The Cavaliers are headed west to Translyvania County, where you have waterfalls, beautiful scenery and some pretty good football being played at Brevard High School.

That’s juggernaut Brevard, the 2A representative out of the Western Athletic Conference and the No. 2 seed in the West.

“There is nothing like mountain football,” says Brevard head coach Dan Essenberg. “The fans are great and they’re usually very vocal.”

Especially when a mountain team is winning. And Brevard wins. And wins. And wins.

The Blue Devils have won 23 of their last 24 games. Last year, they were 12-1. Going into Friday night’s first round, 2A playoff game against North, they are 11-0.

There are “Manny, Manny reason” why the Devils are a favorite to win the state crown.

Manny Deshauteurs, a highly-recruited tailback, has rushed for 2,430 yards and 35 touchdowns so far this season. That’s a tad better than last sason hwen Deshauteurs’ numbers were 2,195 and 32.

For the record, he has 6.079 career yards.

Don’t think Cavalier coach Roger Secreast hasn’t noticed. He is this year’s Shrine Bowl offensive coordinator.

“Brevard has the best back, I think, in western North Carolina,” Secreast said. “He’s one of the tailbacks we’re considering. But I’d rather watch him on video, not on the field.”

Essenberg sees just one problem with Secreast being a Shrine Bowl coach.

“Because of Manny, he’s had three films on us already,” joked the third-year coach. “Now, he’s got five.”

Essenberg knows North has a player the same caliber in Mario Sturdivant, who has 7,141 total yards in his career.

“I really didn’t know that much about them,” Essenberg said of his reaction when he saw the pairings. “But we know (Sturdivant) can run all over the place and he can sling it.”

To contain Sturdivant, Brevard will need a good rush, which is something Sturdivant hasn’t seen in a few weeks. North’s offensive line has done a good job.

But Brevard is big on the defensive front, Secreast said.

“They go 230, 290, 275 — and their defensive ends are both 215,” he said.

And the line isn’t even the defense’s strength. The linebacking corp of 6-0, 200-pound Chad Galloway (184 tackles) and 6-1, 225-pound Shawn Silliman (129 tackles) are the cornerstone.

Secreast said he would not make any major changes offensively, just a couple of new wrinkles. If Jamel Alexander’s injured ankle hasn’t improved, Brevard may be seeing what East Davidson did last week — a no-back offense.

Defensively, North will have to stop more than Deshauteurs. Junior quarterback Jake Hunter has passed for 900 yards and blocking fullback Tyler Pierce has 460 yards on just 79 carries.

“Defensively, we’re getting a little better,” Secreast said. “But they’re a very talented offense.”

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Secreast pointed out two things that need to be mentioned about the Blue Devils.

“Brevard is in an all-run league,” he said. “They haven’t seen anybody who is primarily a passing team.

“But they play in a split league and them and Pisgah are the only 2A teams. They play a better level of football. The bad thing is, only one of those two go and that makes it tough.”

The Brevard-Pisgah game was played last week at Pisgah. Brevard won 35-20 in front of a whopping 9,000 fans.

Essenberg expects 6,000 at Brevard Friday. He says he is a lucky coach to be at Brevard right now.

“We’re fortunate to have some good athletes coming through,” he said. “A lot of these players started as sophomores.”

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Secreast said big crowds, undefeated opponents and a three-and-a-half drive won’t intimidate his Cavaliers.

“We’ve played some teams who are highly seeded,” he said, speaking mainly of High Point Central, the Central Carolina neighbor who is the West’s No. 1 seed.

Secreast and Essenberg can pat each other on the back and laud each other’s team all they want. But the North Rowan coach says it basically comes down to this:

“We haven’t stopped anybody’s running game very effectively. No one has stopped our passing game very effectively.

“When we have the ball, we’re going to score and when they have the ball, they’re going to score.”