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Surprisingly in a few cases, not so much in others, there remain five unbeaten high school football teams in the News & Record coverage area. Thus, the Mighty Nine poll stays unchanged at the top. The question now: Who can get through their conference schedule and enter the playoffs without a loss?

Reidsville? The Rams are 6-0 and should have little problem this week at West Stokes. The question here is: Can Eastern Guilford (Oct. 12) or Southern Guilford (Oct. 26) win at Reidsville if they catch the Rams on a slightly off-night? Doing it on the road will be tough. If Eastern keeps playing as well as it is on defense and Gerrod Herbin gets 100% healthy, I could see the Wildcats rolling into Community Stadium on a 4-game winning streak and giving it a go. Southern had a good win over a top-10 1-A team, West Montgomery, before last week's bye. William Graves and the Storm's linebacker corps are playing well, but I'm still a little more skeptical of their chances.

Western Alamance? At Northeast on Friday, at Dudley on Oct. 26. It could get interesting. It took a blocked punt to close out the Rams last year. This time, Northeast is really banged up, so it'll be interesting to see if the Rams can contain QB Donald Britt and WR Levon Curtis for four quarters.

The big news out of McLeansville: Standout QB Kendall Bratcher sprained a medial colateral ligament in his knee against Western Guilford on Sept. 21, didn't play a Southern Alamance and is questionable at best for Friday's home game against Western Alamance.

That will put a lot on freshman Maurice Harris' shoulders. It's your second varsity game, kid. It could take 40 or 50 points to beat the Warriors. Good luck. Northeast has also lost two halfbacks to injury and will be short-handed on defense. More on that in Friday's News & Record, plus an update on Bratcher.

Back to the unbeatens:

Grimsley? The Whirlies have lost stud athlete Keenan Allen for Friday's game at High Point Central because of a taunting ejection last week. Grimsley survived without QB Zach Maynard at Northern Durham -- winning in OT -- but beating the Bison without his brother could be a little trickier. Page is next week. If the Whirlies get caught looking ahead, look out.

Glenn? The Bobcats' wins get more and more lopsided each week, it seems. Carver next week appears to be their biggest obstacle in the Piedmont Triad 3-A.

Thomasville? This is turning into quite a story. Imagine another perfect season with what the Bulldogs and coaches Brown & Brown have gone through in the past few months. West Montgomery will be a tough test Friday, then a trip to Siler City to face Jordan-Matthews. Win those, and T'ville will be well on its way.