Eventful Friday night ahead for area teams

This seems to be the week of extracurricular activities at high school games. Consider the lineup for Friday:

- Laney is naming its field and track after legendary coach David Dupree. The Wildcats open their home schedule against Screven County at 7:30 p.m.

- The Virginia Tech band will be playing at halftime of Lakeside's home game against Evans. Lakeside graduate Ryan Clark was one of 32 people gunned down during a shooting spree on the school's campus in 2007. Virginia Tech's band will be near the area because the football team plays Alabama in the Georgia Dome on Saturday.

- Grovetown will play host to Langston Hughes in the school's first home game. The Columbia County school opened in August.

- Westminster will play the first home football game in school history, against Crisp Academy. The Wildcats have middle and JV teams this season. The JV game starts at 7:30 p.m.

IRISH GIFTED: The Ancient Order of Hibernians in America, an Irish-Catholic men's fraternal organization, has donated an automated external defibrillator to Aquinas. The device, a Philips HeartStart brand that costs more than $1,000, can be used to help save lives when someone's heart stops beating normally.

The presentation took place between the first and second quarters of the team's game Friday.

WHAT A TWO WEEKS: Lincoln County plays host to McCormick on Friday in the annual meeting of across-the-river rivals. You could comb both states and not find a team that's had a more unusual start than McCormick. The Chiefs have played two games: a 42-0 loss to Crescent and a 56-0 win over Wagener-Salley.

FRIDAY'S BIG GAMES (7:30 P.M.)

REGION 3-AA

Screven County at Laney: One of these teams will be handed an 0-2 start for the second consecutive season. Laney won 21-14 last year.

REGION 3-AAAA

Evans at Lakeside: Lakeside is on a four-game winning streak. Evans has won 16 consecutive games against area foes. Last year's game came down to the final drive.

SOUTH CAROLINA

Aiken at Silver Bluff: The Bulldogs nearly won a year ago despite being dramatically undersized against a powerful Class AAAA team.

South Aiken at North Augusta: Last week proved the Thoroughbreds are improved. Improvement in this game would be scoring a touchdown; the Yellow Jackets won 21-0 a season ago.

Reach Matt Middleton at (706) 823-3425 or matt.middleton@augustachronicle.com.