game as they have in past seasons. They are 3-0 in the conference, placing them in third place behind the two unbeaten heavyweights, South Granville and Roanoke Rapids, but they just barely got by Southern Vance 34-30 in the conference opener and gave up 128 penalty yards in last week’s 56-35 win over Warren County. They were tied 29-29 with Warren at half time, and then shut the Eagles down until late in the 4th period.

At 4-2 overall the ‘Cats now average scoring just under 32 points per game. The problem is that they also allow opponents to score the same number of points – a rare scoring differential for the Wildcats, who scored 48 points per game last season and held rivals to 23. But Bunn would need to slip much further than they have to give the Vikings a chance this week. Northern has scored less than half as many points as Bunn this season, and has allowed a few more points per game. The Vikings actually have a competent defense, especially against the pass, but Bunn hardly ever passes the ball, so . . .

Full Vance County Friday Night Football and Team Schedules are below.

— by Jeff Jenkins

SV at Webb Preview

After last Friday’s trip to Stem, to dish out a serious 50-19 beat-down on 1A conference-mate Granville Central, 2-3 Southern Vance continues its 3-week tour of Granville County tonight (Friday) with a short trip to J. F. Webb in Oxford. With a good chance to even up their season at 3-3, and to improve their conference record to 2-1, Raiders’ Head Coach Darry Ragland would love to see his team play tonight like they did against the Panthers last week. If they do, the Raiders should come away with a win. Although the 1-4 Warriors scored 40 points in their win over Carrboro 2 weeks ago, they were shut out by Beddingfield in their opener 39-0, lost to 1A Gates County 42-28, and then last week took their medicine from Bunn in a 41-9 thrashing. They are averaging scoring just under 20 points per game, and they are allowing 33.

Webb’s last winning season was 2008, when the Warriors finished 9-4 overall, 3-2 in the conference, but missed out on post season play. In 2007, they were true contenders for a state championship, finishing 11-4 after a 4-1 conference record, and a deep playoff run that ended with a narrow loss in the 4th round. In those days. Webb was coached by John Hammet, who became Granville Central’s first football coach and Athletic director in 2010. Since 2011, the Warriors have finished 3-8 four times and 2-9 twice, and 5th year coach Tony Midgette has found a winning formula yet. This history sounds a lot like the Raiders last three seasons, and Webb defeated Southern Vance in both of the past two meetings. The Warriors won convincingly in 2015 by 34-18, but had to come back from a wide deficit last year to win a crazy overtime shootout 50-48. Unfortunately for Webb, those games were nonconference, and tonight will really count.

Furthermore, coaching changes and transfers have given Southern Vance a very consistent offense, with the potential for big plays, especially though the air. Thanks to last week’s production, the Raiders’ scoring average is up to 32 per game – at least a 7-year high; but even before last week, Southern was scoring 27 points per game, and they played Bunn much closer than Webb did, losing by only 4 points, 34-30. They also scored 30 in their opening day win over Bartlett-Yancey. The Raiders defense has struggled at times, allowing 33 points per game before holding Granville Central to 13 points last week until the Panthers slipped in a touchdown near the end.

The Raider defense should be effective against Webb however. The Warriors offense runs better than they pass, and they rely on one or two players for their ground game. The new starting QB, Soph Jordan Pugh is improving, but he has a 30% completion rate, for an average of 40 yds per game and 2 TDs on the season. Sr. WR Unique Heggie, a familiar name from last year’s game, has caught both TD passes, and has caught 6 passes total. On the ground, the Warriors rely on Sr. RB Tyrone Clark, Jr., who averages just under 110 yds per game and has scored four times on the gound. Clark finished with just under 1000 yards last season. Sr Jaquan Brandon only averages 30 yds per game, but he has 3 rushing TD’s. The 215 lb linebacker goes in on short yardage situations. Southern has had trouble against strong running teams, but those were teams like Red Springs and Bunn with stables of strong runners who could rotate in and out smoothly. Webb seems to have one small, fast back who can gain 100 yards a game, and one larger back for short yardage – and that might not be enough for a whole 4 quarters of football.

NV vs RR Preview

The Vikings of Northern Vance are happy to be home tonight (Friday), and they know they have to play Roanoke Rapids this season, and that the yellow jackets are in the same conference, but the Vikings would probably like to wait another few weeks to play them. Roanoke Rapids is undefeated at 5-0, and is destined to meet South Granville, the other 5-0 team in the league, on October 3 in what might be the conference championship game. The Vikings, with an 0-5 record, are coming off two exhausting losses: a not unexpected 46-0 drubbing from South Granville, and a disappointing 25-15 home loss to Warren County last week that could have gone the other way if the offense had been able to take advantage of a few of Warren’s numerous turnovers.

Roanoke Rapids got a new head coach in 2014, and immediately improved from 2-9 to 10-4, defeating Bunn for the Northern Carolina Conference crown, and losing to the #1 seed in the 3rd round of the playoffs. The Yellow Jackets lost to Bunn the past two years to finish second in the league, and they have not gotten past the 2nd round of the playoffs, but they have continued to dominate opponents during their regular season. They had a perfect season going last year until the lost to Bunn, but they still finished 11 and 2 overall, averaging 33 points scored per game, and allowing only 17 per game, both their best averages under coach McDaniel. So far this year, the Jackets have only had one close game – their opener against regional rival Northampton, which they won 30-22. Since then they have played four 1A schools, including back to back beat-downs of conference mates Granville Central and Louisburg. In those four games RR scored an average of 43.5 points per game and allowed only 7 – They shut out Granville Central 46-0, and allowed Louisburg 14 points.

The Yellow Jackets run up all those points with a pretty balanced attack. The Jackets have scored 18 times on the ground, with Sr RB Da’raj Watson scoring 8 of those while rushing for 529 yards in the 5 games. Jr. FB Ajalon Brown, at 5-9 and 231 lb, has 5 TDs in short yardage situations. Jr RB Cory Jenkins has crossed the goal line 3 times during his 200-yard season so far. The passing game is not just an afterthought, but clearly part of the game plan. Sr. QB Jack Neville has passed for 345 yards, with 7 TDs and 3 interceptions. Receiving is evenly divided among Sr. Montrell Govan, with 10 catches for 92 total yards, and 3 TDs; RB Jenkins; and FB Brown. The Jackets also has a reliable kicker in Sr Chase Johnson, who is 20 for 21 on extra points. The defense is obviously tough. Specifically, they have only allowed 10 points in 5 games, and they have 4 INTs and 9 fumble recoveries. They have blocked 2 kicks, and they are BIG, and experienced.

I hate to say it, but Northern Vance will do well to score on Roanoke Rapids. But the Viking Defense does have a knack for swarming the runners and has interceptions in every game. Their best strategy might be to work on keeping the Yellow Jackets to 40 points. Another intangible is that RR has only played 1A teams, and might be a little soft going into the game. A quick score like the Vikings had last week against Warren would be a real moral booster, and would no doubt keep the defense pumped.