Eastern Randolph football team dominated new league, then faced new questions

RAMSEUR — East Region or West Region? 

With the new classifications, the new way playoff seedings are determined and with fewer teams qualifying in each classification, Eastern Randolph varsity football coach Burton Cates and his staff were expecting a trip to the East Regional when the regular season ended.

Until about two weeks ago.

It was then that projections flipped the Wildcats from the East to the West and what was a very likely No. 1 seed in the East has become a No. 3 seed in the West.

For Cates and the Wildcats, who closed out another undefeated conference season Thursday night with a 49-0 win over Jordan-Matthews for their fifth straight unbeaten league campaign, heading in either direction is fine.

“We will live with it, address it and let the kids know we have a chance to play football,” Cates said late last week. “We knew there was a possibility of going West. We have a lot of smart coaches who spend a great deal of time with the projections. It doesn’t matter because you’re going to play good football teams in both.”

The Wildcats will be entering the state tournament with very high expectations, as they do every year. 

ER is 8-2 on the season after wrapping up the Four Rivers Conference championship, the first in the new realignment. Add that to the four consecutive undefeated Piedmont Athletic Conference titles won and the Wildcats have recorded five straight undefeated conference seasons.

“That’s our goal,” Cates said of the undefeated league season. “We’re getting better, eliminating penalties, eliminating turnovers. The open date was as good as it could have been. I felt like the last two games from penalties to turnovers to assignments, we’ve done a lot better. Those things and injuries make a big difference in the playoffs.”

The Wildcats had a Week 9 bye, the latest Cates said he ever remembered having a bye in a high school football season.

Since a 20-13 loss to Asheboro on Sept. 19, the Wildcats have ripped off five straight victories, outscoring foes 215-16. In the four FRC battles, the Wildcats recorded three shutouts and own a 181-10 points advantage.

The Wildcats started the season 3-2 after losses to Union Pines and Asheboro.

“The Asheboro loss was disappointing,” Cates said. “But we had some injuries and missed people who did not play in that game. It was telling, but the good thing about it was it created depth. Players were injured last night (against Jordan-Matthews) and someone stepped in. Going into the playoffs, you always want to have some depth you can fall back on.”

With another solid regular season behind them, the Wildcats will be looking to reach double-digit victories for the sixth straight season. That excludes the 2020 COVID campaign that limited the number of games for each team. ER won 12 games in each of the 2023 and 2024 seasons, 11 games in 2022, 10 games in 2021 and 10 in 2019. The team was 5-2 in the COVID season.

Cates said ER is entering the playoffs as healthy as they have been in years.

“We played Corvian last year (in the third round of the playoffs) with two jayvee players starting on defense,” Cates said. “We are in good shape, the best shape we’ve been in since I can remember”