If the North Moore football team wants to break out of its losing skid, it has a tall order this week with Yadkin Valley Conference leader Albemarle coming to Robbins tonight. The Bulldogs are currently 5-0 in league action and 8-1 overall and are ranked fourth in the NCPreps.com 1-A polls.

The Bulldogs are coming off a 42-7 homecoming win over East Montgomery while the Mustangs, having played one of their best games, come off 42-6 loss at South Stanly. Albemarle, who won the state 1-AA championships in 2009 and 2010, are currently averaging 43 points per game on offense while giving up only 10 on defense.

“They’re a good football team and they like to run the ball,” said North Moore head football coach Greg Simmons. “They have a couple of running plays they like to run and then they like to slip a receiver behind the secondary for long scoring plays. We have to stop the run and not let anyone get behind us when we’re on defense.

“They have a good quarterback (Deon Christian), who can run the ball and throw it. They also have a good tailback (Kevin McKinney) and a good line up front.

The Bulldogs’ senior quarterback, Christian, has thrown for more than 1,100 yards for 14 touchdowns and has thrown only three interceptions. He has also rushed for nearly 500 yards and scored seven touchdowns.

McKinney has almost 1,000 yards rushing and has scored 12 touchdowns. Christian’s favorite receivers are Timmie White and Alvin Currie, with White having 18 receptions for 347 yards and three touchdowns. Currie has pulled in 17 catches for seven touchdowns and 247 yards.

Albemarle’s line is anchored by senior R.J. Prince, who was recently selected to the Shrine Bowl and has committed to play college ball at UNC.

“On defense, Albemarle is tough up the gut with a couple of very good defensive tackles,” said Simmons. “We will have to keep them from penetrating to give our offense a chance to get going.

“We played very well to start off with last week and I think we caught them (South Stanly) off guard. I think we even surprised ourselves, we ran the ball well and Matt (Gurraro) had a good game, but he won’t be with us this week.

“We will have Kirby (Lambert) back to help at quarterback, along with Xavier Richardson, who threw the ball well last week at South Stanly. With Kirby playing it makes us more flexible on offense.”

Sophomore defensive tackle Lee Autry leads the Bulldogs in tackles with a total of 97 tackles, including many sacks.

Senior Fuquan Wiggins is among the leaders in tackles with 92 stops. The Bulldogs’ secondary has nabbed 15 interceptions this year, with senior Martinus Crump having four picks.

The Mustangs have to find a way to score when they have the opportunities in the red zone.

North Moore’s passing game started to click last week with nearly 200 yards passing. Senior Landon Auman pulled in three of those passes for 155 yards and a touchdown.

The Mustangs will have to establish their running game to set up their passing. With Gurraro out, most of the inside running will be handled by senior Kyle Kidd.

The game is scheduled to kick off at 7:30 p.m.