Burlington continued their explosive play beating Asheville 38-0 this week. It's not looking good for coach Joe Maryland to stay another year at Asheville. He's taken them to two playoffs, but the team had a complete fall off last season and aren't showing any signs of rebounding this year. Ownership is thinking it could be time for a change. Meanwhile Burlington is continuing to destroy their oponents since the lost to Salisbury with another solid performance by QB Thaddeus Schlotter 15/24 for 256yds 2TDs. Their defense is also playing very balanced and very well holding Asheville to 125 net yds. Burlington hosts Kinston next week while Asheville has to travel to Raleigh.
Gastonia's slide continued in week 9 with a 17-13 loss to Durham at home leaving both teams with a 3-6 record. Gastonia has some real searching to do to figure out why they have gone from playoff team to bust in one season with the exact same team returning. Durham meanwhile seems to be finding the right combination for their talent getting a solid performance out of QB Nate Mustoe 14/21 155yds 1TD and HB Hal Workman 26car/78yds 1TD. But better for Durham they are seeing better play from their young and much abused defense. They will have a tough game next week as they head to Charlotte and Gastonia's woes will most likely continue as they host Salisbury.
Wilson saw their hopes of a return to the playoffs go up in smoke this week as they lost to the worst team in the league Winston-Salem. The Tobs defense struggled to control the Twins and their offense didn't fair any better. The Twins held onto the ball for 38 minutes with a 52% 3rd down efficiency rating and held Wilson to a mere 127 total net yards. The Tobs now have to sit back and figure out where they are going wrong while the Twins are looking at their very young team and thinking about what no. 1 pick would help them the most next season. Of course Winston-Salem could win at home next week against 2-7 Greensboro, while Wilson will host rival Rocky Mount hoping to play a spoiler.
Greensboro had hoped that finishing out their season with more home games would allow them to a strong second half of the season, but then they ran into one of the hot teams of the league Raleigh who came into Greensboro and won 13-0. It was a close defensive game, but in the end QB Marcus Musson showed some spark rare for him and Greensboro gave the ball up twice. Raleigh is now atop the Coastal Division and should win at home this week against Asheville. They will be cheering hard for Wilson to help put some distance between themselves and the Leafs.
Rocky Mount had seemed like a lock for the division champ after week 5 but now they are struggling to stay even with Raleigh and fighting Charlotte for the potential wild card spot if it comes to that. So this weeks 13-6 win at home against Charlotte was a huge boost. Rocky Mount is now in the wild card spot lead and still have matching overall records with Raleigh. They got solid performances from Bernie Hall 11 carries for 52yds 1TD and their defense. But the real star of the game was Tad Hamm who averaged 28.8yds per punt return and kept Charlotte in a field position hole the entire game. Rocky Mount will be looking for hard for a win in Wilson this week while Charlotte will be hosting a not so good Durham squad.
Kinston knew their chances were slim, but any hopes they had left of making the playoffs depending on them beating Salisbury in week 9 and they never really had a chance. Salisbury gained 505 net yds to Kinston's 29 and continued to be the most dominant team in the league. They had big games from QB Van Egger and HB David Harley while their defense continued to overwhelm their opposition. Kinston now has to go to Burlington next week and so they are thinking now more about next season and whether or not the coaching staff in Kinston will still be around. Salisbury has to travel to Gastonia next week and don't expect them to take this game lightly as everyone still sees Gastonia as a dangerous team despite their 3-6 record.
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