It’s an important Friday night for three Rowan County high school football teams, even though only one of the three is involved in a conference game.

West Rowan’s Falcons, off to one of the best starts in school history, play at Northwest Cabarrus in a game that should have playoff implications.

North Rowan’s Cavaliers match their explosive offense against a solid South Rowan defense in contest that is probably a little more important than most non-conference games.

Coach Scott Young’s West Rowan club is 2-0 in the South Piedmont Conference and 4-1 overall. Four SPC teams appear to be in the hunt for three 3A playoff berths with Concord out front at 3-0 and West, Northwest Cabarrus and Kannapolis A.L. Brown tied at 2-0.

West looked like a possible favorite in the matchup with Northwest’s Trojans until the Falcons came up with a couple of key injuries earlier this week. Now West has to play on the road against a team that has a 4-1 record and midseason momentum under coach Glen Padgett, who was head man at Salisbury in 1998. The Trojans are an impressive 14-5 in a season and a half under Padgett. Young’s record is similar (12-4) at West during that time.

A.L. Brown, as usual, is the league favorite. The winner of tonight’s West-Northwest game could be battling Concord for second place before it’s over.

North Rowan and South Rowan aren’t in the same conference, but this is a chance for both the Cavaliers (2-3) and Raiders (4-2) to gather some momentum before playing crucial league games.

Coach Roger Secreast’s North club (1-0 in the league) joins HighPoint Central, Ledford and East Davidson as teams with reasonable playoff hopes in the 2A Central Carolina Conference.

Coach Rick Vanhoy’s Raiders, who hope to grab one of the 4A Central Piedmont Conference playoff berths for the second straight year, need to play well against the Cavaliers. South doesn’t want two straight losses before heading into a tough league schedule.

Last week’s prep prediction record was 11-3, leaving the season mark at 64-14 for an .821 percentage. This week’s picks.

West Rowan’s offense has been impressive the last several weeks, but losing quarterback Jared Barnette to an injury is likely to hurt the Falcons’ passing game. The Trojans’ defense showed what it could do against a good running game when Northwest shut out South Rowan last week — Northwest Cabarrus 21, West Rowan 14.

North Rowan’s defense held Salisbury to a touchdown last week, but South Rowan’s running game has more been productive than Salisbury’s. North’s explosive passing game will test the Raiders’ secondary — North Rowan 28, South Rowan 17.

East Rowan (1-5) will be seeking its first SPC win at home against Harding, which is 0-5. The Mustangs are struggling, but the offense is capable of doing well against the Rams — East Rowan 28, Harding 19.

Salisbury and Lexington have identical records of 0-1 in the CCC and 2-4 overall. The Hornets, coached by Raymond Daugherty, need a win after falling to South Rowan, Davie County and North Rowan — Salisbury 20, Lexington 15.

Davie County hosts Central Davidson as the War Eagles warm up for defense of their CPC title — Davie County 28, Central Davidson 14.

Piedmont is vastly improved, but that’s not likely to matter when the Panthers take on Kannapolis A.L. Brown — A.L. Brown 42, Piedmont 8.

Another bunch of Panthers from Ledford travel to North Stanly in the CCC. Ledford is just too strong for the Comets — Ledford 49, North Stanly 16.

Other picks:

Concord over Central Cabarrus, Monroe over Sun Valley, High Point Central over East Davidson, Mooresville over SouthIredell, Graham over West Davidson, R.J. Reynolds over North Forsyth, and West Forsyth over Northwest Guilford.