By DAN BISER
Sports Editor

The Whiteville Wolfpack, coming off its fifth straight season-opening football victory, will venture to Elizabethtown Friday to take on last season’s state 1AA semi-finalist East Bladen Eagles.

Gametime is set for 7:30 p.m.

Whiteville opened its season last Friday with a 21-12 road victory over West Bladen. East Bladen will open its 2007 schedule when it plays host to the Wolfpack.

Whiteville head coach Mark Little, whose team is coming off back-to-back 9-3 seasons, including the Waccamaw 1A-2A Conference championship last fall, will be putting his team against one of the most solid programs in southeastern North Carolina for the past several years.

East Bladen head coach Lenon Fisher is in his 28th season at the school. Last fall, the Eagles won their second straight Southeastern 1A-2A Conference championship and advanced to the Eastern N.C. 1AA championship game where it suffered a heart-breaking loss to James Kenan. The Eagles finished with a 13-1 record, duplicating a record it had in 2003.

East Bladen opened last year’s season with an 8-6 win over the Wolfpack. In 2005, Whiteville took a 15-6 victory over the Eagles.

“Once again, we have a big challenge on our hands,” Little said. “East Bladen’s program is very solid, and Coach Fisher has done a great job. They have a lot of outstanding athletes in their program, and they are a difficult team to prepare for.”

Whiteville chalked up its win last week despite a few breakdowns on defense and some other inconsistencies.

“The game at West Bladen showed us that we still have a whole lot to work on, but I was happy with the way our kids stuck with it,” Little said. “West Bladen had a good game plan and they played hard.”

The Wolfpack relied on the running experience of seniors Jarrod McKinney and Tyson Wilcox and a couple of timely passes from senior quarterback Ben Deans to senior receiver Edward Brown. Whiteville graduated much of its defense last spring, so a lot of new faces are now starting on that side of the ball. George Spearman and Josh Lennon combined for 21 tackles in the win at West Bladen.

East Bladen graduated several key players off last year’s team including quarterback Dom Whittington, standout back Mike-Mike Smith and kicker-defensive back Tripp Lancaster, but another good group of seniors and products of a powerhouse junior varsity program again make the Eagles a strong conference and playoff contender.

Malik Cromartie has taken over at the quarterback while T.J. Melvin, Jahrael Cromartie and Victor Melvin are manning running back posts. Jamar Monroe leads the East Bladen linebacker corps, and Reginald Peterson and Aaron Lesane are pace-setters in the interior line.

The Whiteville-East Bladen football rivalry dates back to 1971 when East Bladen was formed by consolidation.

East Bladen athletic teams were called the Cougars until 2001 when the site of the school was changed along with redistricting. At that time, the EBHS athletic teams became known as the Eagles.