LAURINBURG — The Scotland football team might save some money on hand warmers when it travels to Fayetteville to take on Pine Forest in a third-round playoff matchup on Friday night.
After the temperature dropped into the 30s during the Fighting Scots’ 7-6 win over No. 2 Cardinal Gibbons last week, Friday’s forecast calls for partly cloudy skies and temperatures hovering around 50 degrees when the lights come on at Pine Forest.
But the weather is just a small concern as the No. 10 Scots (7-5) try to defeat the No. 3 Trojans (10-2) and advance to the 4A semifinals.
The Scots are preparing to face a heavy rushing attack on Friday night.
“They’re predominantly a run team, but the quarterback does throw well enough to keep you honest,” Scotland head coach Richard Bailey said. “They have a few skill guys who can run. They have a lot of team speed.”
Running back D.J. Jones, who rushed for 155 yards and a touchdown in Pine Forest’s 27-7 win over No. 6 Middle Creek last week, has a total of 1,084 yards on the ground this season. He averages 90 yards per game.
Quarterback Richard McEachern has rushed for almost 50 yards per game this season, and he also averages 62 passing yards.
The Trojans tend to be creative with how they run the football.
“Offensively, they’re good at running side to side,” Bailey said. “They’ll jet sweep you to death, and the quarterback will end up keeping one. That quarterback can run. He’s a heck of a football player.”
Scotland yielded 235 rushing yards to Cardinal Gibbons.
As usual, Scotland will do its fair share of running the football. Ideally, that won’t mean having Syheam McQueen carry the ball 41 times like he did last week.
McQueen rushed for 185 yards in the second round. Bailey said his star running back is a little beaten up after the win over Cardinal Gibbons, but the senior will continue to contribute as his high school football career nears its end.
“We’ll try to spread it around a little bit more,” Bailey said. “I don’t want to make a habit of running him that many times.”
The winner of Friday night’s game will play the winner of No. 5 Seventy-First and No. 8 South View. Pine Forest defeated South View 14-7 in the final game of the regular season, and Seventy-First beat Scotland 21-6 earlier in the year.
That semifinal game will determine the championship qualifier from the 4A East. No. 1 East Forsyth, No. 4 Grimsley, No. 6 Porter Ridge and No. 2 West Mecklenburg are the teams remaining in the 4A West.
Starting Wednesday morning, tickets for Scotland’s game against Pine Forest will be sold for $8 at Scotland High School, Shirt Tales and Scotland Bling.
