Prediction

Eastern Montgomery (1-8) at Parry McCluer (5-4) WHEN: 7 p.m. on Friday WHERE: Bobby Williams Field in Buena Vista. Tickets are $7.

LAST YEAR: The Fighting Blues earned a 34-14 road win over Eastern Montgomery in the final game of the regular season. Running back Jackson Brockenbrough led PM with 113 yards and two touchdowns on 19 carries, while PM quarterback Nathan Glass threw for 98 yards and two scores. The Blues led 13-0 at halftime and extended their lead to 27-0 in the third quarter before EM’s Xavier Brown made a 1-yard TD run to cut it to 27-6. PM’s JJ Jones, who led the Blues’ receivers with 68 yards on two catches, scored on a 58-yard pass from Glass in the fourth quarter before Brown caught a 9-yard TD pass from quarterback Chase Bierman. The Blues committed two turnovers, but they forced four.

THE SCOOP: The Blues are coming off two lopsided road losses to undefeated teams, 57-0 to Altavista on Oct. 25 and 63-6 against Bath County last Friday, while the Mustangs earned their first win of the season last Friday with a 38-22 nondistrict road victory over Twin Valley. The competition for the Blues has been very tough the last two weeks, and they’ve struggled even more without Glass, who was injured in the game against Altavista. Jase Barger, normally a running back, has worked hard to serve as quarterback in the absence of Glass, but the starter was missed Friday.

THE NEWS-GAZETTE’S PICK: After honoring their five seniors in their final regular-season home game, we expect the Blues to have a strong performance against a rebuilding team. With or without Glass, the Blues should have success with their running game, led by Brockenbrough and Jacob Shafer. Motivated to improve their playoff seeding, we see the Blues earning a 44-7 win.