JAGUARS REBOUND – Carrboro just HAD to breathe a collective sigh of relief following last Friday’s 20-14 win over Bartlett-Yancey.

While the Jaguars may not have the same breadth and depth of last season’s state championship runner-up squad, a three-game losing skid had the program reeling a bit.

The Jaguars should be able to cobble together at least a two-game win streak together when they travel to 1-6 Cummings on Friday.

Cummings fell to Mid-State 2A conference foe Graham 13-7 in overtime on the second of two Daniel Graves touchdown runs.

Cummings was its own worst enemy, getting flagged for 14 penalties for 130 yards while committing four turnovers.

Carrboro will have to be aware of the quarterback Tevin Smith to wideout Torey Cash connection, as the pair hooked up on a 19 yard touchdown play.

CHAPEL THRILL – Chapel Hill apparently likes close contests this season, as the Tigers have been involved in several of them including last Friday’s 28-24 win over Northern Vance.

The Tigers have been in four games decided by seven points or less, splitting the results 2-2.

Chapel Hill would GLADLY take another close contest on Friday when it hosts the powerful Orange ‘Crush’ Panthers.

Orange’s superb all-around play in all facets of the game doesn’t appear to make that a likely outcome, however.

NOT FULLY CHARGED – Is Northwood as good as its 6-1 record? Probably, but coach Bill Hall has been correct all along when he said the Chargers need to play better.

Northwood bounced back from a devastating 41-21 loss to Orange with two straight wins but the competition was not the best the Chargers have faced this season.

The Chargers will be tested, BIG TIME, this week when they play at Southern Durham. Southern is coming off a big win at Cardinal Gibbons and must be supremely confident right now.

Northwood, meanwhile, still needs to get its swagger back. If the Chargers play at 100 percent it should be a heckuva’ game. If they don’t, the area’s former top team could limp through the remainder of the season.

PLUGGING ALONG – Be sure to join Matt Oakes and I on “The Grid with Matt & Matt” as we preview and predict this week’s games, select our ‘Grid Great of the Week’ and run down our WCHL/Chapelboro.com ‘Super Six’ poll of area high school football teams.

We ran out of time on last week’s show for the latter, but there were no big surprises as perfect Orange remains at No. 1, Northwood stayed at No. 2, Carrboro hung on to No. 3, Chapel Hill stayed at No. 4, followed by No. 5 East Chapel Hill and No. 6 Cedar Ridge.

The show airs Friday night’s at 6p on WCHL 97.9 FM with a listener link also available on chapelboro.com