photo by Marcus Frazier

Huntington’s Chuck Bowie (30) tosses Cenla Christian’s Chris Johnson (3) out of his path when the two teams met earlier this season. The Hounds will face Wayne Academy in the first round of the MPSA playoffs Friday night.

Hounds must travel to take on Wayne Academy

By Matt Burrowes | The Natchez Democrat

Published Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Ferriday — The Huntington Hounds will take the long ride to Wayne County to take on the Wayne Academy Jaguars Friday for the first round of Class A playoffs.

Both teams are coming off tough losses to larger schools.

Huntington lost 35-21 to Oak Forest and, Leake Academy defeated Wayne Academy 38-27.

“They have played some tough opponents,” Huntington head coach Chad Harkins said. “They are a tough team.”

Harkins said Wayne’s size worried him the most.

“They are big everywhere,” he said. “They have three running backs that average 180 pounds each.”

Wayne’s spread offense put up over 400 yards against Leake last week.

They have a good quarterback in Daniel Bunch,” Harkins said. “Their strength is running. They run a lot of lead plays and counters.”

Wayne Academy’s head coach Lee Atkins said the key for his offense was to control the clock and not allow Huntington’s offense on the field.

“We’ve done a good job controlling the clock this season,” Atkins said. “We are going to continue playing ball control offense.”

The Hound’s offense will be going against a team that holds opposing class A opponents to just a touchdown per game.

“We’re not going to change what we do on defense,” Atkins said. “We are going to do the same thing that has worked for us all year.”

Atkins did say that Huntington’s run game was one of the best they will see and running backs Jody Cottongin and Martez Tolliver were great athletes.

“We will have to do our best to contain Cottongin and Tolliver,” Atkins said. “Those guys are faster than anyone we have on our team.”

Harkins said he was going to continue to mix up his offense and use Cottongin at quarterback as well as running back.

“We’ve had some success Jody at quarterback,” Harkins said. “We’re going to continue to work the pass into our offense.”

Harkins said he felt liked his team was still improving and haven’t reached their full potential.

“We still haven’t peaked yet,” he said. “Right now is the time we need to be playing our best. This is do or die time for us. Play or go home.”

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.