The North Moore football team takes on one of its oldest and closest rivals tonight when it travels to East Montgomery for the Eagles’ homecoming contest.

The Mustangs are looking to break a three-game losing skid to the Eagles. The last time North Moore defeated the Eagles was in October 2008 when they handed East a 27-21 setback in Biscoe.

The Eagles are a veteran team with 15 seniors on their 30-man roster and come into the contest with a 1-2 Yadkin Valley Conference record and 2-5 overall, with one of those victories being a forfeit from Kipp Pride. East’s lone win in league play was a 42-0 home victory over South Davidson.

The Eagles have lost a couple of close contest, having lost one in overtime 35-34 to 3-A Union Pines. In their latest matchup, the Eagles dropped a 30-6 contest at South Stanly.

Meanwhile, the Mustangs are still looking for their first win of the season after falling to North Rowan 39-0 in their latest outing.

One of the things the Mustangs will have to do is to stop East’s offensive unit. The Eagles’ offense is evenly balanced between the running and passing game. East has a talented running back in senior Santrel Durham. Durham was an all-conference performer last year as a junior when he rushed for over a 1,000 yards.

East has a good quarterback with senior Avery Jackson calling the signals. Jackson has a good arm and can also hurt you with his legs. East has two of the better receivers in the Yadkin Valley Conference with the senior duo of C.J. Robinson and Ahmad Baldwin. Both players have good height and can climb the ladder for a high throw. In fact, Jackson likes to throw the ball up for jump-ball situations near the end zone.

“They (East Montgomery) have a good tailback, good quarterback and a couple of good receivers,” said North Moore’s head football coach Greg Simmons. “We’ll have to find a way to shut them down and not give up the big plays. We’ll need to force some turnovers and our offense will have to have some good drives to keep their offense off the field.”

One of the Mustangs’ strongest areas on defense is their secondary with seniors Landon Auman and Cody Vaughn anchoring their corner back and safety positions. Senior linebacker Kyle Kidd will be counted on to help stop the Eagles’ running game.

“On offense, we have to take care of the ball and not make stupid mistakes,” said Simmons. “We have to find a way to get the ball into the end zone when we’re in their territory. We’ve made too many mistakes when we get into the red zone.”

The Eagles have a couple of veterans backing up their defensive line with senior linebacker Daniel Harman and senior back Quan Johnson. Harman has help at linebacker, with junior Deddrick Dowell being one of the team’s top tacklers. Two other leading tacklers on the squad are junior linemen Derrice Bowden and Luis Villegas.

The Mustangs’ offense will once again be led by sophomore quarterback Kirby Lambert, who got his first start last week against North Rowan. Lambert fills in for the injured senior Luke Auman, who is out for the season with a knee injury.

Lambert threw for a pair of scores in the Mustangs’ 16-14 loss to South Davidson a couple of weeks ago. Landon Auman has been the Mustangs’ top receiver while Kidd is leading the team in rushing. Justin Allred is also one of North’s top receivers and Adrian Wall is the Mustangs’ top return man.

“We want to be there at the end,” said Simmons. “We’re pretty thin right now with injuries but that’s part of the game. South Davidson was able to move the ball on them, but they hurt themselves with mistakes. So hopefully we will be able to move the ball and get it into the end zone. We want to be close at the end to give ourselves a chance to win the game.”

The game is scheduled to kick off at 7:30 p.m.