PEMBROKE — When UNC Pembroke and Wingate meet on the gridiron, it’ll be a matchup that has it all: eight- and seven-win teams from last season, each seeking a big nonconference win before beginning their chase for a conference title. Returning award-winning stars who can sling the football at quarterback, dash out of the backfield or crush bones on the defensive line. All the hope and anticipation that a season opener brings. Two schools separated by 80 miles of Highway 74 meeting for the first time in five years. And even postgame fireworks.

The Braves and Bulldogs are set for their Week 1 showdown Saturday at Grace P. Johnson Stadium, with kickoff scheduled for 6 p.m.

For both teams, the game presents an opportunity to face a strong opponent and see right away how their 2024 squad stacks up against good competition.

“These are the kind of teams that we want to play early in the season,” UNCP coach Mark Hall said. “Obviously Wingate’s been consistently one of the best teams in Region 2 for the last seven, eight years; them and Lenoir-Rhyne have kind of been the standard of Division-II football in North Carolina, so we’re certainly looking forward to seeing where we’re at and competing with those guys.”

Wingate finished 8-3 last season, with a 6-2 record in the South Atlantic Conference to finish third in the league’s Piedmont Division. UNCP finished at 7-3 in Hall’s debut season, finishing tied for second in the Mountain East Conference with a 6-3 league mark. Both teams finished their seasons on four-game winning streaks.

With neither team having seen the current version of the other yet — with film study, of course, restricted to last year’s games — both sides will be largely looking to simply be the best version of themselves and get the season off to a good start.

“Obviously we did as much as we could to try to find out who would be out there for them, who’s on their roster, their two-deep,” Hall said. “But at the same time we’ve got to just focus on how we play. It’s not going to be too tricky of how to win the game for both sides; it’s going to come down to who blocks better, who tackles better, who makes more plays, who protects the football, who wins field position. I don’t think those things change at any point, but certainly in Week 1 when there are so many unknowns, it comes down to the basics.”

Offensively, Wingate returns sophomore quarterback Brooks Bentley, who threw for 1,834 yards and 13 touchdowns last season and was named SAC Freshman of the Year. From a largely running-back-by-committee approach last year, five of the Bulldogs’ top six rushers return.

“They’re really high on (Bentley), he can really spin it, he’s athletic,” Hall said. “They’ve always played a tough, physical style, so they’re going to come in and run the football and try to set up for play-action passing, so we’re going to have to play well on the line of scrimmage, and we’ll have to communicate in the secondary, so I think we certainly have a challenge.”

The Bulldogs offense will face a Braves defense headlined by defensive ends Jamae Blank, the 2023 MEC Defensive Player of the Year, and Malik McKinzie, along with three ACC transfers in linebacker J.R. Walker (Virginia Tech) and defensive backs Carlo Thompson (Virginia) and Darius Edmundson (N.C. State).

Wingate’s defense also boasts an award-winning defensive end in Marquise Fleming, the regional Defensive Player of the Year in 2023 after an 8.5-sack, 16-tackle-for-loss season. Three of the team’s top four tacklers return, including another defensive end in Bryan Bordeaux and linebacker Dontorian Best.

“Their defense is one of the best in the country,” Hall said. “They’re in the top five in the country in sacks and (tackles for loss), they’ve been doing that for the last three or four years, and that’s kind of been the identity of their football team is their defense, and they’ve got a lot of guys back, a lot of upperclassmen.”

Across the line, Colin Johnson anchors the Braves offense after throwing for 1,883 yards, passing for 20 touchdowns and rushing for 11 last year, with MEC Freshman of the Year Sincere Baines and JaQuan Kelly each back in the backfield and a receiving corps believes is deeper than last year’s.

Wingate leads the all-time series 8-3 and has won four straight meetings, but the schools haven’t met in football since 2019.

UNCP is holding Military Appreciation Night as part of the game’s festivities. This will include a postgame fireworks show.