ELIZABETHTOWN – Friday’s football game between Carolina Conference foes East Bladen and Union wasn’t expected to be a tight, tense, hard fought playoff game.

The Eagles made sure it wasn’t.

East Bladen scored three touchdowns in the first six minutes – two set up by fumble recoveries – in routing the Spartans 50-0 in the second round of the N.C. High School Athletic Association 2A playoffs.

The fourth-seeded Eagles (8-3) are scheduled to host Manteo (7-3) next Friday in a third round game at Lenon Fisher Stadium. The fifth-seeded Redskins defeated Northampton County 36-8 on Friday.

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“We just came out with a whole bunch of energy,” said Dashon Campbell, who scored twice and ran for 81 yards. “We weren’t satisfied with 24 in the first quarter. We were going to run it up to 44, then we ended up hitting 50.”

Julius Battle, Jaden Lewis, Keyshawn Kemp and Ryan Priest ran for touchdowns and Lewis caught a 30 yard touchdown pass from Kemp for East Bladen

It was the Eagles’ first game since Oct. 24 when they closed the regular season with a 38-0 shutout at Union. East Bladen had a bye in the final week of the regular season and earned a bye in the first round of the playoffs.

“I wasn’t concerned (about the layoff),” linebacker Xavier Potts said. “I knew that we were going to put that work in to stay in the zone that we’re supposed to be in.”

The East Bladen defense posted its fourth shutout this season and limited Union running back Tobias Cromartie to 67 yards on 21 carries with two lost fumbles. In the Spartans’ first round game, Cromartie ran for 318 yards and scored all of the points as Union rallied from a 20-0 deficit to win 28-26 at Northwest Halifax.

“I like watching that defense,” East Bladen coach Robby Priest said. “They’re fun to watch. They fly around. They get to the football. “They’re a fun group, even at practice.”

Any concern about the Eagles’ long layoff or overlooking a team they had easily defeated earlier were put to rest quickly. East Bladen drove 83 yards in nine plays after receiving the opening kickoff with Campbell barrelling in from the 6. Kemp’s conversion run made it 8-0 four minutes into the game

East Bladen needed less than two minutes to score twice more for a 24-0 lead with 6:13 remaining in the first quarter. Union lost a fumble on its first play from scrimmage. Kemp connected with Lewis on a 30 yard pass play for a touchdown on the first snap. The Spartans then fumbled on their second play from scrimmage following the kickoff. Battle’s 64 yard scamper set up Kemp’s 2 yard quarterback keeper. Campbell ran both 2-point conversions.

“I was worried about the rust factor being off for 21 days,” Priest said, “so, I was pleased with how they came out and were focused.

“We showed them film of Union’s game from last week. (Northwest Halifax) was up 20-0 and Union came back to win. I think that helped drive the point home to not look down your nose on anybody,” Priest said.

The Eagles scored on their final three possessions of the first half on a 4 yard run by Lewis, 3 yard run by Campbell and 4 yard run by Battle. Kemp passed to Khalil McKoy for a 2-point conversion.

East Bladen led 44-0 at half. The second half was played with a running clock because the margin was greater than 34 points.

The Eagles’ final score came on the first play of the fourth quarter with several players who had played on the junior varsity team in the game. Priest, the JV quarterback, snuck in from the 1.

Union threatened to score on its first possession of the fourth quarter, driving the ball to the East Bladen 11 before losing a fumble.

East Bladen then ran out the clock with JV players Cayden Morton, Darnell Rouse and Prince McKoy carrying the ball.

Sonny Jones can be reached at [email protected].