ELIZABETHTOWN — It’s been a handful of years since North Brunswick was on the schedule for East Bladen, and the Eagles are 4-0 all-time against the Scorpions. But the last victory, in 2012, was a 7-6 verdict when the two teams were part of the Waccamaw Conference.

“They always seem to have a lot of good athletes,” said East Bladen coach Robby Priest about Friday’s non-conference, home-opener. “They’ll give us plenty of headaches.”

North Brunswick has opened the season on a two-game slide — losing to Whiteville in the opener, 29-6, and to Socastee of Myrtle Beach, S.C., 43-20, last week. But Priest is hardly ready to let his Eagles look past the Scorpions to next week’s Three Rivers Conference opener.

“I don’t want to be the ones who let them get on track,” Priest said.

Overall, he added that North Brunswick has enough talent to be a threat.

“They have a running back who is shifty and fast, wide receivers who cover a lot of ground and a quarterback who is pretty mobile,” he said. “On defense, their linebackers move well to the ball and their defensive backs are rally good athletes.”

North Brunswick operates its offense out of “a little bit of everything,” Priest said, including the “I” and spread. On defense, the Scorpions will set up in the 40.

East Bladen could be riding high after last week’s season-opening 35-16 non-conference win over Clinton, which moved the Eagles to No. 10 in The Associated Press state Class 2-A poll, but Priest knows there’s still plenty to prove.

“If you could see the film from that game …,” he said. “There’s still a lot of room for improvement.”

Priest said the keys on Friday will be to “run, run, run like we did last week,” as well as the usual — avoid turnovers and penalties.

“I still want us to play the perfect game,” he added.

Friday’s kickoff will be at 7 p.m.

W. Curt Vincent can be reached at 910-862-4163 or cvincent@s24515.p831.sites.pressdns.com.

W. Curt Vincent

Bladen Journal