Would anyone like to try figuring out which three teams are going to represent the South Piedmont Conference in the 3A state playoffs?

Anybody?

Northwest Cabarrus coach Glen Padgett tried and finally gave up. East Rowan, West Rowan, Concord, Kannapolis, Central Cabarrus and Northwest all feel like they are still in the hunt.

“I’ll tell you, it’s still anybody’s ballgame,” Padgett said after East Rowan’s convincing 20-12 win on the Trojans’ home field Friday night. “A lot of teams might be in position to make the playoffs at the end.”

East and Northwest (3-2 in the SPC) could be among three or four teams with 5-3 records after the final conference games are played Nov. 5.

“This league, top-to-bottom, is very, very good,” said Padgett, in his first year at Northwest after leaving Salisbury. “No other conference in the state has as much depth. It’s not even close. A couple of conferences have one or two good teams but this league has six or seven.”

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THEHURT: One of those, Central Cabarrus, was a dagger in the heart of East Rowan. The Vikings beat the Mustangs 31-28.

“That’s the one that hurts us,” said East coach Jeff Safrit.

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MOREHURTING: When Safrit watched Cal Hayes break a run at the beginning of the second period, he thought touchdown. Moments later, he thought the worst.

Hayes was tripped up and his leg bent backwards. At the same time, a Trojan came down on it.

“It’s not a career-ending injury,” said Safrit, who added Saturday night that the injury was only an ankle sprain.

“It’s a shame Calvin got hurt,” said Padgett. “He’s a very good football player.”

Hayes left with 20 yards on four carries. It’s not known if he’ll be ready for Friday night’s game at Kannapolis.

The 10 senior football players and six senior cheerleaders introduced before Friday night’s game certainly hoped for a better ending.

The Hornets dropped their final home game of the 1999 season 34-20 to North Stanly. While some of the players took the loss in stride — “Life goes on,” said a resigned Darren Lasco — others didn’t even want to leave the field after the final horn sounded.

Perhaps most painful for the senior Hornets was having a 20-14 lead entering the fourth quarter and watching it slip away.

“It would have been terrific to get a game for the seniors, and for everyone in the program,”head coachRaymond Daugherty said. “They play hard. The seniors, juniors and sophomores all played well.”

East Davidson and Ledford will be the final games for Justin Johnson, DeMarcus Davidson, Kelvin Spivey, Adam Taylor, Terry Johnson, Patrick May, Michael Blount, Chuck Chambers, Chris Brooks and Lasco.

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stop right there: Hornet Ken Drye continues to impress on the defensive unit.

Drye stepped up from his linebacker spot to stop Kamal Watkins on several runs early in the game and also thwarted two Comet drives chances with quarterback sacks.

Late in the first quarter he dropped the speedy Wes Herlocked for a 7-yard loss on third down, forcing a punt. Early in the second quarter, North Stanly had first-and-goal at the 4-yard line when Drye flushed Herlocker for a 14-yard loss.

A desperation fourth-and-long pass was intercepted by Hornet Markeice Daugherty three plays later.

When Concord defeated West Rowan 21-16 on Friday, the visiting Spiders had 227 total yards to 187 for West, but that’s misleading.

Coach E.Z. Smith’s Concord team (5-1 in the South Piedmont Conference, 5-3 overall), took the opening kickoff and drove 80 yards for a touchdown, taking 7:59 off the clock. The Spiders actually had 85 yards total offense, losing 5 yards on a delay-of-game penalty.

After Concord took that 7-0 lead, West had an edge of 187-142 in total offense. Each team lost the ball three times on turnovers, but the Spiders scored off two of West’s mistakes.

First, Jamel Jackson ran back a pass interception 36 yards for Concord’s second TD. A later interception by Mack Johnson set up the final score for the Spiders.

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DIGGING DIGGS: West Rowan’s junior fullback, Jonathan Diggs, tried to play against Concord on a sprained ankle, winding up with 4 yards on only four carries. He came into the game ranked No. 4 in the county in rushing with 392 yards.

“Diggs is a gamer,” said coach Scott Young of the Falcons. “He wanted to play tonight. He was upset that he couldn’t play.

“Winning a football game isn’t worth jeopardizing his health,” he added.

Last season, Darryl Childers was South’s top rusher, but this season he has concentrated on his duties on defense as a linebacker.

Friday night against Davie County, however, Childers got eight carries — the most he’s had all season — in South Rowan’s 27-17 loss to the War Eagles.

Childers made the most of his role reversal, rolling for 49 yards, more yardage than he had rushed for during his team’s first seven games.

Childers might run the ball more down the stretch for South after Ernie Wiggins (282 yards) broke an arm earlier this week in practice.

Childers also didn’t miss a beat on defense against the War Eagles, making at least three tackles for loss.

Kamal Watkins’ first five runs in Friday night’s 34-20 win at Salisbury didn’t prepare the fans for what they were about to see.

On North Stanly’s first drive, Watkins had a 3-yard run. On the second drive, he gained 5 yards before being thrown back for a 4-yard loss by T.J. Hosch.

The first play of Stanly’s third drive Watkins gained 3 yards. His next carry stopped it 37 yards later in the end zone.

“I’ve been telling him to be patient all year. He can do that (get around the corner) on most teams,” North Stanly head coach Robert Harris said. “I was telling him to stay patient, stay with the play and make things happen.”

Watkins ended the first half with 84 yards on 11 carries but did the real damage in the final 24 minutes. He had eight runs for 10 or more yards, including TD dashes of 57 and 87 yards. The end result — 324 yards on 30 carries.

“He’s Division I all the way,” Salisbury head coach Raymond Daugherty said. “I thought the defense did a heck of a job on him. He’s a talented runner.”

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