Playoff road teams rack up the miles

By Gabe Whisnant
Published in Sports on November 10, 2004 1:56 PM

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Taking to the road on Friday?

Here's a quick run down of the distances the area teams and opponents and their respective fans will be traveling.

Eastern Wayne makes the longest trip of any of the county schools, with a 120-mile journey to Eastern Randolph in Ramsuer. Spring Creek has the second-longest haul with its 100-mile visit to North Brunswick in Leland.

The longest trip into the county by an opponent will be made by Northeast Guilford, who will travel 134 miles from McLeansville into Northern Wayne County to face C.B. Aycock.

The shortest venture into the county is Nash Central's 60-miler from Nashville to Dudley to take on the Saints. Lejeune's trek is nearly 80 miles for its matchup at Rosewood.

Around the area, the longest trip is a no-brainer. North Duplin -- moved into the Class 1-A Western bracket -- must go 211 miles to East Wilkes in Ronda.

Randleman to North Lenoir is a 161-mile haul, while Williamston's trip to James Kenan is 142 miles.

Greene Central's visit to SouthWest Onslow is one of the shortest among first-round teams in the area at 59 miles.

All mileages are approximate.

Common opponents

Only three of the area first-round battles feature teams who have common opponents -- all are among the 1-A ranks.

Rosewood and Lejeune both defeated Jones Senior, with the Eagles winning 51-28 in week one. The Devilpups topped the Trojans 34-12 on Oct. 22.

North Johnston knocked off Spring Creek 42-10 in Seven Springs on Oct. 8. In a non-conference clash late in the season, Northampton-East handled the Gators 30-9.

James Kenan beat Roanoke 36-0 way back on Aug. 27 with Roanoke dropping Williamston 38-27 just two weeks ago.

Law of averages

Some schedules among playoff qualifiers are obviously more difficult than others, but some of the area teams and their first-round opponents have put up some solid regular season numbers on both sides of the ball. Here's a look at the average points for and points against for all of the playoff match-ups.

Team PF PA

Eastern Wayne 10.4 18.9

Eastern Randolph 32.4 9.1

Charles B. Aycock 23.1 12.5

Northeast Guilford 27.5 18.9

Southern Wayne 22.4 22.3

Nash Central 24.8 17

North Lenoir 19.6 22

Randleman 18.5 19

Greene Central 18.5 18.9

Southwest Onslow 31.1 7.4

James Kenan 25.6 13.7

Williamston 20.1 34.1

North Johnston 31.8 19

Northampton-East 22.2 21.4

Rosewood 33 30.6

Lejeune 23.4 21.4

Spring Creek 10.5 31.3

North Brunswick 42.6 12.9

Admission to games

All state playoff games will carry a gate admission of $6. No school-issued season passes, such as booster club passes, family passes or Wayne County School passes, will be honored. Only NCHSAA coaches and officials passes will be honored for admission.