Catholic, Country Day resume bitter rivalry

No. 2 Vance (2-0) at George Washington, Va. (1-0), 7:30 p.m.

Vance racks up some highway miles to face the Danville, Va., school, which rushed for 302 yards in beating Raleigh Athens Drive 60-0 last week. Vance will try to force GW sophomore quarterback Sam Branch into passing more. GW, 12-1 in 2014, had four interceptions last week and hopes to harass Vance junior quarterback Kingsley Ifedi (822 yards), ranked No. 2 nationally in passing yardage.

Western Alamance (2-0) at No. 3 Butler (1-1), 7 p.m.

Current Mooresville coach Hal Capps led Western Alamance to four straight state finals from 2004-07, winning in ’07. This season, Western (1-0) is ranked No. 9 in the NC Preps 3A poll and No. 7 by Carolina Preps. Butler looks to rebound from last week’s 28-14 loss to No. 1 Mallard Creek.

No. 4 Charlotte Catholic (1-0) at Charlotte Country Day (1-1), 7:30 p.m.

This is 55th consecutive year the teams will have played and the 29th time they’ve played for the John Cook Cup, named for the former Country Day coach. The all-time series is tied at 27 after Catholic’s 35-10 win in 2014. Country Day has won 15 of the past 29 games, but Catholic has won five straight.

Harding (1-1) at West Charlotte (0-2), 7 p.m.

Two of the oldest schools in Mecklenburg County resume one of the oldest rivalries. Harding gave first-year coach Sam Griner his first win last week, 42-0 over Garinger. West Charlotte hunts its first win under new coach Daren Hart. The Lions have won two of the past three games against Harding.

This story was originally published September 3, 2015 at 2:34 PM with the headline "Catholic, Country Day resume bitter rivalry."