Some random thoughts about the Holly Springs at Cary football game Friday night (and not all of them have to do with the game itself).

• Holly Springs was playing its first game since reporting that the Hawks used an illegal player against Heritage. Holly Springs had to forfeit the 27-0 victory over Heritage, which is a new program. As it turns out, the forfeit is Heritage’s first win in school history.

• If Holly Springs, now 0-3 after losing to the Imps 29-7 in Cary, want to win a few games this year, they are going to have to come up with something on offense besides QB Mike Roach keeping it on the option, which seems to only be an option between running it outside or cutting back inside.

• This was a close game at the half 13-7 after Holly Springs led 7-6 but Cary scored on two fairly long drives to begin the second half to take control.

• Cary QB Connor Chase has a pretty good arm. He’s not always accurate with it as his balls tend to sail a bit. But he threw a couple of very nice scoring strikes.

• It was the Cary running game and RB DeAndre Henry that controlled the tempo however. All the Cary runners were hard to bring down.

• Speaking of tempo, the officials called a bunch of penalties, and took a good bit of time discussing them with each other. One guy in the stands yelled to ask them if they were paid by the flag. Maybe the teams were that sloppy but I do think some of it was flag-happy officials. On one key fourth and one play, an official called offsides on Cary before the ball was snapped – and he appeared to be the only person in the stadium (including the Holly Springs offensive line) that saw it.

• The Cary students, cheerleaders and pep band portion of the marching band really need to get a better clue about when to raise hell. They were always loudest and going wild the most when the Imps were on offense. Every true football fan knows that you are quiet when your team is operating on offense and you’re loud when your team is on defense.

• Similarly, the PA announcer, who seemed almost like a play-by-play announcer on occasion, needs to make sure the canned “Eye of the Tiger” music is cut off before plays. It played several times during the game, mostly, again, when Cary was on offense.

• A purely male chauvinist observation: The cheerleaders for both schools were very good at their routines but when I was in school many of the best looking girls in school were cheerleaders. I’m just sayin’…

• I’d like to see more of the Cary award-winning band. They came on the field just in time for the national anthem at the beginning and then didn’t start their halftime routine until there were 10 minutes left before the start of the second half. While I enjoyed the show, my young son said he didn’t want to watch the band. An obviously offended but good-natured woman turned around and told him, “That’s the best part of the game.”

• Maybe it’s a sign of the times but years ago, students actually watched the game from the stands. I’d say half of them at the game wandered about seemingly chattin’ up the opposite sex… and there were plenty public displays of affection goin’ on. By the way, are short shorts back in style for girls? Holy moley!

• Speaking of cultural stuff, I’ve been reading all these glowing articles in the local papers about immigrants coming to the Triangle area and all the things they are doing to bring their culture with them and enriching us all. What I’m not seeing is them attending high school football games or being enriched by our existing culture. I suppose if we are going to allow massive immigration of like-minded people, we should expect that they will stay in their own conclaves and not assimilate.