What we learned from week one of the high school football season
Posted August 22, 2022 5:18 p.m. EDT
Week one of the high school football season is done and dusted, and with so many high-profile matchups on last week's slate, there's a lot to be gleaned from the results.
Chambers got somewhat of a measure of revenge on Cardinal Gibbons for last season's state championship defeat with a 28-14 win in a matchup between the two number one teams in the East and West.
No. 2 Hough showed resilience and heart as they battled back against South Carolina dynasty Dutch Fork in a close defeat.
Reigning 2A state champion Shelby took a loss against Kings Mountain in a game that suggests the Mountaineers could be on the rise due to how strong the Golden Lions are.
While all of those are interesting, three storylines jumped to the forefront as we attempt to learn without overreacting in the early going of the season.
New Bern is a state championship threat
New Bern was a sure thing to be good this season given the quality of the team the past couple of seasons and that of the players returning to this year's roster.
The question is how good, and if it's fair to expect teams not in the Charlotte or Triangle areas to be real contenders for the singular 4A championship.
New Bern turned heads at the HighSchoolOT Jamboree with a strong performance against a very talented Heritage team, as the Bears gave the Huskies fits with the triple option offense and the strength of their defensive line.
They made a huge statement on Friday night with a 40-3 thrashing of the New Hanover Wildcats that solidified them as the unquestioned top team in the coastal area going away.
The Bears have two should-be wins against Willow Spring and West Craven before an out-of-state test against Maury from Norfolk, VA.
Conference play will be enlightening as to where the Bears stand in the state title picture with bouts against Havelock, Jacksonville, J.H. Rose and D.H. Conley on the docket.
The Bears lost to eventual state runner-up Cardinal Gibbons in the spring of 2021 and fell short against a dynamic Rolesville team in the fall.
Mallard Creek is back near the top of the Charlotte area
One thing I look at to get a feel for how a program feels about itself is the way it sets up its non-conference schedule.
Many of the state's elite teams have ratcheted up non-conference intensity in recent years. We've seen Cardinal Gibbons play Chambers twice in a row in the non-conference with a state championship matchup sandwiched in between.
No team in the state is doing more to test itself before league play starts than Mallard Creek is this year. The Mavericks started things off with a neutral-site Thursday night game against fellow Charlotte power Myers Park, and they dismantled the Mustangs in a clinical 21-3 win.
As far as in-state competition goes for Mallard Creek before conference play this year, that is it.
The Mavericks are heading to Georgia to take on Buford, which MaxPreps has ranked 11th in the country right now and defeated the 14th-ranked team in the nation by a 38-7 score.
It doesn't stop there. The Mavericks follow that game up with consecutive trips to South Carolina to take on Palmetto State powers South Pointe and Gaffney.
Head coach Kennedy Tinsley took Southeast Guilford to a state championship game in 2018, and he and the athletic department at Mallard Creek would not put this schedule together if they didn't think this team needed it for a very deep playoff run in the late fall and winter.
Chambers has ruled the 704 since 2018, but Mallard Creek could be making a comeback in a big way. We'll know for sure if they can either beat or seriously compete with these out-of-state behemoths.
Tarboro could be the best it's been in years
Declaring that Tarboro is good is about as cliche as the whole death, taxes, X formula for saying something is a guarantee.
Tarboro is always good, and the floor for the program and recent years has been the regional championship. The 2019 lost to East Surry in the title game, and that was the worst outcome for a Tarboro season since 2016.
But Friday's game against Rocky Mount is illuminating as to just how good this particular iteration of Tarboro is.
Last season, the Vikings lost to the Gryphons 12-0 in the season opener. It was their only loss, and they won the state championship.
In 2019, the two teams also opened against each other. Tarboro won 6-0 in a very close game that was cut short due to inclement weather. That Tarboro team was the one that lost to East Surry in the title game.
On Friday night, the Vikings walked all over the Gryphons in a 35-7 win that was at no point competitive.
Tarboro is consistently an elite 1A program, and Rocky Mount is consistently a strong 3A program. This is the third meeting in four seasons, and it's by far the best outcome Tarboro has had in those meetings.
We'll see as the season goes along, but it's fair to extrapolate from that that Tarboro might be the best it's been, which is a scary proposition for 1A teams with state championship aspirations.
