By DAN BISER
Sports Editor

One of the state’s big early season high-school football match-ups is on tap for Friday night when the South Columbus Stallions are scheduled to play host to the East Bladen Eagles at Civitan Stadium.

Kickoff is set for 7:30.

Both teams have 2-0 records and are coming off impressive road victories last week.

South Columbus should carry plenty of incentive into this year’s game as the Stallions’ 42-7 loss to East Bladen last season at Elizabethtown was one of their toughest regular-season setbacks in recent years.

South Columbus committed six turnovers in last year’s loss to the Eagles. East Bladen went on to win the Southeastern Conference championship and finished with a 13-1 record after falling to James Kenan in the Eastern N.C. 1AA finals.

SCHS head coach Joey Price, whose Stallions bounced South Carolina rival Loris 43-0 last Friday, said that while East Bladen lost several key players from last year’s squad, the Eagles are still loaded with skill and speed.

“They’ve had to replace some people at some positions, but they seem to be every bit as good as last year,” said Price, whose squad opened the season by bouncing St. Pauls 42-0.

“We definitely can’t afford to put the football on the ground again, or we’ll be in for another long night.”

Lenon Fisher is now in his 28th season as EBHS head coach. His Eagles went to Beaufort last week and emerged with a 33-7 win over East Carteret. The Eagles opened their season with a 22-14 victory over Whiteville.

“We caught some breaks against South Columbus last year that helped things go our way early,” Fisher said. “We sure can’t expect that to happen this time. We’ll have to be at our best to have a chance Friday.”

South Columbus has relied on a strong defense and a punishing running game in taking convincing shut-out victories in its first two games.

Senior running back Justin Smith, who missed all but two games of last season and the first two games of this season with ankle injuries, returned to the line-up last week and scored two touchdowns while carrying the ball only six times against Loris.

Buster James, Rashawn Grate and Dominique Betts also contributed valuable rushing yardage for the Stallions, who took their sixth straight win over Loris.

Junior quarterback Justin Duncan passed for 148 yards, including a pair of touchdown throws to Derrick Clay.

Jahreal Cromartie and T.J. Melvin are pace-setters in East Bladen’s talented backfield.