CHAPEL HILL — East Bladen’s consecutive years streak of never missing the 2-A football playoffs is intact.

The Eagles are in the bracket finalized Saturday afternoon as the No. 15 seed, with a first-round date Friday night at second-seeded SouthWest Edgecombe.

Since the school opened in 2001, East Bladen has never missed the postseason.

The Eagles finished 5-5 and tied for fourth place in the Three Rivers Conference at 5-3. SouthWest, ranked No. 5 in the state Associated Press 2-A poll, is 10-1 and champion of the Eastern Plains Conference. The winner will advance to play the survivor of Wallace-Rose Hill at Whiteville, a Nos. 7 vs. 10 matchup.

“I think we deserve it,” eighth-year head coach Robby Priest said of the wild card berth. “It’s not how you start but how you finish.”

East Bladen opened the season 1-3, with blowout losses to Wallace-Rose Hill, Clinton and Whiteville.

The Eagles visited Pinetops to face SouthWest in 2015, a second-round matchup won by the Cougars 41-21. East Bladen was a 10-win team that time.

“They whooped us,” Priest said.

Saturday night he was yet to make the video exchange with Cougars head coach Jonathan Cobb. But he knows the opponent will be tough.

“I know they’re 10-1 and the only is to Tarboro,” he said of the state’s No. 1 team in 1-A as ranked by Associated Press voters.

Tarboro and SouthWest are archrivals who play an annual clash affectionately called The Function at the Junction, so-named for a highway intersection in the area.

SouthWest has won seven straight, is a touchdown away from 500 points for the season and has only allowed 133 in 11 games. The Cougars ran roughshod through their league, winning by scores of 44-13, 36-0, 70-0, 53-0 and 60-22. They had 36 points or more in nine games and posted four shutouts.

Third round possible opponents should East Bladen advance are No. 3 seed Elizabeth City Northeastern, No. 6 Southwest Onslow, No. 11 Ayden-Grifton and No. 14 Goldsboro.

The Eagles are one of two Three Rivers Conference teams among the last to make the field. Fairmont is the 16th seed and at top-seeded Clinton in the first round. The only way East Bladen would host a game would be the Eastern finals if it and the Golden Tornadoes reach it.

Priest said he doesn’t mind his team saddling up to be road warriors, and he believes a good following will travel with the team.

“We’ll have a decent crowd for us,” Priest said. “If we were to somehow win that one, that would be Whiteville and Wallace in the second round. We could go shock the world.”

https://www.bladenjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/web1_football-3.jpg

Alan Wooten

Bladen Journal

Alan Wooten can be reached at 910-247-9132 or awooten@bladenjournal.com. Twitter: @alanwooten19.