EAST PRAIRIE -- Long-time rivals Charleston Bluejays and East Prairie Eagles tangle for the 66th time on Friday at East Prairie.
Bragging rights for the best team in Mississippi County has been the almost exclusive domain of the Bluejays, who own a lopsided 59-4-2 edge over the Eagles.
However, this game could provide one of the more competitive matchups of the series.
A talented Charleston squad comes in with a 4-2 record, but prone to underachievement at times, while the Eagles stand at 3-2 with both losses by narrow margins -- four points to Hayti, seven points to Fredericktown.
"They've probably got one of the better teams in the area and I think we've got a pretty good team, too," said East Prairie's first-year coach Corey Adkisson.
"I don't think we've played our best game yet and, if we do, I think we'll be in it and it'll be a competitive game."
East Prairie's ground game, led by the 1-2 punch of Paris Tipler and Dez Johnson, has been the staple of its offensive output, which has averaged 35.2 points per contest.
Said Adkisson, "It's no secret that we're going to run the football. We've got two good ones back there in Paris and Dez and we're going to give the football to them."
Tipler is the area's second leading rusher with 1,133 yards, 33 behind leader Kendrickus Reed of Caruthersville.
Johnson, who had seen limited playing time due to injury, re-emerged last week with 225 yards against Chaffee. Tipler had 268 as the Eagles rang up 507 yards of rushing offense.
"I stayed up until 3 o'clock last night trying to figure out some defensive schemes to stop them," said Charleston coach Al Marshall, also in his first year.
An offensive line led by senior R.C. Strand and junior David Stalker has provided solid blocking up front for the prolific backs.
At the controls is senior quarterback Mitchell Winchester, who gives the run-
oriented Eagles a potential passing threat with 10 of 22 completions for 296 yards and four TDs.
Tipler, out of the backfield, is the leading receiver with four catches for 121 yards and a TD. Receivers Tony Jones (two catches, 78 yards, two TDs) and Caleb Hatton (one catch, 67 yards, one TD), although counted on for blocking primarily, have shown abilities to make big plays in the passing game when called upon.
Defensively, the Eagles allowed Chaffee 202 passing yards including two long touchdown passes, but Adkisson downplayed those statistics.
"I don't think we had a whole lot of trouble on pass defense, for the most part," he said. "Some of those yards were against our JV and some when we were dropping deeper to keep everything in front of us.
"I'm more concerned about stopping the run. In any league in football, you've got to stop the run first. If you don't stop the run, the pass won't matter."
Charleston has been successful with both the run and the pass.
Leading the 'Jays aerial attack is senior quarterback Josh Marshall, the area's fourth-leading passer with 806 yards and eight TDs.
On the receiving end are two of the area's best, 6-foot-5 senior Jamarcus Williams and 6-3 junior Justin Clark, each with four TD catches apiece.
A promising ground game has been unsettled recently with a rash of injuries. Junior Joseph Watts, a 1,000-yard rusher in each of his two previous varsity campaigns, has been less than 100 percent with a hip-pointer injury. He did manage 128 yards in last week's loss to Dexter, 54 on a great broken-field run.
Charleston will be without the services of freshman running back Jerquawn Sherrell, who turned in a brilliant debut effort against Malden in Week 5 with bruising inside runs for 119 yards. Sherrell suffered a hairline fracture of the ankle in the Dexter contest and is likely out for the rest of the season.
Injuries and disciplinary suspensions have curtailed the Bluejays recently, but they expect to be near full strength for the Eagles.
"Most everybody else that was banged up is coming back," said coach Marshall.
Added Marshall, of his district favorite Bluejays, "We've got to win our next four games. We've got to start taking care of business and be the team we should be."
Mental preparation will be a key for the Bluejays, who committed two huge mistakes which put them in a deep hole against the Dexter Bearcats.
Offensive line play, led by 6-1, 255-pound senior Dustin Allen and 6-2, 325-
pound junior Brandon Gillespie, will also be an important element of the Bluejays' gameplan.
"We've got to pass protect and run block," said Al Marshall.
On the defensive side, the Bluejays must find a way to control Tipler and Johnson, with linebackers James Williams and Billy Butler playing key roles. East Prairie's Adkisson doesn't lend much credence to the Eagles' home-field advantage.
He said, "This is a big rivalry game and all of these kids have played at both places and there's going to be tons of people from Charleston as well as East Prairie, there's no big travel time or anything like that, so I don't believe playing at home is going to mean very much.
"Hopefully, we'll play our best, let the game take its course and get a "W."