The East Carteret Mariners will venture away from home to challenge the Northside - Pinetown Panthers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as East Carteret comes in on three and Northside - Pinetown on seven.
If East Carteret beats Northside - Pinetown with 49 points on Friday, it's going to be the team's new lucky number: they've won their past two contests with that exact score. The Mariners took their game on Friday with ease, bagging a 49-12 victory over Lejeune. That looming 49-12 mark stands out as the most commanding margin for the Mariners yet this season.
Luke McIntosh
| 10/10/25 @ Lejeune | 4 |
| 09/19/25 vs American Leadership Academy-Johnston | 3 |
| 09/12/25 @ Swansboro | 3 |
| 10/03/25 @ Southside | 1 |
| 09/05/25 vs Arendell Parrott Academy | 1 |
| + 1 more games |
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead East Carteret to victory, but perhaps none more so than Luke McIntosh, who threw for 297 yards and four touchdowns while completing 83.3% of his passes, and also punched in one score on the ground. McIntosh is becoming a predictor of the Mariners' success: when he posts at least three passing touchdowns the team is 2-1 (and 1-3 when he doesn't). A healthy portion of McIntosh's aerial production (150 yards to be exact) went to Jackson Greene, who also brought in two receiving touchdowns.
Wins are hard to come by when you can't run the rock, something East Carteret proved: they limited Lejeune to a paltry 1.4 yards per carry. The team can thank Myles Shelton for the heroic effort on defense: he. East Carteret's run defense has been on the up-and-up: they allowed 3.53 yards per carry earlier this season, but they've only allowed nine on average over their last five games.
Special teams played a big role in the game for East Carteret, adding 19 points to the final score. The biggest highlight from special teams (and perhaps the team as a whole) came courtesy of Shelton, who ran a kickoff back for a touchdown.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Northside - Pinetown). Their defense stepped up to hand Pamlico County a 49-0 shutout on Friday. The Panthers pushed the score to 42-0 by the end of the third, a deficit the Hurricanes had no chance of recovering from.
East Carteret's record now sits at 3-4. As for Northside - Pinetown, their record is now 7-0.
East Carteret beat Northside - Pinetown 35-27 in their previous matchup back in October of 2024. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was the Panthers' Sincere Columbus, who rushed for 112 yards and three TDs. Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will the Mariners still be able to contain Columbus? There's only one way to find out.
