A 2-0 start is something the Eastside Eagles’ football program has not seen in six seasons. As they sit there now, the Eagles’ coaches and players believe in the guys they have in the locker room.

“We have some weapons, I think they are gaining more and more confidence,” Eastside head coach Jay Cawthon said. “People have loaded the box on us a bit, so we have taken advantage of that tonight. We have to be able to run and throw the football if we want to get to where we want to be.”

Those were the words of Cawthon following Eastside’s 48-21 win over the Hiram Hornets on Friday, Aug. 23.

In that contest, the Eagles won in a way they have won many times before — on the ground. Eastside senior and Georgia Tech-commit, Jayden Barr, rushed for a pair of scores along with catching a touchdown and returning a kickoff for six.

Following his four-touchdown performance, Barr gave all the credit to the guys he lines up with.

“It is just my coaches putting me in the best position — teammates blocking and no one getting jealous, just a team game,” Barr said. “They love when we win. It is all about winning for us, no self accomplishments.”

Barr’s sentiment was not only backed up by his performance, but also his coach.

Cawthon boiled Barr’s game down to “He does it all for us.”

“He is a heck of a ballplayer. We try to get the ball in his hands as much as we can,” Cawthon said. “We get it to our other two back, too, but he does it all on special teams — you saw that tonight. On defense and offense, you can’t ask much more out of him.”

With a team that is predicated on the ground game and establishing it, Barr shared after Friday’s game that the Eagles’ offensive line is up for the task of this season.

“I love my offensive line,” Barr said. ‘[With] Carlton, we have a lot of returning guys and young guys. [It is] Old guys helping the young guys get right. We have the biggest offensive line in Class AAAA I think.”

A week prior to the Eagles 27-point win on the road, they defeated their longtime rivals, the Newton Rams. It was Eastside’s first win over Newton since the same year where it began 2-0 in 2018.

Coming off an emotional win for Cawthon and the players, clearing the mechanism and focusing on the task at hand was a big point of emphasis in practice.

“That was what we were worried about as a coaching staff — coming out flat,” Cawthon said.  “We harped on it all week in practice. We have a lot of good leadership on this team and they know what the job is. We were worried about that, we called this the ‘Biggest trap game of the season’ right now.”

In the eyes of Barr — who rushed for two touchdowns against the Rams — it was just another game.

“We were happy, but we needed to stay focused,” Barr said. “It was the first game, It didn’t really count [since] it wasn’t a region game. The coaches did a good job of making sure we stayed focused and were onto the next game.

This week, the Eagles matchup with the Alcovy Tigers, who fell into an 0-2 hole with a 70-0 loss to the same Rams team that Eastside defeated in week one. Eastside will look to match up offensively with an Alcovy squad that has surrendered 136 total points in the first two games of the season.

Cawthon and the Eagles will play head coach Spencer Fortson and the Tigers Friday, Aug. 30 at Sharp Stadium.

Even though the season is still young, Barr’s confidence is high for the team in green.

“I believe we are in stride right now,” Barr said. “No one can stop us when we play team ball, we are really underrated.

“I feel like we can win it all.”

This story will only appear in the online edition of The Covington News and will not appear in print.