Can Northern pull an upset?
A relative newcomer to the state, Northern Guilford football coach Johnny Roscoe didn't know anything about Charlotte Christian when he saw the Knights were on his schedule this season.
Now that he's been informed, he kind of wishes he was still in the dark.
"They're pretty good, I tell ya," Roscoe said Tuesday afternoon as he put the finishing touches on his paint job of Northern's field, which will play host to the 6-0 Knights on Friday in the program's biggest test to date.
The Nighthawks, still without a senior class in their second year of operation, have opened their first season of varsity football with a 5-1 record, looking sharp despite a patchwork schedule that's taken them all across the state. They've already traveled to Charlotte to play Victory Christian and Derita Academy, and they've hosted teams from as far as Fayetteville and Raleigh. Their lone loss came 29-7 to East Lincoln, which is now 6-1.
"They've done much better than even I thought they would have," Roscoe said.
But Northern has yet to see anything like Charlotte Christian, which advanced to the NCISAA Division I championship game last season and knocked off defending champ Charlotte Latin 17-9 last week. The Knights have outscored their opponents 199-18 and are ranked sixth in the state in the most recent NCpreps.com poll. They beat East Lincoln 34-16 last season.
The Knights are predictably stocked with talent, with 6-foot-6 defensive end Willis Hall already the recipient of scholarship offers from Duke and Elon and quarterback Luke Bard the younger brother of UNC kicker Daniel Bard.
"They've got so much more depth than we do. When we get dinged up, it hurts us a great deal," Roscoe said, citing specifically the loss of receiver Tyler Davis to a ruptured spleen earlier this season.
But these are the kind of challenges Northern was seeking, and they're the kind Roscoe knows his program has to accept if it's going to grow.
"We've had to mature quick with the teams we've been playing," Roscoe said. "It's been a true challenge for the players."
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