Glenn coach Cline to face Mount Tabor for first time

In 32-plus seasons as a head football coach, Dick Cline of Glenn has seen nearly everything.

But tonight Cline will see something he has never seen, and something Glenn hasn't seen in years -- Mount Tabor on the other sideline for a regular-season game.

Cline took over at Glenn in 2001, and in recent years, the Bobcats and Spartans have scrimmaged. Tonight, they'll play for keeps at Mount Tabor.

In other big nonconference games tonight in Forsyth County, East Forsyth (2-1) will play at West Forsyth (3-0), and Reynolds (3-0) will play at Carver (1-2) in a matchup of speedy teams.

Also, Atkins will play Parkland at Deaton-Thompson Stadium, Forsyth Country Day will be at home against North Raleigh Christian, Reagan will play at North Forsyth, and Bishop McGuinness will be at home against South Davidson.

Elsewhere, conference play will start in the nine-team Mountain-Valley 2-A/1-A, and one of those games could wind up being especially important -- Elkin at East Wilkes.

Glenn -- after committing five turnovers in a loss to West Forsyth on Aug. 28 -- moved to 2-1 last week with a victory over Carver, and that has added to the excitement of tonight's game, Cline said.

"Our schedule is very demanding, and at the same time, with it being very strong, it's also very exciting because it's challenging," he said. "And that's what makes it fun."

Cline said that Mount Tabor's offense will pose a challenge with its big line and the ability of its backs and receivers. Cline, as always, wants to establish a running game, and he said that could be tough to do against Mount Tabor.

"Defensively they are very aggressive," Cline said. "They will have 10 men in the box sometimes and a cornerback a few inches off the receiver. They look to create bad plays. They try to force you into bad plays."

Any early reports about the demise of East Forsyth seem premature. The Eagles, despite losing nearly all of the starting offense from a team that reached the 2008 4-AA quarterfinals, could be 3-0. A bad punt last week against Mount Tabor led to an unlikely touchdown and a 21-14 loss for East.

"They are good," Coach Adrian Snow of West said of East. "They believe they can win. You have a year like they had and go as deep as they went, it's almost like a drug. Its like, ‘That was fun. We can do it again. We will have to work hard and play hard, but we can do it again.'

"They try to decrease mistakes. They had one the other day, but they are doing the little things well, and they have a great punter, too. They have some kids on offense that can make plays, and they have some good young talent."

West has done the little things well in winning its first three games. Most notable is the Titans' plus-10 turnover margin.

"We are playing with a lot of confidence, and that means a lot," Snow said.

East Wilkes went into last week's game at North Stokes averaging 50 points and flying high at 2-0. It returned to Ronda late Friday night licking the wounds of a back-to-earth 36-34 loss to North Stokes.

If there is a silver lining in the defeat, Coach Monty Chipman of East Wilkes said, it's that his players won't have swollen heads when they take the field for tonight's Mountain-Valley 2-A/1-A opener against Elkin.

"I am anxious to see how our kids come out and play," Chipman said. "I don't think they handled success too well last week."

And though this game is just the start of conference play, the winner probably will finish as the top 1-A team in the split conference because there appears to be a gap between East and Elkin and the league's other 1-A teams.

Chipman said that the winner will probably end up with a high seed for the 1-A playoffs. Even if that wasn't on the line, these schools, separated by about five miles, have quite a rivalry. Last year, Elkin beat East 13-12 in overtime after stopping East's two-point conversion attempt on the last play.

"The biggest difference I can tell with Elkin is their (offensive) line," Chipman said. "It's 10 times better than last year, and that's what makes them go. They are not tricky at all. They are well schooled and big and strong.

"They get on you, and once they do that, they drive you. And their defense, they fly around the ball, and they are pretty quick. But my biggest concern is their offensive line and doing what North Stokes did to us last week, which is keeping the ball away from us."

■ Widespread flu cases at Central Davidson force postponement of the Central-North Davidson game.

■ Mason Linker can be reached at 727-7324 or at mlinker@wsjournal.com.