Time: 7:30 p.m.
Records: Concord 1-0; East Rowan 0-1
Series: Concord leads 33-3-1
Last meeting: Concord rolled 33-6 in 2010
Last week: Concord had an exciting 27-26 win against 4A West Charlotte; East was thumped 51-0 by Salisbury
Streak: The Mustangs smashed the Spiders 30-0 in 2009, but Concord has taken 26 of the last 27 meetings. East’s only other victories in the series came in 1979 and in the 1969 WNCHSAA Piedmont championship game, one of the more celebrated games in East history.
Next week: East will play its third consecutive home game against North Rowan; Concord will play at Monroe
Game notes: The schools battled to a scoreless tie in 1963. The series began with a Concord romp in 1961. The Spiders beat the Mustangs twice in 1991.
The good news is East will be better than it was in Week 1. It has to be. East’s offense was battered and its defense was shredded by Salisbury in a game that the Mustangs trailed 34-0 at halftime. Soph running back Calvin Edwards, soph defensive lineman Dock Corpening, junior DB Dalton Bost and soph linebacker Austin Hill had good moments last week, but that’s a lot of youth.
Coach Chad Tedder employed two quarterbacks in the opener — Jonathan Lowe and Jordan Phillips — although he’s still hoping one of them will take charge.
Concord coach Glen Padgett has no questions at QB. Junior B.J. Beecher, who is 6-foot-7, is a serious prospect who had 36 TD passes and 2,600 passing yards last season. Beecher filled the air for 300 yards in Concord’s impressive opening win, and he has talented targets in Terrance Knox and Alex Asbury.