*Time: 7:30 p.m.
*Records: Lake Norman 6-4, 4-4 NPC; NW Cabarrus 5-5, 3-5 NPC
*Last meeting: Trojans won a 17-7 headknocker in 2007
*Last week: Northwest blasted East Rowan 34-7; Lake Norman walloped North Iredell 41-19
*Next week: Should be 3AA playoffs for both. Lake Norman is the largest 3A school in the state, and Northwest isn’t far behind.
*Home and road splits: Lake Norman is 3-1 on the road. NW Cabarrus is 2-2 at home.
*Scoring: Lake Norman has scored 203 points. NWC has scored 206.
*Defense: Lake Norman has allowed 161 points while Northwest has given up 170.
*Game notes: The teams are almost dead-even on offense and defense. Counting NPC games only, Lake Norman has better stats, but it’s senior night for the Trojans.
Northwest has been an easy team to predict. It has beaten East Rowan, Carson and North Iredell, the three teams below the Trojans in the NPC standings, but it hasn’t beaten anyone above it.
Lake Norman, conversely, has been wildly inconsistent, losing to South Rowan and Carson but beating second-place Mooresville and pushing West Rowan to overtime.
Lake Norman has been a good road team. It was on the road at West Rowan, and it also beat West Iredell on the road.
It probably comes down to whether the good or the bad Lake Norman shows up. If it’s the good one, Northwest could be in trouble becausebig Dirqual Ellis (No. 44) makes Lake Norman tough to run against.
Northwest’s defense has been solid and has gotten eight sacks from Damon Bostick.
Freshman booter Bradley Pinion has been strong on kickoffs.