Jones: West at East highlight Week 2 football picks

Rust? What rust?

After 40 years away from The Bladen Journal, it was a stunningly strong and unexpected start to the weekly football predictions. No, I didn’t flip a coin, but I may before the season is over.

Last week: 12-2 (86%). Missed Clinton beating Lakewood 19-14 and Union beating Spring Creek 38-0. Nothing like missing a 38-0 game to keep one humble.

Here are the Week 2 picks:

East Bladen 22, West Bladen 14 – You know the numbers. West Bladen won the first game between the schools 34-21 in 2001 and East Baden has won the next 23. The Eagles have outscored the Knights 874-219 and posted seven shutouts in those 24 games. The last three meetings have had scores of 42-0, 49-0 and 42-8. But there have been some close games. It was 16-8 in 2021, 7-0 in 2016 and 14-3 in 2015.

Will this be the year West Bladen snaps that long losing streak? The Knights could, but doubt it. It will certainly be much closer than recent meetings.

West Bladen showed effort and physicality last Friday in a loss to Pender. The defense will need to be stout to stop the running of East Bladen’s Dashon Campbell behind an experienced offensive line.

East Bladen’s defense will need to slow down Ahmarrie White and Sincere McKinley, a pair of hard-running backs for West Bladen.

No blowout, but an Eagles win and keep the bell. Enjoy the game.

Forest Hills 36, Fairmont 12 – Tough trip for a team coming off an opening loss and a winless 2024.

Pender 38, Red Springs 20 – The Red Devils won on a last second field goal last week. It won’t be that close tonight.

South Columbus 32, West Columbus 13 – The Stallions at home should be too much for the Vikings.

Whiteville 27, West Brunswick 22 – The Wolfpack has won the past three seasons. Let’s make it four.

North Brunswick 20, South Brunswick 13 – Two teams in need of win after losing openers.

Heide Trask 14, East Columbus 6 – Another game where both teams lost their first games.

Lakewood 41, Lejeune 6 – The Leopards will be in the hunt in the Carolina Conference.

Wake Forest 31, Kennesaw State 10 – The Deacons open the post-Dave Clawson era with a victory.

Wingate 24, UNC Pembroke 17 – Should be a tight opening game for the Braves, but they’ll come up short.

TCU 34, North Carolina 30 – Can the Bill Belichick era open with a win? Sure, but who knows what to expect. The Horned Frogs are slightly favored.