Monday Musings: 3 Things From Week 1

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The high school football season is BACK, and so is my weekly Monday column. In this column, I look at last week and write about... whatever I feel like writing about. To make things easy, I usually pick three teams or topics. A lot happened last weekend, so let's get right to it.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Three Big Things From Week 1</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":3} --> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">1) Class of 2028 Impresses</h3> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>I could've gone plenty of different directions with this point. I don't love "Top performers of Week 1" pieces because they can get repetitive. But I still want to highlight some key playmakers. What's funny is that a large number of the biggest playmakers were juniors.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Arguably the biggest performance of the week was Princeton's <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1616304' first='Teo' last='McPhatter']</strong>, who ran for 298 yards and four touchdowns, throwing for a fifth. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>A quartet of fast-rising juniors had multiple sacks to start the season: <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2170669' first='Luke' last='Vandergrift']</strong> (East Forsyth), <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2257426' first='AJ' last='Poole']</strong> (Southeast Raleigh), <strong>D'Marus Powell</strong> (North Edgecomb), <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1113123' first='Landen' last='Harding']</strong> (Robinson), and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1687761' first='Baganley' last='Donzo']</strong> (Trinity Christian). All five were stock risers in either early summer or our most recent 2028 update.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>At receiver, a trio of Raleigh-area receivers caught my eye. Millbrook's <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2147396' first='King' last='Murdock']</strong> was the first Wildcats' receiver to step up this year as a breakout candidate. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1616159' first='Aaron' last='Sadler']</strong> (Green Level) set career highs in both rushing (92 yards) and receiving (147 yards) in a Week 1 win. Green Hope's <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2344490' first='Amir' last='Davis']</strong> exploded onto the scene with 12 catches for over 150 yards. The emergence of a second premier receiver at Green Hope is significant in terms of their season outlook.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>A few other strong performances from the 2028 class:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul class="wp-block-list"><!-- wp:list-item --> <li><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2112034' first='Tyler' last='Jackson']</strong> | Southeast Alamance; <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2145139' first='Joseph' last='Gibbs']</strong> | Southeast Alamance</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul class="wp-block-list"><!-- wp:list-item --> <li><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2221549' first='Danny' last='DeFilippo']</strong> | Camden County</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul class="wp-block-list"><!-- wp:list-item --> <li><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1815500' first='Jaden' last='Lewis']</strong> | East Bladen</li> <!-- /wp:list-item --></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":3} --> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">2) Hey, Freshman!</h3> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><a href="https://prepredzone.com/2026/08/behind-the-scenes-of-the-initial-2030-watchlist/">I tried to be diplomatic</a> last week when we debuted our <a href="https://prepredzone.com/2026/08/updated-2030-north-carolina-rankings/">65-player 2030 watchlist</a>. I couldn't get <em>too</em> excited before anybody from that class had played a varsity game. That said, I was excited.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Then Friday happened, and <em>hoo boy</em>, is this 2030 class going to be awesome.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Our watchlist is in alphabetical order. We won't rank players numerically until the middle of the season. But not all watchlist guys are equal, and I was really excited to see Kings Mountain quarterback <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1605503' first='Jordan' last='Jenkins']</strong> in action. He did not disappoint in a seven-point loss to powerhouse Shelby. But he wasn't the top-performing freshman passer of the weekend. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Ardrey Kell freshman <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1894011' first='Noah' last='Dailey']</strong> threw <em>six</em> touchdown passes on 18 attempts (nine completions), including four to senior <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2134507' first='Khylieb' last='Rodriguez']</strong> in a big win over Cuthbertson.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Topsail's <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2212134' first='Kyle' last='Albert']</strong> ran for nearly 200 yards and three touchdowns as Topsail earned its first win in over a year (more on that in a moment). We put T.W. Andrews freshman <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1697370' first='RJ' last='Hawkins']</strong> on the watchlist based on what we'd <em>heard</em> and not what we'd <em>seen</em>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Well, it turns out our intel was correct, as he had over 225 receiving yards on only four catches and added 15 tackles on defense.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Three other impressive performances: <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2232642' first='Noah' last='Powell']</strong> (Southeast Raleigh), <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2344542' first='Triston' last='Harrison']</strong> (Southern Alamance), and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2263926' first='Major' last='Howell']</strong> (Leesville Road) all had multiple sacks. We thought Powell and the aforementioned Poole would help Southeast Raleigh's pass rush pick up where it left off, but Harrison's emergence is huge for a Southern Alamance that has few question marks outside of the defensive line.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":3} --> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">3) Some Winless Teams Already in the Win Column</h3> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>There were a few teams that got into the win column early this season after going winless last year.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Topsail, led by running back <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2212134' first='Kyle' last='Albert']</strong>, receiver/linebacker <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2177963' first='Zack' last='Albert']</strong>, and defensive back <strong>Roman Long</strong>, won 20-8 in a game it dominated. Quarterback <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='1132904' first='Tyler' last='Vickers']</strong> also looked strong, even in a low-volume effort.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Philip O. Berry was winless last year, but I sensed some confidence around the program when I was doing research for my <a href="https://prepredzone.com/2026/08/phillip-o-berry-2026-season-preview/">season preview</a>. My colleague, Matt Morrow, was at their season-opening win over West Meck, so check out his <a href="https://prepredzone.com/2026/08/west-mecklenburg-at-berry-offensive-standouts/">offensive</a> and <a href="https://prepredzone.com/2026/08/west-mecklenburg-at-berry-defensive-standouts/">defensive</a> standouts.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>A couple of other notable wins: St. David's won its first game at the 11-man level with a 14-6 win over Rocky Mount Prep. Langtree Charter won not only its first game of the year, but its first varsity game in school history on Friday. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2113125' first='Thomas' last='Hay']</strong> had over 130 yards and two touchdowns as a receiver.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>We'll have more throughout the week. What did we miss? Who needs to be highlighted? Help us help players and let me know on Twitter, (<a href="https://x.com/whelms21">@whelms21</a>)</em>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->