Vikings Look to End Losing Skid against Cougars

Match-Up: Mountain Heritage Cougars (7-2, 4-1 WHC) at Avery Vikings (4-5, 2-3 WHC)
Where: MacDonald Stadium, Avery County High School, Newland, NC

Last Week: Avery lost their 3rd straight contest, falling 33-27 in Marshall to Madison; the Cougars dominated the Mitchell Mountaineers to the tune of 69-18.

Preview:
The Avery Vikings take the field tonight against the Mountain Heritage Cougars in Western Highlands Conference play.  The Vikes enter the game coming off a 3 game skid, falling last week in Marshall to Madison.  Heritage enters Friday evening’s contest coming off a huge victory last week over Mitchell, boasting a 7-2, 4-1 record with their only loss conference loss coming to Hendersonville.  Last season Heritage turned around an 0-11 record from 2007 to make a deep playoff run, going 11-3, and this season are hoping to duplicate last season’s dominance.
The Cougars boast one of the top defenses in the region, and enter the game with the top rusher in the conference in Casey Randolph who boasts a 2,000 yard season with 2 games remaining.  Randolph is averaging an astonishing 12.3 yards per carry.  The Vikings come into the contest boasting one of the region’s top passing attacks, with Alex Villanueva ranking 2^nd in the Western Region, throwing for almost 1500 yards and 16 touchdowns on the season.  Tonight’s contest will begin at 7:30 PM as the Vikings celebrate Senior Night at MacDonald Stadium.

10/29/09: News and Notes

Middle School Basketball:
The Middle School basketball season kicked off this week on Tuesday night with the Cranberry Wildcats taking on Cloudland to open their season.  Both the Cranberry boys and girls were victorious and hoped to carry that into Thursday night’s contest with East Yancey.  The Cranberry girls got things started, and fought hard, but were unable to get the offense clicking against the powerful Lady Panthers.  The Lady Panthers jumped out early, and dominated the floor on both ends, stepping up defense and holding off the Lady Wildcat attack, taking the victory 43-12.  The East Panthers then took the floor and taking their lead from the Lady Panthers, holding off the Wildcats to earn a 41-21 victory.  Cranberry will be on the road Monday, traveling to Bowman to take on the Bulldogs in Toe River Conference action.
Bowman was on the road, traveling to Avery High Thursday evening to face off with the Avery Middle Panthers.  The Lady Panthers got the evening started dominating the boards and pushing the ball up the floor with a speed game that took the Lady Bulldogs out of the contest early in the first half.  The Lady Panthers would pour on the offense to take the victory 53-16 over Bowman.  The Avery guys would then take to the floor and use the same type of speed offense to seemingly score at will, pushing the ball up the floor and jumping on the Bulldogs early and often.  Avery would settle into a groove and like the ladies dominate the boards, to finish the evening with a 57-23 victory.  Avery will be on the road Monday, traveling to Cane River to take on the Rebels.

Viking Soccer:
The Avery soccer team wrapped up the regular season traveling to Polk, hoping to duplicate their 2-0 victory from just over a week ago, but the Wolverines would come into the contest with different plans.  The game got started with both teams struggling to get an offensive push, with both defenses stepping up and playing tough.  The contest would remain tied 0-0 heading into the half; but in the opening minutes of the second half the Wolverines would find their way into the box, placing a ball just out of the reach of Morgan Bounds to take the 1-0 lead.  The Vikings would battle, but the Polk defense would keep the Vikes from mounting any offense, while pushing back down field, and netting two more goals to take the 3-0 victory in Columbus.  The Vikings end the season 13-7-2, 9-5 in Conference play, and will likely head into the NCHSAA playoffs next week with seeding yet to be determined.  We will pass along playoff information as it comes available.

Lady Viking Tennis:
Anna Melton will be in action today in Cary, representing the Lady Vikings in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association 1A tennis championships.  Melton enters the championships as the #4 from the West Region and will take on Lori Wang from Raleigh Charter School in opening round competition. Action will get underway at 10 AM today with the first round and semifinals today.  The Championship match in 1A will take place at 9 AM tomorrow at the Cary Tennis Center.  Best of luck Anna, from all of us at The Avery Post.