Former Vikings return to Central as Bulls
By Steve Winzenread
Glen Cook has his own description of tonight’s football action against Hickory Ridge.
“It’s going to be an alumni game,” he quipped.
The reference is to the number of former Central Cabarrus junior varsity players who are now part of the Ragin’ Bulls varsity at the newest high school in Cabarrus County.
“They’ve got all the starters from our jayvee team except about three kids,” said Vikings head coach Cook.
When he looks at the Hickory Ridge defense, he sees “eight or nine” starters who were at Central last year.
Tonight, in their third try, the senior-laden Vikings try to score their first win of the season. Central has dropped its first two games by a total of five points.
“The reason we’re not 2-0 as opposed to 0-2 is we’re making mistakes you can’t make,” Cook said.
“What we’ve got to do is correct all the mistakes we’re making and get a little better.”
If the Vikings do that, Cook sees them being competitive with most teams.
“We’re trying to keep the kids upbeat about what’s ahead of us. We’re trying to continue to build and get enough wins that when we go into conference play we have a positive outlook.”
Any team with a back who runs for 200 yards, as D.J. Moore did last week for the Vikings in their loss to Northwest Cabarrus, has something going for it.
Against A.L. Brown, Central lost 7-6, giving up a touchdown only after a fumbled punt set the Wonders up in Viking territory.
“We’ve been bringing that up every day,” Cook said. “If you get beat by one, you still got beat. You might as well get beat by 99.
“Our timing is not where we look for it to be. Some are going three-quarters and some seven-eighths. Until we get everybody full throttle, we’re not getting what you need.”
Cook said making the playoffs could lead to interesting possibilities.
“Once we get into the playoffs,” he said, “we’re a lot more evenly matched than when we’re playing in our conference.
“You have Hopewell with 4,000 kids and North Mecklenburg with 3,500. It’s still lopsided numbers-wise. You walk through our hallways now and it seems vacant.”
Hickory Ridge will be playing its third straight road game before it hosts Porter Ridge next week.
The Bulls lost at Mount Pleasant, but then received a forfeit, before losing at Jay M. Robinson last Friday.