Bruins go back to work in Neuse 6 opener

It’s been a minute but Beddingfield High will actually host another football game Friday night as the Goldsboro Cougars come to call for the 2-A Neuse 6 Conference opener at Bruins Stadium.

The Bruins haven’t played at home since a season-opening 27-23 loss to Fike on Aug. 23. Beddingfield hasn’t played at all since losing 37-6 at Croatan on Sept. 20. A scheduled home game against Nash Central on Sept. 27 was washed away by the remnants of Hurricane Helene and last week was an open one on the Beddingfield schedule.

The unplanned three-week break came at a good time for Beddingfield, though, said head coach Ben Ellis.

“Yeah, we actually had several guys, right around that Croatan game, that were dealing with some different things,” he said. “Some could play and some weren’t able to finish the game and so, the bye week was really good. We’re hoping we get close to everybody back and start fresh into conference.”

Another team that knows something about playing road games, Wilson Prep will be at home against Weldon in a key 1-A Tar-Roanoke Athletic Conference skirmish off Tilghman Road.

Wilson’s other two NCHSAA teams, Hunt and Fike, will be away Friday in a pair of 3-A Quad County Conference matchups with the Warriors visiting an injury-ridden Southern Wayne squad and the Golden Demons playing at winless Smithfield-Selma.

In a pivotal QCC game, league co-leader C.B. Aycock heads to South Johnston.

North Johnston is the guest of Spring Creek in 2-A Neuse 6 play while SouthWest Edgecombe hosts North Pitt in a 2-A Eastern Plains Conference upper division tussle and Greene Central visits Ayden-Grifton in another EPC battle. Southern Nash is the idle team in the 2-A/3-A Big East Conference this Friday.

At all sites mentioned, kickoff will be at 7 p.m.

BRUINS START OVER

For Beddingfield, an 0-4 start comes with the the knowledge that the only Neuse 6 team with a winning record is North Johnston at 3-2. Thus, the conference seems to be up for grabs.

However, rather than worry about winning the conference and qualifying for the state playoffs Friday, Ellis just wants his Bruins to be in the moment and focus on the job at hand. It’s the only way to stem the tide of mistakes, penalties and turnovers that have largely figured in Beddingfield’s four losses.

“It comes down to just eliminating the big mistakes, not turning the ball over,” Ellis said. “We’ve had a hard time eliminating those mistakes the last two or three games that we played. So, if we can just avoid the turnovers, avoid the big mistake, and then take advantage of some opportunities and just kind of get back to doing the basic things. I think that’s the main thing for us. We’ve got to just focus on ourselves and obviously prepare for who we have Friday, but focus on a lot of the stuff that we can get better at, and just kind of avoid some of those big mistakes that’s really put us in a hole early in the season.”

Ellis said his players know what’s at stake and aren’t dwelling on those four losses.

“They’ve been good. Their heads are in the right space,” he said. “I think they understand kind of what’s in front of them and we try to preach not harping on the things that have happened or things that we haven’t done so well before and more so, like we talked about earlier, just harping on the next play, the next moment, which is what’s in front of us, and trying to play as good as we can right now in the present. And they’ve done a good job of that. I think they’ve bought into focusing on what we’ve got to do this week and then everything else we can worry about later.”

TIGERS TAKE ON WELDON

Weldon (3-1, 3-0 TRAC) visits Wilson Prep (4-1, 3-0 TRAC) for the second straight year but in the rare role of a Tar-Roanoke visitor with a winning record. The defending champion Tigers have a stated goal of not allowing a point against them in conference play this year with three shutouts on their belt. The Chargers haven’t scored nearly as many points as the Tigers, 188-82, but have the stingiest defense in the Tar-Roanoke with just 40 points allowed in four games.

This is the second of three straight home games for Wilson Prep, which was on the road for its first four games.

QUAD COUNTY THICKENS

Hunt very nearly had Friday off after Southern Wayne first notified Hunt athletic director Jon Smith and head coach Juan Jackson that injuries had decimated the Saints roster to the point where they would forfeit Friday’s game.

However, after some internal discussion, Southern Wayne officials agreed to play the game as scheduled.

The Warriors (2-3, 1-1 QCC) ripped through Smithfield-Selma, the only team below Southern Wayne in the standings, by a 42-13 margin. Forfeit win or not, Hunt needs to keep winning and hope someone else can beat C.B. Aycock, so a loss to the Saints would be disastrous in that regard.

Fike (3-2, 2-0) is coming off an impressive 24-0 shutout of South Johnston (3-2, 1-1) that left the Demons tied with CBA (5-0, 2-0) for first place. The Trojans are in must-win territory against the Golden Falcons on Friday with four league games remaining.

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