EAST BAY — One team will depart Victory Field Friday night, Oct. 9, with its first league loss of the season when East Providence High School visits Barrington in a joust of Rhode Island Division One undefeated sides in the most anticipated meeting of these neighbors since both have played in the state’s top tier.

A month ago, this contest appeared to be just another one on the docket for the Eagles, but not now, not since East Providence emerged from the pack as the most likely contender to Barrington and LaSalle for the top spots in the league.

The Townies have taken care of business to date, upending each of their three league foes leading up to their encounter with the Eagles. Of importance as well, East Providence now holds the tiebreak advantage over Cranston West, Portsmouth and St. Raphael, each of whom should stay somewhere near the race for one of the four playoff berths in the division.

The Townies are coming off likely their most complete effort of the season, a 42-12 trashing of St. Ray’s in Pawtucket. East Providence was superb on both sides of the ball. Quarterback Robbie Delgado ran the option to near perfection, while throwing for two touchdowns. Backs Emerson Perez and Ryan Bellamy used both speed and power to run through the Saints’ defense.

“We have Barrington this week. We just have to keep stepping up,” said E.P.’s Delgado. “Barrington is a good team. We’re going to have a lot to deal with. But if we work as hard as we have been, it’s going to be tough to stop us.”

Barrington, meanwhile, is coming off a 28-7 loss non-league loss to Eastern Massachusetts side Bishop Feehan, a grudge-match win for the Shamrocks, who were on the opposite end of a similar score last fall.

The Eagles, however, should be no worse for wear. Barrington likely has the most explosive group of offensive talent in Division One if not the state in backs Mike Read and David Silvia along with flanker Marc DeSisto. Before Feehan, the Eagles were more than holding their own on defense, dominating the admittedly lowly Rogers and North Kingstown sides in D-One matchups. Barrington remains 2-0 in the league, 3-1 overall.

SEEKONK VS. FAIRHAVEN

And then there were two, two as in undefeated sides in the South Coast Conference after Seekonk High bettered host and previously unbeaten Old Rochester in the mud last week. The win set up this week’s important encounter as the Warriors head to Fairhaven Saturday afternoon, Oct. 10, at 3:30 to face the 2-1 Blue Devils.

As has been the case the previous two weeks for the Warriors on the road, games in Southeastern Mass. originally slated for Friday nights have been moved to the next day due to the EEE-threat in the area. Saturday's game is even later in the day because of SATs being held in the area as well.

Fairhaven fell from the unbeaten ranks after suffering a 22-16 loss to Apponequet, leaving Seekonk and 2-0 Dighton-Rehoboth as the last teams in the SCC without a league loss. The Falcons play at Greater New Bedford Voc this week.

“Fairhaven is obviously a good football team,” said SHS head coach Jack Whalen. “They beat Wareham, but I guess they stumbled a bit against Voc (30-27 win), maybe looked past them a little bit and Voc caught up to them. But they’re a good football team. A hard-running team, inside, they do a lot of mid-line option type stuff. It’s assignment football for us on defense. If we take care of our assignments. It’s going to be a long day for us.”

MT. HOPE VS. WOONSOCKET

The test for Mt. Hope High this week in its Division Two-A meeting with visiting Woonsocket is to see how the Huskies react after recording what is the most noteworthy regular season for the program in recent times, a 24-0 shut out of Westerly on the road in a game pitting then 2-0 sides.

Mt. Hope received continued fine performances by its “thunder and lightning” backfield duo of James Olson and Aaron Booth, who each scored twice in the victory over the Bulldogs. The Villa Novans enter the game with a 2-1 record after 20-6 win over Tolman.

“They were one of the five teams to finish tied last year at 5-2 and they have the whole team back,” MHHS head coach Ron Silva said of Woonsocket. “They’re definitely experienced. They have a lot of team speed. We’re going to have be ready for the whole package.”

The Mt. Hope players are urging all their fans to wear black to the contest to form a “Black Out.”

“We’d really like to load up the stands, make it into a Thanksgiving Day-like atmosphere for this game,” Silva added. “The kids are encouraging the fans to wear black. They’re really excited about this game. We’d like to see a big crown turn out.”

OTHER GAMES

Tiverton is back on the road this week, traveling to Ponaganset to face the first-place Chieftains at 3 p.m. Saturday. The Tigers, 1-1, are coming off a 27-8 win in Johnston. Ponaganset is 3-0 after a 36-8 victory over East Greenwich and sits a half-game ahead of 2-0 Central atop the league standings.

Portsmouth is off this week, returning to Division One action next Friday night, Oct. 16, in Barrington against the Eagles at 7.