By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SALEM, Ore.–  The Greater Valley Conference race for the top spot and for playoff sports is heating up as OSAA 6A 18th-ranked Sprague and North Salem meet up Friday night in South Salem.

The Olympians (5-2 overall, 5-1 GVC) are trying to keep pace with undefeated South Salem, however they have four teams, including the Vikings (3-4, 3-4 GVC) are within two games of Sprauge.

Both teams are riding losing skids, the Olys at two and North Salem at three games after strong starts to the season.

However, Sprauge looks to break the trend tonight as they honor their seniors in their last home game of the season.

It may look like they can as the Viks defense have allowed three 30-point games and the Olympians have four-games in 2015 in which they’ve scored at least 42 points in.  Their offense is powered by senior running back Anthony Nunn, who has compiled 1,154 yards and 20 touchdowns on the ground in seven games in 2015.

But North Salem can get rolling too offensively, having surpassed the 20-point barrier on four separate occasions.

Not to mention, when their defense gets rolling, like in the West Albany 14-2 win on September 11, they can match-up well against teams like the Olys.  The Vikings have also forced at least two safteies this season.

It’s safe to say that this game will be a good one as both teams look to get back on track as one honors their seniors and the other tries to play spoiler.

Kickoff is at 7:15pm at Sprague High School.

Jeremy McDonald is a professional sports journalist in the Salem/Portland area and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalist in Oregon with B.S. degrees from Southern Oregon University in Journalism (2011) and Health/PE (2013).  Got a story idea? Email him at jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com or on Twitter at @J_McDonald81!