(Rosendale) — A battle of unbeatens and highly-ranked Missouri 8-Man teams head to Rosendale on Friday evening for a Week 5 showdown.

No. 2 North Shelby (4-0) and No. 4 North Andrew (4-0) meet in what figures to be one of the top regular season matchups of the season. The Cardinals are coming off their fourth straight blowout win – a 60-18 rout of Stewartsville.

“It’s the first time we played (them) in a long time,” Coach Dwayne Williams told KMA Sports. “It’s an old school rival from back in the old days, and we were excited to get that going again. Once we settled down, we were able to take control of things.”

North Andrew leaned on another strong night on the ground with senior Carson Thomas rushing for 147 yards while sophomore Hayden Ecker had 141 yards and four touchdowns. Sophomore Andrew Goff added 59 yards and two scores.

Their latest win followed victories over King City (50-26), Bishop LeBlond (60-20) and an impressive takedown of the high-flying Pattonsburg Panthers (74-38).

“Week two at LeBlond, we started five sophomores,” Williams said, “and depending on the formation, we open with three or four sophomores every week. We’re pretty excited with how far they’ve come.”

Ecker, Goff and Thomas have dominated the carries, but Coach Williams believes the big story is the continued improvement of his young line.

“Our seniors do a great job of setting an example for these guys of how we work and how we watch film,” he said. “When they get good leadership, they show they can improve each week.”

They will need more of that this week with North Shelby coming to town. The Raiders have also proven dominant this year while outscoring their four opponents by an average of 62.5 to 9.0.

“It starts up front for them,” Williams said. “They absolutely dominate the line of scrimmage on the defensive side. (Jackson Lunsford) is an outstanding player, and he really took it to us last year. We didn’t have an answer for him, and I’m not sure we do this year. But we have a plan in place, anyway.”

Lunsford tops the North Shelby defense with 11.0 of the 37.0 tackles for loss through just four games. The defense largely sets up the offense, but they’ve had plenty of success there, too, with junior Cale Stoneburner rushing for 385 yards, passing for 351 yards and accounting for 15 total offensive touchdowns.

“Their read option game and their counter game is so tough to defend,” Williams admits. “They do a great job of formationing to get the matchup they want. They go through a lot of motions and shifts to find the matchups they want.”

In a game like this, turnovers, penalties and special teams will always come into play, but Coach Williams says they will need to match the physicality of North Shelby up front.

“The line of scrimmage is going to dictate who wins and loses the game,” he said. “If we can perform up front then we’re going to have a chance. Hang on to the football, eliminate the penalties and try to win the line of scrimmage. The team that does that on Friday night is going to win.”

Devin Albertson will have reports from Rosendale on Friday evening during the Red Oak Chrysler Connection Show. Hear all of KMA Sports’ coverage on AM 960 and FM 99.1 from 6:20 to midnight.

Listen to the complete interview with Coach Williams linked below.