Monday, August 22, 2011

Mallard Creek No. 1 in Observer Sweet 16 for the first time

The first regular-season Sweet 16 poll of the 2011 season brings with it a big shake up.

Mallard Creek, which beat Butler 28-20 Friday, is No. 1 for the first time in school history. The Mavericks win ended Butler’s 31-game win streak and today ends Butler’s 671-day hold on the No. 1 ranking.

Preseason No. 3 West Rowan lost to Mooresville Friday, ending the nation’s longest win streak at 46 games. West Rowan fell from No. 3 to No. 9, and Mooresville -- unranked in the preseason -- moved to No. 13.

Also new this week are No. 14 Berry and No. 15 Porter Ridge, two teams that started the season in style Friday. Porter Ridge beat Monroe 55-26 and Berry beat preseason No. 6 Vance 44-6, sending the Cougars tumbling to No. 16.

One team making a big jump was Burns, which beat 2010 N.C. 3AA state championship finalist Crest 33-12 at home Friday, beating its Cleveland County rival for the first time since 1998. Burns jumped from No. 12 to 8; Crest fell from No. 4 to 10.

Rk.     Team (Class)     Rec.    Prev.
1     Mallard Creek (4A)     1-0    2
2     Butler (4A)     0-1    1
3     Charlotte Catholic (3A)     1-0    5
4     Rock Hill Northwestern (4A)     0-0    7
5     A.L. Brown (3A)    1-0    8
6    South Point (3A)    1-0    9
7    Rock Hill South Pointe (3A)     0-0    10
8    Burns (3A)    1-0    12
9    West Rowan (3A)    0-1    3
10    Crest (3A)    0-1    4
11    Independence (4A)    1-0    14
12    Lincolnton (2A)    1-0    15
13    Mooresville (4A)    1-0    NR
14    Berry (3A)    1-0    NR
15    Porter Ridge (4A)    1-0    NR
16    Vance (4A)    0-1    6
Dropped out: No. 16 Albemarle (1A, 0-1); No. 13 Sun Valley (4A, 0-1); No. 11 Hibriten (3A, 0-1)
On the Bubble: Charlotte Country Day (IND, 0-0); Hopewell (4A, 1-0)

50 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like that Sun Valley State Champion prediction took a hit....:-)

Anonymous said...

Butler is a good football team. Many players still around from last season. However, I hope people realize that MC's victory was not a fluke. The Mavericks can play. Will be shocked if these 2 teams don't meet again in late November.

Anonymous said...

The coach lost the game - especially his offensive coordinator. One more bad game like this and Butler needs to look for a new coach! MC's defense was able to stop either WR for butler yet they continued to run up the middle. The fake punt was a disaster - they should have gone for it on 4th down. They never got the ball back and couldn't stop the offensive line of MC. Bad play as well as well on 4th down when MC faked their own punt and ran for the 1st down. Clearly Butler has better players in key positions - perhaps their coaching staff needs to see this!!!

Anonymous said...

Mallard Creek beat Butler straight up. No excuses... in fact, the score should have, could have been 28 - 0 or 28 - 7

Anonymous said...

correction - meant to say MC's defensive backs COULD NOT stop Butler WR's. Sorry for the typo.

Anonymous said...

how does berry smoke vance and jump to 14 and vance is 16....i think you drop vance out of the poll untill they show they can play

Anonymous said...

On the final touchdown for Mallard Creek a huge call was missed. The ball was clearly passed forward to the receiver on the outside before the receiver threw it for a touchdown. I know the pass was caught between two Butler players but still that should have never counted and that clearly decided the game. Mallard Creek ran that same play in the early part of the game and got called for a forward pass. Dont know how the refs let that one go in that crucial spot. No I am not a Butler fan I was just at the game wanting to see these two teams play.

Anonymous said...

how does a team get beat and not drop more than 1 spot. This is a charlotte joke poll!

Anonymous said...

how do you have 4 0-1 teams in the top 16..

Anonymous said...

Langston....aren't you supposed to be working in your new department, with CharlotteMoms.com?

Why start ranking Porter Ridge now? Why don't you just wait until the Pirates beat up on A.L.Brown. Then you can replace the spot the Wonders fill with Porter Ridge.

Go Pirates!

Anonymous said...

WOW
Myers Park Football should be on this list. The 1st team defense didn't allow any points Friday Nite against a decent Garinger team(7-5 and a playoff team last year). STILL No mention in this Silly Poll. And you have how many 2A and 3A teams are on here. You guys are IDIOTS!!!

Anonymous said...

From what i say it was a close game. Butler will be fine and probally run the board. MC was hittin on all cylinders. Great game and im a MC fan.

Anonymous said...

So lets just have a 4a poll and then one for the rest of the schools. They are some really good teams that are in the smaller classes. The size of the school shouldn't matter.

Anonymous said...

So much for SV state championship, eh? btw, SV is 4A not 3A.

Go Pirates!

Unknown said...

PLEASE don't rank us the Tarboro Vikings... LOL this is a joke back to back state champions and have the best running back in the state and we don't make your precious list... REALLY? This list isn't worth the paper it is written on.

Anonymous said...

Big Red Machine in Belmont South Point moving on up. Take notice now.

sportsrecruiter said...

I am with you VikingPack84....First Assembly Christian is also back to back state champs plus have won 3 out of the last 4 championships and they too get no love! Charlotte Country Day on the bubble...This is a joke.

Observer Sports said...

LOL, on Sun Valley bit. I think they'll be OK. Remember, Stein's kids are 4A and Richmond Senior is a top level 4AA team. The funny thing is all the pubs and folks who said Scotland was the team to beat. I never pick against Rockingham in their league. Never.
-- LW.

Observer Sports said...

"how does berry smoke vance and jump to 14 and vance is 16....i think you drop vance out of the poll untill they show they can play"

Vance was highly ranked in the preseason poll. We had several top 10 teams lose. The Coogs could've dropped out for sure and they'll need to pick it up. I'm guessing folks gave them the BOD because of the coaching situation.
-- LW

Observer Sports said...

"Langston....aren't you supposed to be working in your new department, with CharlotteMoms.com?

Why start ranking Porter Ridge now? Why don't you just wait until the Pirates beat up on A.L.Brown. Then you can replace the spot the Wonders fill with Porter Ridge.

Go Pirates!"

Wow, you really want me to write about women and kids? We've got some good folks over there now and not sure I'd add much.

PR was on the bubble of the first poll and -- guess what -- in the second poll of the year, they're ranked. Your post makes it seem like it's, ah, November, and we've not ranked them all year.

Take a breath. It's a long season.

-- LW

Anonymous said...

First Assembly isn't good and has never been good. If they beat CCDS I will take that back. Winning the small level private school title is worthless. Tarboro will never be ranked for the same reason teams in Florida and Texas aren't, it's not in the coverage area. Jesus, people in the east are dumb.

Observer Sports said...

Tarboro is not in the Observer's coverage area and thus cannot be ranked....First Assembly doesn't play by 8 semester rule, which makes them ineligible.

Anonymous said...

how does a team get beat and not drop more than 1 spot. This is a charlotte joke poll!



So how does the Lizard Creek Gazette rate it ?

Anonymous said...

To make it easier and everybody happy the Ducks are #1 and all the rest tied for 2nd.

Anonymous said...

This poll sucks, but I have to defend Butler only dropping 1 spot. They lost on a play that shouldn't have counted, on the road, at the #2 team in the poll by 1 TD. Idiotic new coaching staff or not, who else on this poll would you guys think could beat Butler besides Mallard Creek? Surely not Charlotte Catholic who's right behind them.

Anonymous said...

Wah, wah, wah. All you people crying because your team didn't make the cut can just get over it. You hear this every year, at every level. If you're ranked, you're ranked. If you're not, you're not. Get over it. If you want respect, go earn it.

Anonymous said...

Go Dolphins!

Anonymous said...

I was at the game Friday and will like to say that the lost for Butler was not the coaches fault. I have been following BHS for 4 yrs and truly the hype was missing in the players. The players are missing a leader on the field. The defense stayed in the same position the whole entire time which made the offense easy for MC. The BHS players walked off the field each time with their heads down. If BHS expects to be the champs they better lift her heads high and get a leader on their team to pump them up (like Kris Frost use to do)! As for MC, Congrats on being #1 but the sweet 16 is nothing to brag on. You all need to correct the mistakes that were made to become a Championship team. It was a good game Friday but neither team did not look like Championship material.

Anonymous said...

Did you guys whining about Butler losing even go to the game? Perhaps the last Mallard Creek TD should have been called back. But Mallard Creek was still up 21-20 and Butler wasn't showing me that they could successfully move the ball. Yes, they would have gotten the ball back with a big more time, but it's a stretch to say that the play decided the game.

Anonymous said...

that play decided the game.

Anonymous said...

Porter Ridge will not beat A.L. Brown...

Anonymous said...

A.L. Butler will beat Porter Ridge with ease.

Anonymous said...

Butler deserves what it gets, too bad Newsome skipped out before the house crumbled. Mallard Creek is the new power in town and the folks in Matthews are just gonna have to get used to 2nd, perhaps even 3rd. Butler was way overrated!!!

Anonymous said...

So much for Butler beating the streak.

Anonymous said...

Mallard Creek smashed those overrated Bulldogs!!.... by 8 points.

Anonymous said...

Football is Football, there were mistakes by both Mallard Creek and Butler. There were missed calls also on both sides of the ball, but the bottom line is the score wether they won by one point or seven a win is a win. mallard Creek was by far the better team if they had connected on three pass plays it would have been a blow out. Butler was getting there heads handed to them and like one post said they held there heads down after they were down 14 to NOTHING.

Anonymous said...

K for that hater that says the ball was over the line? get outta here... like seriously you hate on MC and it shows, MC DB's were able to shut them down somewhat but hey you right that called played out the rest of the game? even tho they went 3 and out the next drive lol? but your right you just hate and you shouldn't do that :) makes you look bad

Anonymous said...

Perhaps a bigger injustice is still having West Rowan above Mooresville. What do you base this on? They played one game, which Mooresville won. That literally makes no sense, guys. It's indefensible.

Local Coach said...

really winning by 8 is smashing someone, not to mention the two red zone turnovers the bulldogs had, Mallard Creek won, and you cant take that away from them but if you think the WR pass should of counted then let me buy you a rulebook and a pair of glasses. The rematch will be awesome,I dont think either team is far and ahead of the other, that game could of gone either way. As for those of you complaining about the Sweet 16 i say who cares, do you really care what langston and all those ppl that think they know what their talking about rank your team? Seriously beating a team by 8 points isnt dominating by any means

Anonymous said...

Both MC & Butler made mistakes and you can pull out differnet situations on both sides but one that sticks out for me is the fact that MC had the ball at the Butler 40 with a minute to go in the Half up 14-0. MC throws a pick on a bad throw and read. If MC at the least kicks a field goal or worst puts it in the end zone this game might have ended up more like 35-7

Anonymous said...

It always cracks me up when someone says that if a play had gone a different way or a call had been different then their team would have won. You can say that about plays and calls throughout the game to imagine a score change in whatever direction you want. Pointless speculation though.

Anonymous said...

hey no sweat.
Everyone knows the Mallard Duckz win the little onez but quack on the Big Onez. Itz so predictable itz an annual tradition in the Qc.
The head coach is a quacker & quackz up when the playoffz begin. Never failz. Never sweat the small stuff.

Anonymous said...

Polls are great for generating conversation, but the bias has to disappear. I harped on this repeatedly last year (and I do every year).

Quit allowing reputation or preseason guesswork dictate whether a team is in the Sweet 16.

Mooresville only gets one shot at West Rowan. What do they have to do to be ranked higher? They can't beat them every week. How can two teams who've only played one game be ranked in a way that the team that lost is higher?

Last year, I ragged for weeks on Independence being ranked and said 'let them win a game or two and earn a ranking.'

Conduct rankings based on what happens on the field, not potential. The good teams will rise, enter the rankings, whatever...

if a team gets smoked 44-6 and remains in the rankings, the team that beat them ought to be way higher than 14.

Anonymous said...

Myers Park in a Poll???
That's Funny. They will only win 3 games this year...lol

Anonymous said...

Sun Valley fans...get ready for 2012. That Jv defense you guys have would not stop a 1A Offense.. Your season is pretty much over.

Anonymous said...

Come on Butler. Butler receivers where open??????? That's the reason ferguson was Sack 5 times. No one open down field. Get ready for the rematch, unless you guys play Richmond. They run. You guys can't stop the run.

Anonymous said...

You need to give Sun Valley a little bit of a break. They ran into a Richmond County triple option buzz saw friday night. They may not be quiet as bad as it appears...

Anonymous said...

It was known West Rowan was a bubble. They won 45 straight but used to lose 45 straight. They just got tired of every team trying to schedule them for Homecoming every year. Back 2SQ1.

Hard to believe Mooresville was the one but it was only a matter of time and somebody had to do it.

And what happened to BIG BRAGGART Shelby High Golden Lions or even the Charlotte West Lions? Damn .....

Richmond County stuffing Sun Valley so bad no surprise.

Anonymous said...

No. 8 Burns has No. 13 Mooresville in Friday after next and No.6 South Point the following week, if they remain undefeated this poll will be shaken up even further in 3 weeks time.

Anonymous said...

"Mooresville only gets one shot at West Rowan. What do they have to do to be ranked higher? They can't beat them every week. How can two teams who've only played one game be ranked in a way that the team that lost is higher?" Well they have the No. 8 team on the poll after this week beat them and earn some respect.