East Chapel Hill (1-0)

at Chapel Hill (1-0)

This may be the most balanced matchup of these two teams in a decade. They have never before gone into this battle with both undefeated – albeit it’s just one week into the season.

Chapel Hill was a bit erratic in its opening win over South Granville, but a large part of that is attributable to it’s being their first game of a year and to last Friday’s sloppy playing conditions. The Tigers looked like a well-oiled machine on both sides of the ball until heavy rains started to fall. East also was up-and-down at East Wake last Friday, but used its rejuvenated running game to balance its offense and to rally from an early 7-0 deficit.

Chapel Hill is a 3A school, and East is 4A, but the Tigers clearly have more depth than East.

The series:Chapel Hill leads the series 12-3 and has won the CHN Hodgin Cup eight straight years. The Wildcats have never won at Culton-Peerman Stadium, and they haven't claimed the Hodgin Cup since 2003's 27-20 win, when then-future Wake Forest fullback Rich Belton scored late in the fourth quarter to push ECH to a 27-20 victory.

Carrboro (1-0)

at Warren County (1-0)

Both teams are off to solid starts. Warren County gave first-year head coach John Ward an impressive win in his inaugural game with a 30-0 shutout of Kipp-Pride. Carrboro looked extremely well balanced on offense and defense with its 28-7 win at Central Davidson in Lexington. This game represents another long trip along an interstate for the Jaguars. Carrboro and Warren County High School are separated by more than 70 miles.

Record: xxRecordxx.

Cedar Ridge (0-1)

at Orange (1-0)

While Chapel Hill and East battle this Friday, the Pathers and Red Wolves will go to war for bragging rights in Hillsborough. Cedar Ridge, with first-year coach Chris Casey, must recover from last week’s 59-6 loss to Eastern Alamance, and the 2A Wolves must do while facing a 3A Orange team that’s replete with experienced players. Eight of Orange’s 15 returning starters were named all-conference in 2011.

Northwood (0-1)

at Southern Lee (0-1)

The 3A Cavaliers, playing out of the tough Cape Fear Valley Conference, have presented a good series for 2A Northwood, and the Chargers may be catching Southern Lee at exactly the right time. The Cavaliers are reeling after a 49-0 loss to Lee Senior in Sanford’s annual Brick Bowl. Regardless, Northwood needs to do better at stopping the run; it gave up 246 yards to East Duplin last week.

Player of the week

Alex Duncan

Chapel Hill High School, Sr., WR

When CHHS needed to score in overtime against a very good South Granville defense, Tiger quarterback T.J. Johnson went to Duncan, who made a one-handed catch at the back corner of the endzone for what proved to be the winning TD.

... and entire CHHS defense

South Granville’s Josh Bailey almost never fails to produce in clutch situations. When the Vikings went for a two-point conversion to win in OT, he was gang tackled at the line of scrimmage.

Coachspeak

Bill Renner

East Chapel Hill, Head Coach

“It’s always good to win, but right now our focus is on getting better. Most of your improvement is in the first half of the season; a team is really not going to get a whole lot better after the fifth week. That’s why it’s so important that we conjcentrate on getting better over these net few games.”