Triangle high school football: Cleveland at Garner, Clayton at South Garner lead Friday's Week 8 slate

Two unbeaten Johnston County teams head into Wake County on Friday night, leading a Week 8 schedule full of games with playoff stakes.

All of the games below kick off at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 9. Rankings are from MaxPreps' statewide computer rankings, released this week.

Friday's top Triangle games

• No. 15 Cleveland (6-0) at No. 13 Garner (4-2): Two teams in the MaxPreps top 15 meet in Garner.
• No. 17 Clayton (7-0) at South Garner (3-3): Clayton is the only 7-0 team among this week's Triangle matchups.
• No. 9 Cardinal Gibbons (4-2) at Holly Springs (3-3): Gibbons is the highest-ranked Triangle team in the MaxPreps top 25.
• Broughton (3-3) at No. 12 Millbrook: A Raleigh matchup.
• Wakefield (3-3) at No. 14 Rolesville: A northern Wake game.
• Smithfield-Selma (0-7) at No. 18 Southeast Raleigh (5-2)

Clayton stayed unbeaten last week by rallying from a 10-0 halftime deficit to beat Southeast Raleigh 21-16, and Cleveland beat Fuquay-Varina 49-7, according to JoCo Sports.

Local players among the state leaders

Several Triangle-area players are near the top of MaxPreps' statewide statistics, which are based on what teams report:

• Harnett Central quarterback Koby Howard is fourth in the state with 1,788 passing yards, and Middle Creek's Lex Sevilla is fifth with 1,740.
• Green Level receiver Aaron Sadler is second in the state with 894 receiving yards.
• Southeast Raleigh's Christian Freeman has 1,004 rushing yards, and Apex Friendship's Michael Mallard has 1,007.
• Wakefield quarterback Landon Brogdon has 1,521 passing yards.

The road to the state championships

The regular season is nearing its end. The NCHSAA sets its playoff brackets on Oct. 31, and the first round is Friday, Nov. 6. The second, third and fourth rounds follow on Nov. 13, 20 and 27, with regional finals on Dec. 4.

The state championship games are Dec. 10-12 at three sites, the NCHSAA announced Monday:

• Kenan Stadium at UNC-Chapel Hill will host four title games. That will bring its total to 92 NCHSAA championship games since 1929.
• Barker-Lane Stadium at Campbell University in Harnett County will host two games, its first as an NCHSAA football championship site.
• Moretz Stadium at Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory will host two games.

The NCHSAA says it will announce later which classifications play at each site, and at what times. The association's RPI standings, which help decide playoff seeding, were last updated Thursday morning.