Most surprising outcomes this weekend.

[DinwiddieProud]

Carroll County winning a game! 25-7 over Patrick County!

Brand new Colgan kept it respectable in the loss to Forest Park, 21-7.

The Greyhounds of I C Norcom beating Hopewell sounds like an upset, but it really isn't. The Blue Devils have been riding along on hype from last year and the notoriety of a couple of marquee players. There is a lot of work to be done in the old "Chemical Capital of the South!"

Charles City not only winning, but winning by a decent margin, 28-18.

Northside over Pulaski by 10. Maybe things have finally settled down at Northside.

Class 2 Clarke County over Class 4 Dominion 39-24. I predicted this outcome, but for many, it was a surprise. I'm not sure if I was that strong in my prediction, or that I just wanted them to win for my good friend, Clarkefan.

I drank the koolade on Parray McClure, and got choked on it. Rockbridge 33 PM 6.

And a little surprised to see Waynesboro get handled pretty easily by Draft, 27-13. I figured Draft to be down more than that this year.

And finally, Sussex Central vs Essex! 8-0 SC. I'm not surprised that it was a defensive war. And when a game is that close every mistake is magnified. But I had given the nod to Essex because of homefield advantage. On the flip side of that, I had the pleasure of sitting with the dad of a SC player at our Bird scrimmage. He was really high in the Tiger's defense. Apparently he was correct.

What surprised you?

 

[Tom Potter]

Clarke County can play some football!

Woodgrove loves our neighbors to the west!

Dominion graduated a lot of talent last year.

 

[Lafayette]

Heritage NN, expected to do well this year losing to Warhill and giving up 28 points. Warhill is improved but I think Heritage may have been a tad over rated.

 

[SpartanOfYore]

I agree on Clarke over Dominion. Although I didn't expect the Titans to be the top ten team in Class 4 that some have projected, I thought they would pass this test.

Not to be Contrarian Charlie, but neither the Carroll County nor Northside results came as a surprise. Carroll's lone win in 2016 came at the expense of Patrick County. The Cavs have won five games over the last four seasons; two of those were against the Cougars. Keep in mind that Patrick Co. had a forty-one game losing streak not too long ago. Theirs is the only program that, by comparison, can make Carroll's football operation look almost competent.

Having seen both Northside and PC last season, I thought the Vikings were the more talented. The Cougars had two good players (Thomas and Grubb), and both graduated. Pulaski has a really easy non-district slate, so that in combination with the unholy trinity of Cave Spring/Hidden Valley/Christiansburg indicates that they could still win five or six games. But they're most likely going nowhere in the postseason, and truth be told, 5-5 probably won't make the Region D field, even with eight of twelve teams qualifying.

Northside - who knows? It all depends on staying healthy, and on how well the kids respond to the new staff. The Roanoke paper picked them fourth out of five in the Blue Ridge District, but I could see them knocking off both Byrd and LB to finish second behind Staunton River. Not predicting that yet, but it's conceivable. Time will tell.

I was surprised by Franklin County's nineteen point loss to Liberty (Bedford). Liberty lost to FC last year, and is projected to be hanging out in the Seminole cellar again in '17. I thought Edwards had gotten the Eagles to the point where they should have games against the likes of Liberty - i.e. the worst teams on the schedule - well in hand. I guess not.

One thing I've concluded about high school football, however: we can draw very few conclusions from the first week's results. Every year, week one yields a lot of scores that, when one goes back and reviews after the season, seem like total anomalies. It seems as if it takes about three games to get a good handle on what a team is going to be.

 

[tommythecpa]

The margin of courtland's loss.

 

[SpartanOfYore]

Also, Christiansburg losing to Floyd Co. 18-0. Mostly the margin. I know C'burg's talent cupboard is barren, but losing by almost three TD's to a below-average Class 2 team? And getting shut out? Yikes. It's gonna be a long, slow slog back to respectability for the Blue Demons.

 

[DinwiddieProud]

Yes sir Spartan, the FC loss was one that also stood out to me too.

I'm a little surprised, (maybe just more disappointed for our buddies Oneman and BK), that C'vill lost.