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The Nighthawks boys team, in shape to be the one of the top squads in the county after going 19-9 last season, will host Raleigh Word of God at around 6 p.m. tonight. That team features 6-foot-4 guard John Wall, whom Rivals.com lists as the top prospect in the class of 2009.

And then another big day of basketball set for next Saturday at Northern. The 9th annual Piedmont Challenge will feature 28 teams from across the state:

11:30 Greensboro Day vs. Carrboro(Girls) Grimsley vs. HP Christian (Boys)
1:00 Ragsdale vs. N. Davidson (G) Greensboro Day vs. Carrboro (B)
2:30 N. Davidson vs. Triton (B) Southern Durham vs. Reagan (B)
4:00 HP Central vs Ashe County (G) Q.E.A. vs. New Creations (IN) (B)
5:30 E. Davidson vs River Mill (G) Trinity vs. Reynolds (B)
7:00 Concord vs Dudley (G) Northern Guilford vs. Trinity (G)
8:30 Statesville vs Bishop McGuiness (G) Northern Guilford vs. W-S Prep (B)

Page AD Rusty Lee just passed along a touching story about former Pirate Marsharee Neely, who's now a junior on the Old Dominion basketball team, and how he was touched by former Page English teacher Tony Bryant, who died of cancer on Halloween.

http://hamptonroads.com/2008/11/neely-plays-through-loss

Oh man, have we got some great games coming up this Friday! Here's the list, just to whet your appetite again:

4-AA West
#11 Northwest Guilford (6-4) at #6 Richmond County (7-2-1)
#15 Myers Park (5-6) at #2 East Forsyth (10-1)

4-A West
#12 High Point Central (6-4) at #5 Page (7-3)

3-AA East
#15 Winterville South Central (5-5) at #2 Dudley (10-0)
#11 Western Guilford (6-4) at #6 Erwin Triton (8-2)
#14 Southeast Guilford (7-3) at #3 Ragsdale (10-0)
#9 Wilson Hunt (4-6) at #8 Northeast Guilford (5-5)

3-A West
#10 Western Alamance (8-2) at #7 Andrews (7-3)

2-AA East
#9 North Pitt (6-4) at #8 Southern Guilford (7-3)
#16 West Stanly (4-6) at #1 Reidsville (10-0)
#12 McMichael (8-2) at #5 West Stokes (8-2)
#13 Eastern Guilford (7-3) at #4 Northwood (9-1)

1-AA West
#10 Bishop McGuinness (6-4) at #7 East Surry (8-2)
#16 East Wilkes (2-8) at Thomasville (10-0)

We'll have full previews of each game later this week, but a few quick thoughts:

Best matchup: Southeast-Ragsdale, by far. The Tigers won 7-6 on Sept. 29 on a disputed touchdown in the game's final minute, and you know Southeast is dying for a chance at revenge. That defeat triggered a three-game losing streak for Southeast, but the Falcons have recovered to win four straight, scoring more in that span than they did in their first seven games combined.

Best matchup, part 2: McMichael at West Stokes. The Wildcats' 14-6 win on their Homecoming was just McMichael's second defeat of the season. The Phoenix are back in the playoffs a year after going 1-9.

Remember last year's first round, when Western outgunned Harnett Central in a 49-46 shootout? We could be in for a similar scoreboard-buster when the Hornets face Erwin Triton, which has surrendered 27 points or more on five occasions.

Who'da thunk it: After all its tribulations this season, Northeast will be hosting a playoff game this Friday. The Rams face a similarly charmed Wilson Fike team, which had to win its last three games just to be playoff eligible, including a 27-26 victory over then-8-1 Wilson Beddingfield last week.

So what will you be looking for this weekend? Who's ripe for an upset? Can Southeast get the last laugh? Most importantly, who's got room at their tailgate?

With this Friday's football games stepping squarely on the toes of Halloween, how are y'all planning to balance your schedules?

Big win for Reidsville tonight, which can thump its chest and claim it still has dominion over the North State 2-A for another season at least. But I'll go on record to say that wasn't Eastern Guilford's best punch the Rams got. Even though head coach Scott Loosemore said the rain didn't affect his playcalling at all, the Wildcats offense never really got rolling on the Slip 'n' Slide field. Quarterback Jason Davis, who sat out the fourth quarter, did not look like the same quarterback I've seen torch teams this season. He had a fumble and an interception, and against a team as good as Reidsville, that's a death wish. I was amazed to find out afterward that the 17-point win was Reidsville's smallest since the conference realigned. That's Globetrotters-over-Generals dominance.

When I ended an e-mail to Southeast AD Scott Smith this afternoon with "Good luck," he replied, "We are due for some." He can save that karma request, because the Falcons didn't need any luck the way they played in a 28-0 win over Southwestern Randolph that snapped a three-game skid. Southeast has as much talent as anybody and could cause some major headaches down the stretch.

Now THAT was the Northwest Guilford I've been expecting to see for a while. The Vikings play defense well and run the ball well. Ask any coach how that usually turns out.

What's happened to Ragsdale's passing game? Quarterback Tim Romer had at least one touchdown in every game until tonight, when he went 1-of-3 for six yards. He's now thrown five interceptions in the last three games. When you run the ball as well as the Tigers do, though, there's no reason to get concerned. Yet.

Northern is putting together quite a playoff resume in its first season, adding tonight's 6-0 win over North Lincoln to a pile of credible victories. Too bad the Nighthawks aren't eligible for the postseason until next year. That's like giving your kid a Porsche on his 15th birthday.

The Tigers' 6-foot-5 do-it-all wing player chose the Panthers on Wednesday night, passing on offers from UNCG and Appalachian. He had received interest from some bigger schools - Wake, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Miami - but wanted to wrap up his decision before his junior year.

"I decided to stay close to home," Canty told scout.com. "My family thought it was a good decision. I dreamed about going somewhere bigger but deep down inside I want that education and I want to go to college. I took note of how colleges get really interested in you and they told me they really wanted me. I was proud of that."

Canty was a first-team all-area selection last season after posting 17.5 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.5 steals and 2 blocks a game. Here's our all-area video interview with him:

UPDATE: Ragsdale head coach Craig Shoemaker on Canty's development: "His freshman year, he would really just take the ball to the basket, shoot an occasional 3-pointer. Now he's got a much more complete mid-range game, he's a much better defender, he's just learned to take over a game. He's still very unselfish, and he understands that taking over a game doesn't necessarily mean he has to score, just put the team in the right position. And he's become much more of a vocal leader. He works so hard that when he says something, it means something to the other guys."

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."

Here's another Scotty Wayne tribute video, this one by Asad Khan, who we quoted here before. There's a lot of insight here about the kind of personality we lost:

Thursday, October 9
Mt. Zion Baptist Church
1301 Alamance Church Rd.
Greensboro, NC
Visitation will begin at 11:30 a.m. and the funeral will follow at 1:30

Burial services:
Guilford Memorial Gardens
6000 High Point Road
Greensboro, NC 27407
Phone Number: (336) 454-2013

Flowers and donations:
Hargett Funeral Services
905 E Market Street
Greensboro, NC 27401
336-273-8293