As part of a larger corporate restructuring, Caterpillar plans to stop manufacturing backhoe loaders at its Clayton plant and increase the amount of wheel loader production done at the facility
over the next year.

Jim Dugan, a spokesman for Caterpillar's Illinois headquarters, said the backhoe production is moving to a plant in the United Kingdom. In turn, some of the wheel loader production now made in the same U.K. plant will move to Clayton.

"In the end, Clayton will become what we call a focus facility
and they will be focused on producing that one product," Dugan said.
"It's part of an overall effort to improve the competitiveness and the
profitability of the division."

Caterpillar officials held meetings with the company's 1,800 employees in Clayton, Cary and Sanford in August to discuss the restructuring plan. At the time, Dugan said the restructuring would likely involve additional job cuts during the next six months to a year.

Dugan said the company does not yet know how the movement of production between Clayton and the U.K. will impact overall staffing levels at the Clayton plant.

He said he did not know how many employees are involved in backhoe production at the Clayton facility. Dugan said staffing levels will also be affected by the economy, and whether demand for the company's earth-moving equipment picks up next year.

"If the economy picks up, job demand tends to follow that," he said.

Tonight's area results/finals that we have

1-AA Western Regional

Princeton 28, Hayesville 25

4-AA Eastern Regional

Garner 21, Wakefield 17

Wake Forest-Rolesville 55, Clayton 0

4-A Eastern Regional

Southeast Raleigh 36, Greenville Rose 3

Tonight's prep football playoff games involving Garner, Clayton, Southeast Raleigh and Princeton are all on for 7:30 p.m. kick offs.

South Johnston and Eastern Guilford are playing Saturday night at 7.

We'll be back with scores later tonight.

The state of the area's Friday NCHSAA first round playoff games remains in limbo today. And that's good news when you consider how much it's rained over the past three days. Most teams will make their decisions to play on Friday night or not sometime Friday morning. Nobody we've heard from has ruled out the scheduled Friday playing date at this point.

We'll update things once we know more.

The NCHSAA football brackets are now official. Here are the games of note for the Garner and Johnston County area set for next Friday:

1-A Western Regional

(11) Hayesville at (4) Princeton

3-AA Eastern Regional

(16) Eastern Guilford at (1) South Johnston

4-A Eastern Regional

(10) Greenville Rose at (7) Southeast Raleigh

4-AA Eastern Regional

(9) Wakefield at (8) Garner

(16) Clayton at (1) Wake Forest-Rolesville

Smithfield-Selma (4-7), North Johnston (3-8) and West Johnston (3-8) did not qualify for the playoffs.

Clayton earned the final spot in the NCHSAA 4-AA eastern regional brackets. The Comets (4-7) are seeded 16th and will take on top-seeded and 11-0 Wake Forest-Rolesville in the first round. The Cougars beat Clayton 16-14 earlier this season, winning on a touchdown pass on the last play of the game.

South Johnston 21, Triton 14

The Trojans (10-1) clinch the Eastern Carolina 3-A Conference Championship and have a chance at the No. 1 overall seed in the Eastern 3-A bracket, based on their 10-0 record for seeding purposes.

Clayton 13, Smithfield-Selma 7

The Comets' Shaquille Mangum returns an interception 80 yards for the game-winning touchdown with just two seconds to play, giving Clayton a bit of hope for a playoff spot at 4-7. SSS finishes the season.

Harnett Central 34, Garner 9

Garner falls hard but gets the No. 3 seed from the Greater Neuse River 4-A Conference when Knightdale upsets East Wake, 13-12.

Southeast Raleigh 27, West Johnston 7

The Bulldogs clinch the No. 2 seed from the GNRC, while West ends up out of the playoffs with a 3-8 mark.

Princeton 42, Rosewood 20

The Bulldogs finish off an 8-3 season, taking second in the Carolina 1-A Conference. It's likely the Dawgs will be hosting a first round playoff match up next Friday.

Franklinton 42, North Johnston 34

The high-scoring loss likely leaves the Panthers out of the playoff hunt after they finish with a 3-8 record.

Wilmington Laney beat Clayton 2-1 Tuesday night in the opening round of the NCHSAA 4-A boys soccer playoffs. The Comets finished the season with a 15-6 record and won the Greater Neuse River 4-A Conference championship.

We'll recap the match in next week's paper. The other area boys soccer playoff teams are in action tonight.

This week's area first-round prep boys soccer playoff matches. Matches are set for Wednesday, unless otherwise noted.

2-A

Durham School of the Arts (10-8-1) at North Johnston (11-6-3), 6 p.m.

3-A

Wilson Fike (10-13-1) at South Johnston (15-5-1), 7 p.m.

4-A

Wilmington Laney (13-6) at Clayton (15-5), Tuesday at 6 p.m.

Wilmington Hoggard (10-8-3) at Southeast Raleigh (10-7-2), 6 p.m.

West Johnston (9-11-2) at Green Hope (14-4-2), 6:30 p.m.

West Johnston's boys cross country team won the eastern regional 4-A championship Saturday at Hope Mills South View High School. The Wildcats placed six runners in the top-13 individually.

The Wildcat girls team finished second, two points behind Fayetteville Terry Sanford. 

Also qualifying for the state championships next weekend were Michelle Bailey of Garner and three runners from Clayton.