By Sonny Jones
For the first time this century East Bladen will not participate in the state high school football playoffs. It was an amazing run of success for the Cougars/Eagles under the leadership of Lenon Fisher and Robby Priest.
COVID-19, a shortened season, reduced playoff field and losses to St. Pauls and Red Springs resulted in East Bladen having to sit out postseason for the first time since 1999, according to NC High School Athletic Association records.
The Eagles (5-2) would have earned a playoff berth in the standard 32-team East field, but not with only 16 teams making the cut this season.
The then-Cougars’ playoff run started in 2000 with a 6-4 record and a No. 15 seed in Class 2-A East. East Bladen won at unbeaten Roanoke Rapids (9-0-1) 30-29 in the first round before losing at Southwest Onslow 41-6 in the second round.
East Bladen went 32-20 in the playoffs from 2000-19 and lost in the 2008 1-AA championship game to Thomasville.
Again, an amazing run of success and all who have been part of the program are to be congratulated.
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Football: East Bladen at West Bladen
Photos by Kenneth Armstrong
• “We were the only team in the conference to play all 7 games,” Priest said Friday after the Eagles routed West Bladen 58-14. “Our kids made a lot of individual sacrifices to accomplish that.”
West Bladen, Whiteville, South Columbus and Fairmont played six games. St. Pauls, Red Springs and West Columbus played five games. East Columbus didn’t field a team during the spring season.
Only 58% of teams in the state played a full seven-game schedule. The Eagles were among 214 of the 371 teams to get in all of their scheduled games.
• Nineteen teams finished the regular season 7-0, including Clinton. The Dark Horses will host Eastern Randolph (4-1) in Friday’s first round of the playoffs.
• Seven teams made the playoffs with a losing record, including West Columbus (2-3) in 1-A and Hobbton (2-5) and Lakewood (2-5) in 1-AA even though the playoff fields were cut in half. The Vikings drew the No. 1 seed in the East and will host Pamlico County (4-2) on Friday. West Columbus was assured a playoff spot after East Columbus, which is the only other 1-A team in the Three Rivers Conference, opted not to field a team during the spring season.
• South Columbus High School opened in 1992. This is the first time since that either the Stallions or Whiteville haven’t participated in the state playoffs, according to The News Reporter’s Franklin Davis. Often, both schools qualified for postseason, but at least one made it for 28 consecutive years. Not this year. Another amazing streak.
There’s probably lots of other quirky notes from, hopefully, a once-in-a-lifetime spring football season.
• You may have noticed that Roanoke Rapids had a tie on its record in 2000 when it played East Bladen in the playoffs. Tie games used to be a thing back in the day. Not so today — or for years — as teams play overtime until a winner is decided.
So, how were tie games decided in the playoffs prior to overtime? Total yards from scrimmage … really.
An extra official walked the sideline and recorded yardage for each play from scrimmage. If the score was tied after four quarters, then officials tallied the total yards (pre-calulator days, mind you) and the team with the most yards from scrimmage advanced to the next round.
However, if the state championship game ended in a tie score, total yards weren’t used. The teams were declared co-champions.
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