Once 2-A Central Carolina Conference rivals now divided by classification, East Davidson and Ledford still played the game Friday night as if it were the conference championship.

Normally a regular-season ending to CCC play, the game was moved up due to the Panthers playing a tier higher than the Golden Eagles in 3-A. In the grand scheme of things it was a matchup that had little meaning other than pride, but the players competed like it was for a lot more.

In the end, the Panthers prevailed 21-10, but that score is misleading as to how close the game was to going the other way.

In fact, the Eagles were the dominant force in the game, but protecting the ball turned out to be its biggest rival. East fumbled it away three times and tossed an interception, foiling several key drives in which the Eagles chewed up minutes at a time off the clock.

East won just about every statistical category on offense except for one — points. The Eagles had 247 yards on the ground compared to 151 by the Panthers — passed for 95 yards compared to 84 by LHS, and had 13 more first downs.

“We made some bad mistakes and had some bad penalties at the wrong time,” said East coach Bryan Lingerfelt.

Ledford deserves plenty of credit for making good on its chances, but this is a game that East can easily look back on and feel that a win got away.

With an open date this Friday, East will have plenty of time to address the ball control issues before CCC play kicks off Oct. 9 against Lexington. For Ledford, Central Davidson will pay a visit before its inaugural season in the Mid-Piedmont Conference begins.

Thomasville had a much better time of it with Asheboro, ending a four-game skid with a 21-0 shutout over the Blue Comets.

The defense continued to improve, but the offense continued to show its inconsistency. THS scored on its first drive of both halves, but did very little with the ball the rest of the time. The first drive of the game went 88 yards for the score in seven plays, while the opening drive in the second half went for six points, traveling 80 yards in 11 plays.

Thomasville will get a break this week after concluding its rigorous nonconference schedule against some of the top teams in the state. They will return to action Oct. 9 as they travel down Highway 8 to begin CCC play against Central Davidson.