nTime: 7:30 p.m.
nRecords: East 0-4; Carson 1-2
nSeries: Tied 2-2
nLast meeting: Carson buried the Mustangs 49-0 in 2010
nLast week: East lost 35–14 to Hickory Ridge despite a respectable second half; Carson let a fourth-quarter lead slip away in a 49-38 loss to Concord Jay M. Robinson
nNext week: East is home against West Iredell; Carson has a tough road game against Salisbury at Ludwig Stadium.
nGame notes: The neighbors started playing in 2007, Carsonís second year. So far, East has won in the odd years and Carsonís won in the even years.
There has been one tremendous game in the rivalry. That was in 2009 when both schools had winning teams, and East pulled out a 29-26 victory at Carson. This time, itís not easy to see how anything could go wrong for Carson in the NPC opener for both teams, even though Carson is dealing with several injuries and East make strides last week.
East showed the most offense itís mustered so far vs. Hickory Ridge, but thereís still no way it should have the firepower to hang with Carson very long.
Besides having the home field, Carson has been better statistically than East in every team offensive category and every team defensive category. Led by Dontae Gilbertís two picks, Carson leads the county in pass defense (64 yards per game), while East ranks at the bottom of the county in rushing offense, passing offense and scoring offense (5.0 ppg).
Eastís most effective player some nights is punter Jantzen Stirewalt, who has been called on for his specialty 18 times.
Carsonís young QB Austin McNeil ranks third in the county in total offense, and K.J. Pressley leads county receivers with 81 yards per game.