The Eastside Eagles enter the second week of their season with an enthusiastic grin after beating county-rival Newton a week ago, but Eagles' coach Rick Hurst isn't letting that victory affect Eastside this week.

The Eagles bested the Rams 34-28 on a late touchdown last Friday, topping Newton for the second year in a row.

Despite the win, Hurst said that his program has moved past the rivalry game, even though Eagles' fans may be still talking about the match-up weeks from now.

"We talked about keeping (our energy high) right after the Newton game," Hurst said. "Our goal is to beat them, but we want to move on to a region championship and a state qualifying bid. It's a huge win, and sometimes you can have a letdown, but the last three or four years we haven't seen that. We've been able to play well against Newton and come back the next week and play.

"I think it has a lot to do with our staff and how they approach the Newton game," he said. "We make the game a big deal and a priority, but only until that Friday and that game is over. Then we move on to the next one."

Eastside scored 19 first-half points against the Rams while shutting out Newton in the first half. Last week, Jackson scored just nine points against Mary Persons, while allowing 31 points to the Bulldogs.

Jackson recorded just 37 total yards of offense in the first half, while allowing Mary Persons 356 yards on the ground in the loss.

Despite those numbers, Hurst said he was eager to see the match-ups that the Red Devils will put on the field against the Eangles

"Personnel wise, I think we match-up pretty well with them," Hurst said. "They have a really good defensive lineman in Michail Carter. I feel like he is one of the best players on their team. Their tailback De'Eric Bell we have seen before. We've played against him for three
years and we've done a good job keeping him in check."

Hurst said that after watching film on Jackson, he sees a lot of the same tendencies in the Red Devils that he finds in his own team.

"I really do like what they are doing and their schemes on offense," he said. "We see stuff out of them that we do all the time, so we kind of feel like we are playing ourselves. We just have to go down and play like we did the first 18 minutes last week and the final six minutes of that game. If we put everything together for a full game, I feel like we have a pretty good chance to win."

Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. for the Eagles on the road at Red Devil Hill.