HANNIBAL — The Monroe Central Seminoles and River Pilots have a lot on the line Friday. The Seminoles (0-2) are searching for their first win of the season after playing tough foes in weeks one and two in Liberty Union and Bellaire, while the Pilots (1-1) are hoping to stack a second straight win after defeating Buckeye Local last week.

It is also, as neither team needs to be reminded, a rivalry matchup, one that stretches back to high school gone-by, when River and Woodsfield High School’s rivalry meetings were the talk of the towns.

Since River and Woodsfield’s first meeting in 1958, River and Woodsfield/Monroe Central have met on the gridiron 49 times. Friday on Martin Flannery Field will make 50, a landmark number for a well-fought rivalry where River currently holds the all-time advantage, 26-21-2.

Add that all up and you’ve got the trappings of a great game between county rivals.

“It’s a pretty big rivalry for us, has been for quite a few years, pretty much since we started playing them,” Monroe Central head coach Jonathan Calder said. “We’re not very far in distance, maybe 25 minutes, 30 minutes away from each other. It’s been a good week of practice so far. The kids, they’re ready.”

“It’s a rivalry game and, you know, throw the records out like everybody says,” River head coach Mike Flannery said. “There’s a lot of bragging rights on these kind of games. We’re very familiar with each other. They know our athletes. We know theirs. Their physicality concerns me upfront.”

Monroe Central’s line play is fronted by players like Ashton Lumbatis (6-3, 275) and Parker Sefert (5-9, 270). The Seminoles’ stout trench play is at the top of Flannery’s mind.

“What concerns me about Monroe is they played two good football teams and unfortunately they’re 0-2, but we all know how good Bellaire is and so is the other team that they played, Liberty Union,” Flannery said. “We have films on both games and they are very, very big and physical up-front and I don’t think we want to get in the battle to see who can win that way, so we’ve got to come up with some other stuff and hope that it works.”

Flannery said that River is ‘still a three-quarterback team,’ though senior Trail Thompson is receiving ‘90% of the reps right now.’ Scattered in between Thompson’s time under center are freshmen Cam Abbott and Bentley Lucas.

Thompson threw for 132 yards in last week’s win vs. Buckeye Local.

“They look pretty good,” Calder said “They’ve got a couple nice-sized linemen. So overall, as a team, they’re much improved from last year, and I look forward to a really good game with them.”

Monroe Central is moving along with junior quarterback Cooper Howell under center. Howell hooked up with Corbin Farnsworth for a 43-yard touchdown pass and Max Demchak for a 34-yard touchdown pass last week.

“There’s definitely a learning curve for him,” Calder said. “He’s, you know, he’s learned how to read defenses, react and things like that. You know, in practice, it’s a lot different than going full game speed. He’s gotten better, you can tell from week one to two, so we’re hoping he takes that next step going into week three. But the kid’s an athlete. He just has to get the mental reps at quarterback, reading the defenses and understanding the plays.”

Howell and the Seminoles will have to contend with a River defense that has come up with big plays to start the season– including Wyatt Stalder’s go-ahead pick-six vs. Buckeye Local last week.

“What I’m really pleased with is our defense and how Coach [Mark] Romick has taken the reins with that, and an effort by all the coaches to get involved in our defense. We put our defense in some difficult situations last week and we were able to come out of it on top and keep it tight. That interception from Wyatt Stalder at the end of the game kind of iced it for us.”

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at Martin Flannery Field.