On Friday, the Rivalry Continues: Brentwood at MRH

The next chapter of the generations-long Brentwood vs. Maplewood Richmond Heights rivalry will unfold on Friday night when the Eagles travel to for the second football game of the season.

Their last meeting was last season’s second game. MRH ran away with that one 39-7 on its way to a 14-1 season, ending at the . Brentwood went 6-4 on the season.

(Eagles and Blue Devils fans — follow continuous updates from the game on our Facebook pages dedicated to Eagles and Blue Devils sports: www.facebook.com/BrentwoodEagles and www.facebook.com/MRHBlueDevils)

This year, to Class 4 team, MICDS, 35-36 in an overtime nailbiter, and , 35-21 in Crystal City.

Seasoned MRH junior quarterback came through with 11 for 20 passes in his first game, and was second only to freshman in rushing. Keely rushed for 161 yards and ran in five touchdowns.

Brentwood head coach Keith Herring, in his of the Eagles, knows those two playmakers are the ones to watch out for.

“They have a lot of talent,” Herring said. “We’ve just got to play sound defense, and then control the ball on offense and do what we do.

“We’re going to try and improve running the ball,” Herring said. “We threw a couple of interceptions last week – we want to improve on that.”

He acknowledged MRH’s size advantage, but said his Eagles will have to get used to that, because it will probably be the case with anyone they meet this year. But one thing the Eagles aren’t short on is heart.

“They’re warriors out there,” he said. “They’ll battle to the end, and that’s the kind of effort we need.”

MRH coach Brandon Gregory knows every team will be pumped to play his Blue Devils.

“With us being the caliber team that we are, we know we’re everybody’s Superbowl,” he said. “We know he’s going to have those guys pumped up. They’re going to come out and play hard.”

Gregory is expecting to see a different offense from last year’s Eagles.

“I know Coach Herring is going to bring that Hazelwood West double wing stuff, so we’re preparing for that,” he said.

MRH had a slow first half against MICDS, and admitted mistakes had a part in it.

“We’re an attack-style team from offense and defense, so we need to come out and establish ourselves early, that way it makes the rest of the game a whole lot easier,” Gregory said.

If you can’t make the game, you can listen to live play-by-play and commentary. Patch is partnering with Prepcasts.com to bring you a live audio stream of the game on the internet. Friday’s game is the Patch Game of the Week, and will be called from the announcers booth in the second floor of the high school. 

To listen, your computer needs a media player that supports the Windows Media format. Prepcasts recommends the Windows Media Player.

The Prepcasts crew will provide live coverage of more than 100 area football games in 2011.

(Follow contributor Doug Miner on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DHMPhoto and editor Ryan Martin at www.twitter.com/MBPatch)