EDENTON — Maybe it happened with an unplugged scoreboard, on an unmarked field, on a sweltering July night and before a handful of spectators, but the Edenton football team felt it had made a statement Wednesday night.

“Northeastern made us look pretty bad last year and we got them back,” said Jabazz Long, a rising senior receiver at Edenton, after his team and Northeastern scored four touchdowns apiece in a 7-on-7 scrimmage. “We showed them we’re learning to play together.”

The Aces did it in the last of four weekly summer 7-on-7 get-togethers involving Edenton, Northeastern, Pasquotank and, usually, First Flight. But on this muggy, gnat-infested evening, Perquimans was the fourth team, obliging Aces coach Wes Mattera’s request to fill in for an absent First Flight so that four teams could play simultaneously and wind up with three “games” each.

While the 7-on-7s hardly resemble real football — they are conducted on half a field with no contact, no linemen, no running plays, no kicking, no equipment other than helmets and plays are run 10 at a time by each team

or possessions are alternated for a 20-minute time frame — there are things coaches and players can accomplish by playing them.

In Edenton’s case, that was gaining mental toughness and confidence.

“We’ve been getting a little better each time out,” Mattera said after a high-intensity competition that featured lots of trash talking by both teams. “Now we’re playing with a little confidence and swagger.

“We really need that. We gotta change the losing attitude around here. Northeastern is the measuring stick. They were in the state championship game last year. That’s where we want to be. We’ve been telling our guys, ‘Why can’t that be us?’”

While no official score is kept in the 7-on-7s, “everybody knows what happens,” said Mattera, in his second season of coaching the Aces.

“Now we’re 1-1-2 against Northeastern after losing to them the first time,” he said.

Edenton wasn’t the only team taking the game seriously Wednesday.

Northeastern, fresh off strong 7-on-7 showings at camps at East Carolina and James Madison University, matched the Aces woof-for-woof and big play-for-big play.

Eagles coach Antonio Moore, who guided the team to the state 2AA championship game last fall, set the tone before Northeastern — looking resplendent and intimidating in sleek black tank tops with gold lettering, gold helmets and dark green shorts — even took the field.

“They (Edenton) want to play us last tonight for a reason,” Moore said to his players. “They think they can beat us. Take it personal. This is how you get people scared of you before the season even starts.”

Frankly, the Eagles didn’t need to be reminded that the Aces were out to get them.

“This is the way it is all the time,” said rising senior Kareem Felton, who will be replacing graduated superstar Terry Williams as Northeastern’s quarterback. “We’re the team everybody wants to beat.”

Even in the summer.

Edenton, which is using the 7-on-7s to implement a new, no-huddle offense, showed it may have the skill players to put an end to a string of five consecutive losing seasons. Sophomore quarterback R.J. Leary throws a nice ball and receivers Long, Tyquan Fleming, Deron Capehart and Blair Wilson are quick, capable of finding openings in the defense and can bring the ball down in traffic.

Northeastern, meanwhile, doesn’t appear it will miss a beat in its post-Williams passing game. Felton has a strong arm and a fleet of receivers who can fly down the field and make acrobatic catches, including Marquise Whidbee, C.J. Turner and Tedrick White.

“People think we’ve lost a of people to graduation,” Moore said. “And we did. But most of our line is back and a lot of these guys here were backups to real good players last year.”

Felton, primarily a defensive back last season, relishes the time being spent in the 7-on-7s.

“I’ve got some big-time receivers, I know they will catch the ball, I just have to practice getting it to them,” he said. “This is going to help us get ready for the season.”

Ed Thornton, Northeastern’s defensive coordinator, is also a fan of the 7-on-7s.

“For the defense, it’s all about getting our technique and coverages down,” he said. “That way, when we put on the pads, that stuff us behind us.”

All of the coaches at Wednesday’s scrimmage agree that the 7-on-7s, even though they are conducted without the entire roster, develop camaraderie and teamwork and offer the chance to improve skills while providing a welcome break from the daily offseason routine of lifting, conditioning and running plays against teammates.

“It’s a way for the kids to have some fun in a game situation,” said Perquimans coach T.J. Worrell, who was missing most of his top players Wednesday, including the first- and second-string quarterbacks, for various reasons. “But, also, we’re looking for the kids to be competitive and make the big play whenever they can.”

Worrell wasn’t concerned with scores.

“As I told our kids, ‘We’re going to leave the field with the same record we came in with,’” he said, hammering home the point that the results themselves don’t count.

Pasquotank coach Hancel Phipps, also without his starting quarterback, shares Worrell’s low-key approach to the 7-on-7s.

“I’m a Winged-T guy, so it’s not like this passing is helping us a lot, our offense is so much predicated on the run,” he said. “We’re not like some of these teams have been playing 7-on-7 for weeks getting ready for these scrimmages.

“We just showed up and started playing. I guess what we get the most out of this is exposing our defensive players to the kind of plays they’re going to see during the season.”

While Wednesday concluded the weekly four-team scrimmages, 7-on-7s aren’t going away just yet. Edenton will be taking on Perquimans, Gates and Currituck before “official” fall practice begins July 30 and Moore is going to try to get into some games in Norfolk, against the larger Hampton Roads schools.