It’s hard to believe that there’s only three games left in the regular season, but that’s where we find ourselves this week.

Here’s the slate for Week 9, with a couple of games on the docket for tonight:

Greater Neuse River 4A

Southeast Raleigh at Cleveland, 7:30 (JoCo Sports Game of the Week, JOCO Radio)
Clayton at Corinth Holders, 7:30 (CRN)

Quad County 3A

Tonight
C.B. Aycock at West Johnston, 7
Friday
Hunt at South Johnston, 7 (102.3 FM)
Southern Wayne at Smithfield-Selma, 7

Neuse 6

Goldsboro at North Johnston, 7
Spring Creek at Princeton, 7

independent

Tonight
American Leadership Academy at East Columbus, 7:30

The road to 50

I didn’t have much luck getting him to talk about it in our pregame chat, but Cleveland’s Scott Riley is closing in on 50 consecutive regular-season victories.

A win over the Bulldogs (5-2, 2-2) would do the trick — and it would also allow the Rams to stay unbeaten. The Massey Index — and remember that it gets more accurate as the year progresses — loves the Rams here, installing them as a 34.5-point favorite.

That might be a little rich for my taste, but I’d certainly agree that the hosts would be favored.

Pregame from John Jacobs Stadium starts at 7:10, and you can catch it live and for free here.

If flexing were a thing…

You know how NBC likes to “flex” games in and out of its Sunday Night NFL spot? We have to look into that here at JoCo Sports.

In a vacuum, I’d probably grab a classroom at Clayton (7-0, 4-0) and check out an all-county affair with the Comets and Corinth Holders (6-1, 3-1).

The Pirates served up a thrilling 22-21 win over Fuquay-Varina last week, and will certainly be up for a game against arguably its biggest rival.

The computers love the Comets here, installing as an identical 34.5-point favorite over Corinth Holders.

That also feels high, but this matchup definitely favors Clayton. The key for me is whether or not the Pirates’ offensive line can hold up against the Comet front — because it will probably take 25 points for Corinth Holders to win this game.

We’ll know in about 36 hours.

Kings of the quad

C.B. Aycock (7-0, 4-0) can all but lock up the Quad County 3A title tonight with a win at West Johnston (5-2, 3-1).

With a victory, the Falcons would need only to avoid losses to the bottom two teams in the league. Southern Wayne and Smithfield-Selma, in the final two games to wrap up a perfect regular season.

The Wildcats will be looking to spoil that fun, despite being a 24.5-point underdogs on the Massey Index, and claim a piece of the crown themselves.

Regular readers will know that I love to bring up the transitive property, and it applies here. Fike ran out to a big lead and held off West Johnston, 39-32, back on Sept. 20, while Aycock handled the Demons, 32-12, last week. That’s a 27-point swing, so you get an idea where that Massey number comes from.

If it can string four good quarters together, West Johnston is more than capable of winning this game. If it does what it has often done this year, which is play two bad quarters followed by two great ones, it might be tough sledding.

One way or another, destiny awaits.

Life in the middle

South Johnston (4-3, 2-2) entertains Hunt (4-3, 3-1) in a game that might be critical for tiebreaking purposes in a few weeks.

The Trojans got starting quarterback Tyler Williams back from an ankle injury last week, and he was able to get back in the swing of things against Southern Wayne in a comfortable win.

It won’t be as straight forward against the Warriors, who are 4-3 against a pretty rugged schedule. The computers saw this, and spit out Hunt -15.5.

Me? I’m not so sure. Aycock blasted Hunt, 52-12, and while the Falcons also beat South Johnston, 34-10, it was a flattering score line — and without Williams to boot.

Barring something bizarre, this feels more like a touchdown game to me either way.

a golden chance

This could be the week that Smithfield-Selma breaks its winless streak. Southern Wayne’s lone win was a 16-8 decision against winless Goldsboro, and the Massey Index thinks so little of the Saints that it has them as a 20.5-point underdogs against the Spartans, who have dropped 18 in a row, dating back to the 2022 regular-season finale.

The Spartans gave West Johnston fits last week in a 28-24 loss, and may be about to turn the corner.

Fingers crossed.

They, the north

Don’t look now, but first-year North Johnston coach Kyle Schenk and his Panthers are tied for first in the Neuse 6.

Goldsboro (0-7, 0-2) gave Princeton a better game than most people expected last week, but the Massey Index yawned and spit out North Johnston -29.5 anyway.

This feels like a tune up game for the Panthers (5-2, 2-0) ahead of a pivotal home game (and a JoCo Sports Game of the Week stop) against the other team in that first-place tie, Eastern Wayne.

It’s Honecoming in Kenly, too, which sounds fun.

It’s on the schedule

Princeton (3-4, 1-1) entertains Spring Creek (1-5, 0-2) in what appears to be, on paper anyway, a mismatch.

The Massey number is a gaudy 41.5 in favor of the Bulldogs, and it’s hard to imagine the Gators being able to contain the Princeton ground game. Travis Gaster’s squad will look to keep stacking up wins (and possibly rooting for North Johnston) until those two county rivals meet in the regular-season finale on Nov. 1.

It’s a lot of “ifs,” but if neither North nor Princeton lose again, at least a share of the Neuse 6 crown will be up for grabs for both area teams that night.

back at it

American Leadership Academy (5-1) will hit the road once again to face East Columbus in Lake Waccamaw tonight. Fun fact: It’s 118 miles from Clayton to that part of North Carolina.

I can’t think of a nice way to say this, but East Columbus is not very good. It has 50 points all season, and in the last four weeks, the average score of those games has been about 48-4.

Meanwhile, the Patriots will be looking to finish a surprising season on a high note as they prepare for life in a conference (with some upperclassmen) next fall.