By DAN BISER

Even though his team had just gone down to defeat, Whiteville High football coach Mark Little seemed more even upbeat than the previous Friday night when the Wolfpack came away with a shutout victory.

“We played a good football team tonight,” said Little, following his team’s 8-6 home-field loss to the visiting East Bladen Eagles. “We still made a lot of mistakes and continued to have problems on offense, but we can’t be too disappointed with the overall effort. East Bladen looks like a heavy favorite to win their conference and they should be a strong playoff team again this year.”

East Bladen scored on its first possession of the night as a 66-yard flanker reverse pass from Leumichael Smith to Tim Washington set up a one-yard touchdown blast by Donovan Watts with 6 minutes, 23 seconds left in the first quarter. After a roughing the kicker call on the point-after attempt, the Eagles succeeded on a two-point conversion try on another run by Richardson.

Whiteville got its only score on its first possession of the second half, following David Mosley’s 44-yard punt return to the East Bladen 15-yard run. Jarrod McKinney got the touchdown on a 12-yard run off-tackle on third down with 8 minutes, 12 seconds left in the third quarter. McKinney was stopped on the two-point conversion attempt and the score stayed at 8-6.

Whiteville was held to 89 yards total offense while managing only three first downs. It gave up a fumble and two pass interceptions.

McKinney finished with 74 yards on 15 carries against the rugged East Bladen defense, which came up with big plays off a series of blitzes.

The Whiteville defense, led by Kevin Gamble, John McZeak, Alex Royal and Albarin Powell, came up with several big stops, including one that denied an Eagle score right before halftime.

Gamble and Powell each had 11 tackles. Gamble and McZeak were two of several players on bothered by leg cramps during the game.

“We’ve got all kinds to work we have to do to get better but tonight was okay, even though we lost,” Little said.

East Bladen, paced by standout quarterback Dom Whittington, came away with 129 yards rushing and 120 yards passing. Richardson carried 19 times for 72 yards, and Jahrael Cromartie had 44 yards on eight carries.

Longtime East Bladen coach Lenon Fisher said that mistakes and penalties had hindered his team in their season-opening win.

“We don’t have much to have the “big-head” about tonight,” said Fisher, watch some key penalties by the Eagles do serious damage to three Eagle scoring opportunities. “Both teams played hard, but it really wasn’t very pretty on our part. We’ll take it, but we have to cut down on the mistakes we made tonight,”

Whiteville moved the ball to East Bladen 32-yard line early in the fourth quarter, but it was stopped on a fourth down play. The Wolfpack had possession at midfield in the closing minutes, but the Eagles intercepted a Harrison Jordan pass with less than a minute remaining to wrap up the win.

Whiteville, which had opened its season on Aug. 18 with a 21-0 win over West Bladen, will travel to take on South Robeson this Friday at 7:30 p.m.

East Bladen, the defending Southeastern 1A-2A Conference champion, will play host to Richlands Friday.

EB – Donovan Richardon 1 run (D. Richardson run).

W – Jarrod McKinney 12 run (run failed).