EDENTON – The Aces of Edenton scored on their first three possessions of the second half, turning a 10-7 deficit into a 27-10 win over Hertford County in Northeastern Coastal Conference football action here Friday night.

For the Bears, it marked their second straight league loss to start the conference portion of their season. Barring a complete collapse by the likes of Edenton and Northeastern, Friday’s loss effectively ended HertfordCounty’s dreams of a league title.

Things looked good in the early stages for the Bears as a 31-yard TD run by Ryan Weaver (8:30, 1st quarter) and a 22 yard field goal from Ackerman Grace (1:19; 2nd quarter) staked the Bears to a 10-7 lead at the break.

Set-up by their defense, which forced three turnovers over the opening 24 minutes of action, the Bears had other scoring opportunities, but failed to cash in.

That came back to haunt them in the second half as Edenton remained unbeaten and state-ranked outscored their guests 20-0.

The second half started with a bang for the Aces as Zack Ballentine returned the kick-off 52 yards deep inside HCHS territory. Marcus Jackson scored three plays later from 14 yards out and coupled with Robert Bunch’s PAT, Edenton had the lead for-keeps at 14-10 with the third quarter less than two minutes old.

Edenton drove 72 yards in eight plays on their next possession, one that ended with a 7-yard TD run by Tabis Stanly. The PAT failed, leaving the Aces with a 20-10 lead at the 2:40 mark of the third quarter.

Jackson’s three-yard TD run and Bunch’s PAT capped the scoring early in the fourth quarter.

Kashese Bond ran in from 49 yards out for Edenton’s first score of the game at the 9:10 mark of the opening period. He finished as the game’s leading rusher with 149 yards on nine carries.

Weaver led the Bears offense with 93 rushing yards on 17 attempts and 92 yards through the air on a 6-of-12 passing night.

All totaled, HCHS finished with 280 yards of offense, but 206 of those came in the first half. The Bears were their own worst enemy, penalized 15 times for 100 yards.

HCHS (3-3; 0-2) travels to Currituck next Friday (Sept. 28) in search of their first conference win.

(Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald Sports Analyst Gattis Hodges contributed to this story.)