SPENCER— The showdown comes Friday night at North Rowan.

The same Central Carolina Conference showdown that seems to happen every season about this time.

The Cavaliers take on perennial champ High Point Central in a key league contest that could have a great bearing on who gets the two CCC berths in the state playoffs.

North Rowan coach Roger Secreast says the Bison offense of counters and traps has his defensive staff studying film a bit more closely.

When it comes to North’s offense? Secreast says, “It’s the same ol’, same ol’.”

Well, not quite.

Central’s coach Gary Whitman’s eyes probably bugged out when he saw last week’s Cavalier stats from a 30-8 victory over Lexington: 330 yards rushing for North. Sixty-one passing.

Could that be correct? A misprint, right?

No, actually, it’s a complete turnaround from Secreast’s passing game, which has made the Cavs a consistent playoff participant over the last decade.

The move came out of neccessity. Quarterback Graham Hosch went down with a knee injury and was replaced by receiver Alfonzo Miller.

The Cavs have been running to daylight since.

“We do whatever we need to do to win,” Secreast shrugged. “We had to change our thoughts a little bit.”

n

And what better time to screw up an opponent’s defensive thinking than now? Secreast insists that he will still pass. But Whitman can’t deny that he saw the stats that read 330 yards rushing.

“It’s kind of in limbo,” Whitman said when asked about preparing for North’s sudden two-pronged attack. “We’re not 100 percent sure what they’re going with. We’ve got to take one of the things away and make them one-dimensional. If we don’t, we’ll be in trouble.”

So who knows what kind of fun we’ll see on North’s field Friday night.

“If you look at our play practice schedule, our passes outnumber our running plays three to one,” Secreast said. “We still have ideas of throwing the football.”

But let’s face it. Miller is used to catching the football and running with the football. Not throwing it.

Secreast, however, has faith in his star.

“Alfonzo was going to be our quarterback next year, anyway,” said Secreast.

Without Hosch taking the snaps, the Cavaliers caught all of one pass last week and it wasn’t by the usual names like Dre Byrd or Chris Phillips. Instead, James House caught Miller’s only completion.

“It gets boring,” chuckled Byrd, “so I’ve just got to step up on defense.”

“The receivers are now catching passes in the secondary,” smiled Secreast.

Byrd had a couple of interceptions against Lexington and with another week for Miller to practice, he thinks he can grab a few from his own quarterback this week.

“We’re still the same team,” he said. “We just had to switch our game plan up. We’re still going to throw the ball — maybe not as much as usual but we’ll put it up in the air.”

n

So what will a win do for the Cavs Friday? Besides bragging rights, there are more important stakes.

It will assure them a playoff spot, in all likelihood. North Stanly and East Davidson follow and will be decided underdogs to North, regardless of who takes the snaps.

Also, North has already beaten Ledford, who has yet to play Central.

“It’s a three-team league right now,” said Secreast. “If we win Friday, and win at least one more, we’ll be at least co-champions.

“If we don’t win, the worst scenario would be Ledford beating High Point Central and we’d have to go to a draw.”

How has Secreast fared in past draws?

“Not good,” he said. “I’ve lost more than I’ve won.”

Draws are no good. Wins are.

So it’s up to Miller to draw his gun and get the ball downfield.

Hosch will be there for him.

“Graham has been our biggest cheerleader on the sidelines,” said Secreast. “He’ll talk to Alfonzo and make him relax. Graham does a good job with that.”

So does Marcus Reddick, who is out for the season with a broken wrist. He is also doing his best to cheer on his teammates.

On the other side of the field, Whitman is concerned with his league getting just two berths.

“There’s a lot of pressure,” he said. “There are three really good football teams in our conference and one will be a better team than somebody from another conference who’s going.”

n

Neither Secreast or Byrd thinks last year’s 40-point loss to the Bison, where North committed nine turnovers, will play a mental part in Friday’s contest.

“Every year’s a new year,” Secreast said. “We got beat pretty bad last year but the kids played hard.”

And they’ll play hard against a 5-2, 3-0 Central squad.

Will there be a mental game with Central’s players, who will look at North’s 4-4 overall record and forget about the 3-0 CCC mark?

Whitman has surely announced time and again that those four losses came to Scotland County, South Rowan, West Rowan and A.L. Brown. Two 3As and two 4As.

“It’s not the losses that matter but who the teams are,” said Whitman. “They’ve lost to some really good football teams. So I’m not surprised at where they are. They are one of the teams I picked. We knew they’d be contenders.”

All that matters now is the 2A conference record.

“As long as we’re winning, that’s all that counts,” Byrd says.

“Coach told us our goal was to win. We all agree.”

And if North doesn’t win Friday?

“We’ll be the biggest High Point Central fans in the state,” said Secreast.

n

Ronnie Gallagher is the sports editor of the Post.