The North Moore football team is back home tonight facing Albemarle, the defending 1-AA state champions.

The Mustangs (1-8, 1-4 Yadkin Valley Conference) picked up a win this week due to a forfeit by West Montgomery (5-4, 3-2 YVC).

W.M. principal Jack Cagle confirmed to The Pilot Thursday that his football program forfeited two wins — against North Moore and Jordan-Matthews — as well as its game against Albemarle (that it lost) after self-reporting that it violated the NCHSAA’s “eight-quarter rule,” which states that freshmen and sophomores on the junior varsity team may play up to eight quarters at the varsity level in a season.

Juniors must play either jayvee or varsity, and Cagle said one junior jayvee player played in those three varsity games.

Albemarle (5-4, 3-2 YVC) found itself in a similar situation to West Montgomery this week and forfeited three wins of its own (against South Davidson, West Stanly and Chatham Central) for violating the same rule. The Stanly News and Press reported Monday that three juniors on its jayvee team participated in those three varsity games.

Both schools were fined $250.

North Moore head coach Greg Simmons said his kids were disappointed in last week’s 69-0 loss at South Stanly. Turnovers put the Mustangs in a hole that they were unable to dig themselves out of. He added it wasn’t a lack of effort, but a lack of execution.

“That first quarter, we did everything we could possibly do wrong, wrong,” he said. “That was a team we knew had three good backs and we knew if we didn’t do things perfectly that we were going to be in trouble and it just snowballed after that.

“I think the kids saw that a little bit on film. It was pretty quiet while we were watching that film yesterday and the day before. So I think they saw that’s not who we’re trying to be. I felt that we took a couple of steps backward last week.”

Albemarle, which has been outscoring YVC opponents by an average of nearly 38 points per game this season, is another tough assignment.

Simmons said Albemarle beats a lot of its opponents mentally before even stepping on the field, and added that it’s as good as any team in the state.

“They got great players, they got great talent and they got great coaches,” he said. “They don’t make mistakes. They’re not going to beat themselves. They’re not going to get a lot of stupid penalties. They’re not going to have a lot of turnovers. Defensively, they know what they do and they do it really well.”

Simmons said his team watched some film from its season opener against Princeton, which the Mustangs led 21-13 at the half after generating some big plays before falling 41-21. He said he wants the team to recapture some of that excitement and enthusiasm.

“I want these kids to get back to enjoying playing football, being enthusiastic about it and giving 100 percent 100 percent of the time,” he said. “That’s what we’re trying to get at. We still got a lot of football left in this season.”

Contact John Krahnert III at sports@thepilot.com.