In what was eerily similar to their previous encounter, Elkin defeated Surry Central 23-16 on Friday night.

Last year, the Elks rolled past the Golden Eagles 24-9.

Elkin's defensive line was the story during the first half of the game. The Elk's defense scored the first touchdown of the evening on a Surry Central bad snap during a fourth down punt attempt.

Pat Kennedy recovered the loose ball in the end zone for the Elkin score.

"We told the team there are three phases of the game, offense, defense and special teams. First half we won defense and we won special teams," said Elkin head coach Scott Wood.

Elkin's defense was able to keep the Golden Eagles out of the end zone during the first half.

Surry Central had a tough time mobilizing offensively during the first half, only tallying eight positive yards."Defensively, we played great the entire first half," Wood said.

After a display of a dominate defense during the first half, Elkin jumped ahead 17-0 on a Grayson Kimrey 52-yard rushing touchdown.

On the next possession, Surry Central fumbled the ball on their own 10 yard line, which was recovered by Pat Kennedy. The fumble led to another Elkin touchdown by Ethan Kramm, jumping the score up to 23-0.

"We moved the ball a little bit offensively to start the second half," Coach Wood said, "but it seemed like our defensive intensity dropped some."

Surry Central was able to mobilize their offense against Elkin's defense towards the end of the third quarter, and during most of the fourth.

Surry Central quarterback Alex Wilmoth carried the bulk of the Eagle's offense with nine rushes for 44 yards, while Jared Dimmette had five rushes for 38 yards.

Dimmette gave the Eagles their first touchdown of the evening on a long drive led by Wilmoth.

Late in the fourth quarter, Alex Wilmoth connected with Bradley Lewis for Surry Central's second touchdown. Wilmoth was seven of eight completions for 48 yards.

Penalties hit both teams hard, with Central wracking up 10 penalty flags for 80 yards, while Elkin had 6 for 65 yards. "It's early in the season, and there are just a lot of different things to work on," Wood said.

Elkin will travel to North Surry on Friday to take on the Greyhounds, who are fresh off a win against Forbush.