HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL: A look at Monday night’s games

By CHRIS HOBBS

HobbsDailyReport.com

Previewing tonight’s varsity football games:

Bunker Hill is at home tonight and hoping to snap a 27-game losing streak against Maiden.

MAIDEN (2-0) at BUNKER HILL (0-2), 6 p.m.

It would be hard to imagine Maiden’s confidence level being any higher than when it battles the Bears.

In a series that Maiden leads 32-5 since 1980, the Blue Devils have won 17 straight, their last 14 at The Hill and they’re 17-1 at Bunker Hill in that long stretch.

QB Keygan Mayfield has played well in two starts for Maiden since returning to the lineup – he played last season at Davidson Day – and the Bears have been outscored 86-7 so far.

For the history buffs: Bunker Hill’s last win over Maiden was in 1989 at Maiden (24-8), and the Bears haven’t walked off their home field with a win over the Blue Devils since 1988 (24-12).

Hickory battles Newton-Conover on Monday night, the 75th meeting in a series that began with a game in 1923.

NEWTON-CONOVER (1-0) at HICKORY (0-1), 6 p.m.

Newton-Conover has won three straight and seven of the last nine in a series that plays its 75th game – the first one was in 1923. The game has been moved to Monday night at 6 p.m. at Barger Stadium.

This could be the most entertaining game, and with plenty of subplots, as HHS makes its second attempt at the first victory for new head coach Russell Stone with the Red Tornadoes.

Both teams had a bye last week and thus two weeks to get ready.

Newton-Conover appeared to dig only a few pages into its playbook in a 51-0 romp past Bunker Hill to the season while HHS had a shot at winning its opener before Statesville rallied to win 27-26 in overtime.

Red Devils head coach Matt Beam, 20-15-1 at Newton-Conover, is excited about this year’s team – and for good reason – and these are the type of games that are very fan friendly.

Newton-Conover has won three of its last four trips into Barger Stadium, now trailing 25-47-2 in the series, and the Red Devils have had the upper hand in the battles for a while now.

Since 1998, Newton-Conover has won 14 of the 19 matchups… and since 1993, the Red Devils are 17-7 against HHS.

A win on Monday night would give Newton-Conover four straight over HHS, matching the Red Devils’ second-longest win streak (N-C won four straight from 2008-11).

The Red Devils’ longest stretch of handling HHS is five straight games, 1998-2002.

OTHER AREA GAMES

Community School of Davidson (1-0) at Lake Norman Charter (1-1), 7 p.m.: The Knights will need to find a way to address CSD’s passing game, as senior QB Luke Watts had a big opener in a victory last week at North Moore (16-32-3 for 292 yards, 3 TDs plus 16 rushes for 112 yards) and completed seven passes for 143 yards to junior WR Austin Fekete.

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