High school sports highlights

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compiled by MEREDITH BARKLEY

Northwest Guilford football wrapped up its regular season earlier this month, overpowering conference foe High Point Central and nonconference Hoke County, finishing second in the Metro 4A and earning a bid to post-season action. “We’re happy with what we did” this season, Coach Kevin Wallace said. “Our kids are deservedly in the playoffs.”

The Vikings closed the regular season downing High Point Central (2-5) 35-6 on April 2 and nonconference Hoke (2-5) 48-12 on April 9. That finished off the most successful campaign of Wallace’s four years at Northwest, and earned his second post-season appearance.

“There are some things we have to clean up” before facing the Myers Park Mustangs, Wallace said of his team. “But we’re playing well.”

The Mustangs finished 7-0 in an allconference schedule.

“We’re going to prepare well, put our kids in position to make plays,” said Wallace, who has been pouring over Mustang game film with his staff. “We’ll see how the ball rolls at the end of the day.” The Vikings (6-1), a No. 7 seed, will play at second-seeded and undefeated Myers Park this Friday, April 16.

Northern Guilford (5-2) missed the playoffs, losing 40-34 in overtime to Western Alamance (7-0) in a game for the conference title. The Nighthawks finished third in the 2A/3A MidState Athletic Conference.

“Another year we’d have been in the playoffs,” said Coach Erik Westberg, pointing to the COVID-shortened playoff schedule that sliced in half the number of teams picked to advance. “We didn’t take care of business the way we needed to. It hurts. (It’s) going to stick with me for a long time.”

The Nighthawks were positioned to win the conference and its automatic playoff bid when they took the field against conference-leading Western’s Warriors. Win and the crown was theirs. Lose and they’d be following along from afar.

Northern led by 8 points going into the fourth quarter. Western tied it up during the quarter and outscored the Nighthawks 6-0 in overtime for the win.

The loss capped a grueling end-ofseason run that almost worked. The Nighthawks packed three games into 10 days to make up for earlier COVID postponements. They began the run by squeaking past Person 37-36 on March 31, then bested Morehead 49-7 six days later. They faced the Warriors four days after that, on a night when storms forced a lengthy delay. That game didn’t finish until 1 a.m.

“A very long night,” Westberg said. “Obviously we’re disappointed in how (the season) ended.”

In his team’s two losses – against Eastern Alamance and Western Alamance – the Nighthawks let leads slip away late. They were a couple plays, Westberg said, from an undefeated season.

“That’s how close we were,” he said. “We were right there.”

GIRLS SOCCER

The COVID-shuffled girls soccer season got underway in mid-March.

Northern, at 9-0, has made it look easy, plowing through its Mid-State 3A Conference-only schedule and outscoring opponents 77-1. They were scheduled to play at home against Eastern Alamance (5-1) on April 14. The Nighthawks defeated Eastern 3-0 on the road in March.

Northwest (5-1 and 4-0 in the Metro 4A) opened with a win over South Iredell (6-1) but followed that with its only loss, 2-1, to undefeated Union Pines, a nonconference foe. The Vikings defeated Ragsdale 4-0 on Tuesday and are scheduled at Jay M. Robinson (2-4) of Concord on April 15.

SOFTBALL

Northwest (3-1, 3-0) opened March 22 with a 7-1 loss to nonconference North Davidson (6-1), but then blanked Page and Ragsdale and now lead the

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