Time to make a playoff push

The next three weeks will determine who gets in and who is out among Rutherford County football teams. Thomas Jefferson is in good shape to make the 1A playoffs with five wins so far. R-S Central, Chase and East Rutherford all have legitimate chances to make the post season, but they have work to do.

Thomas Jefferson (5-3, 1-2) easily won this past week over Community School of Davidson 61-14 last week. Bill Lay has been running downhill lately. Lay has 19 touchdowns so far this season and 17 in just the last six weeks and 748 yards in the last five games.

The Gryphons get Bessemer City coming to town this Friday (10/21/16). It should be interesting as to who will prevail...Thomas Jefferson's offense or Bessemer City's defense.

R-S Central fell on the road to Kings Mountain this past week, 35-7. The Hilltoppers lead for a quarter and stuck around for a half. R-S Central will host a big game this coming Friday as East Burke comes to town (10/21/16). Anything can happen, but East Burke hasn't scored more than 20 points in a game all season long.

The Trojans had a by last week, but lost 25-6 to R-S Central the previous Monday. Chase will host Kings Mountain on Friday.

East Rutherford had two key injuries and fell to Draughn this past week. Despite nearly 200 yards of offense from backup quarterback Calvin Jones, penalties and turnovers destroyed any sort of momentum East had. The Cavs will go to Crest on Friday (10/21/16).

R-S Central looks to be the only team to make the volleyball playoffs, but East Rutherford has a shot to still get there. R-S Central continues to play better as they just beat a solid East Burke this past week.

Chase men's soccer is still undefeated at 14-0. They have just four regular season games left and hold a two-game lead in the SMAC. It's the defense that paced this club by allowing just four goals all season. Scoring 81 goals during that times isn't too shabby either. The biggest remaining game happen when Shelby comes to town on October 24.

Thomas Jefferson soccer also just won its 10th game of the year. That becomes the fourth year in a row that Brian Espinoza has coached them double-digit winning seasons.

Unfortunately, I believe the year maybe over for the Carolina Panthers. They sit 1-5 overall and have three losses to division rivals. Unless Carolina wins 9 of the next 10 games, it's wait til next year mode. The Panthers are still competitive and talented enough, but the defense just isn't the same as a year ago. Not having Josh Norman makes a big difference. I don't care what anyone says.

NASCAR: Talladega comes up this weekend. Expect big packs of cars and big wrecks to come. Give me Brad Keselowski this week. For some reason, he is the man to beat at 'Dega by capturing the last two NASCAR events at the Alabama track.