Wednesday, Nov. 09, 2011

The 2011 high school football season by the numbers

3 - Teams that were ineligible for the N.C. High School Athletic Association football playoffs for having too many ejections for fighting during regular-season games or the number of ejections that will end a season. If a team has three or more players ejected for fighting during a playoff game, the team is disqualified from further play regardless of the final score. If the winning team has the ejections, its opponent in the next round will receive a bye.

5 - Middle Creek's strength of schedule rating by Brian Simmons, who does a computer analysis of North Carolina high school football. The Mustangs played Northern Durham, Southern Durham, Fuquay-Varina and Garner in non-conference games. Scotland's schedule is rated the state's toughest.

6 - Wake County teams that reached the second round in the 4-AA East. The Tri-Nine's Cary, Fuquay-Varina and Middle Creek advanced along with the Cap Eight's Leesville Road and Wake Forest-Rolesville, plus the Greater Neuse's Garner.

8 - Seeds of Burlington Williams (6-6), which upended top-seed Northeast Guilford, 22-21 in overtime, in the 3A Mideast and Huntersville Hopewell (5-6), which beat top-seed Asheville Roberson, 14-9, in the 4A West. Williams is coached by former Leesville Road coach David Green. Matthews Weddington, a No. 7 seed, defeated No. 2 Belmont South Point 23-17 in the 3-AA Midwest.

9 - Number of teams in this week's N&O rankings that were ranked in the top 12 in the preseason. Panther Creek, Southern Durham and Millbrook have been replaced by Cardinal Gibbons, Chapel Hill and Erwin Triton.

13 - The number of completions East Chapel Hill quarterback Drew Davis needed to tie the single-season NCHSAA record held by Chris Leak at Charlotte Independence, who had 336 in 2002. Davis is No. 2 on the all-time list.

21 - Number of students that dropped Scotland from the 4-AA bracket to the 4-A. If Scotland had 1,820 students instead of 1,799 it would be the 4AA bracket along with Charlotte Mallard Creek, Greensboro Page, Charlotte Butler, Garner and Leesville Road, the other schools in Simmons' top six. As it is, Scotland is the favorite in the 4A bracket.

26 - Consecutive years that Garner has made the NCHSAA playoffs.

54.5 - Points that Leesville Road is averaging this season.

598 - Passing yards Connor Mitch had in a 67-58 loss to Leesville Road on Sept. 29. Mitch completed 48 of 62 passes. The NCHSAA single-game record is 600 yards by Broughton's Will Cooper against Wakefield in 2010.