Before the high school football season began, coaches Kris Williams of West Bladen and Robby Priest of East Bladen had contrasting views on their respective schedules.
And with good reason.
For Williams, it was the prospect of playing a lot of quality programs later in the season.
For Priest, it was the opposite — a schedule front-loaded with the teams picked to win the Three Rivers Conference.
Hurricane Florence put a change into all that. Two weeks of games have been rescheduled, and West Bladen was delayed getting in a third.
Both teams have played once since Sept. 7 and the storm that followed the next week. Friday night, each is on the road with seven games to play over the next six Fridays.
West Bladen treks to Whiteville; East Bladen is at Fairmont. Both games kickoff at 7:30 p.m.
The Three Rivers Conference moved games from Sept. 14 to the extra Friday, Nov. 9, given by the N.C. High School Athletic Association to complete the regular season. The playoffs will start the following week and finish a week later than originally scheduled, same as two years ago when Hurricane Matthew hit the region.
That means East Bladen’s date at South Columbus is the regular season finale; West Bladen tangles with Red Springs that night.
For the Eagles, it nixes a back-to-back opening of the league slate against the two teams picked to share the title.
The games from Sept. 21 are at the discretion of the teams involved.
East Bladen will host Red Springs on a Tuesday, Oct. 23. That’s sandwiched between a home game with East Columbus and a home game with South Robeson, and combined with homecoming Oct. 12 when St. Pauls visits gives Priest’s squad four home games in a row.
West Bladen and East Columbus have yet to announce their makeup date. Fairmont and St. Pauls also have not.
Two other games in the league from Sept. 14 have been reset. Whiteville visits South Robeson on Oct. 23; West Columbus goes to South Columbus a week earlier, Oct. 16, in another Tuesday matchup.