Week 7 of the prep football season features the return of Southside and Northside, who both had byes last Friday, while Riverside and Plymouth will take there turn to rest up thanks to an open week.
After winning their first game of the season in Week 5, the Seahawks will look to keep their momentum going when they host South Creek in a homecoming matchup of two former Four Rivers Conference rivals.
The Panthers fell to Edenton before going into their open week, but will attempt to bounce back on the road tonight against North Pitt.
Here’s a look at the matchups:

South Creek (1-4, Two Rivers) at Southside (1-4, Coastal Plains) at 7 p.m.
After losing four in a row, the Seahawks are hoping that a 20-7 win over Spring Creek two weeks ago can help springboard a new, more positive streak, starting tonight when they host a Cougars team that can relate to their early season struggles.
“The win was good overall for the program, it was a big win. We needed a morale boost,” Southside coach Jeff Carrow said. “Again, being a young team, getting that first victory under our belts was a big thing for us.”
Typically, a bye week allows banged up players to rest and recharge. However, that was not the case for Southside, who lost star lineman Daijuan Gorham due to a concussion.
“We had a good off week but we’re still banged up,” Carrow said. “We actually added to our injury list during the bye week. We lost maybe our second best or best lineman due to a concussion. He’s going to be out for a while and he’s going to be sorely missed.”
South Creek has had its fair share of injury issues as well. The Cougars lost starting QB Brandon Battle for the first three-plus games of the season.
Battled returned to his starting quarterback position last Friday during the team’s 59-12 loss to Farmville Central, but the team had to play without D.J. Outlaw, who will be back tonight.
Both teams have showed positive signs during the course of each week and tonight there’s no doubt that each 1-4 club is viewing the matchup as a chance to put it all together.
“I think we’re both looking at this as a game that could help set up the rest of our season,” Jones said. “They have the same record as us and we’re looking at it as a game we have to win.”
Jones said he expects a tough battle when the two teams kickoff at 7 p.m.
“They’re very physical up front and they have a couple of good backs that run the ball really well,” Jones said. “They have a couple of athletes that can hurt you.”
Carrow said he added a few wrinkles to his offense during the off week and that he is fully expecting the Cougars’ best shot.
“Me and Coach Jones are good friends and always want to compete no matter what we’re doing so it’s always fun to compete against him,” Carrow said. “He’s got a good group of kids and they’re very athletic, especially at the skill positions. Battle is a good athlete and they can be dangerous. We’re definitely not overlooking anything.”

Northside (3-2, Coastal Plains) at North Pitt (4-1, 2-A Eastern Plains) at 7:30 p.m.
The Panthers won two in a row before their 43-6 Week 5 setback at the hands of Edenton and look to come out of the open week with sharpened execution.
“During the bye we just kind of got back to the basics of blocking and tackling,” Northside coach Keith Boyd said. “We just kind of looked back at the previous games we played to see if we could tweak some things here and there.
“… I think we had a good week and this week we are excited and looking forward to playing a game again.”
North Pitt opened its 2013 campaign with a 36-15 loss at the hands of D.H. Conley and since then have ripped off four straight wins, with their last one being a 38-19 victory over Greene Central.
“They’re very athletic and they have size where they need it,” Boyd said. “They pose some problems physically, but we feel like we can hopefully contest them. We’ve had an extra week to prepare. Our main thing is we’re looking at this as one more test before we get into conference play.”
In order to pass that test, the Panthers will have to turn in a physical effort up front and stop North Pitt’s run game.
“They’re a power offense,” Boyd said. “They line up and they run it between the tackles and they might throw a toss sweep in here and there. They run what they do well. We’re going to have to be physical and tackle well.”