High-flying Saints start district; AC hosts Copiah

By

ADAM DAIGLE

NATCHEZ &045; It’s hard to find the negatives when in your first three games you’ve outscored your opponents 161-0.

Not that you want to find them &045; because you’d have to search pretty darned hard. Doing so, too, will brand you as not only a pessimist but also pretty na-ve. Still, the Trinity Episcopal Saints have a streak heading into Friday’s District 7-A opener against Huntington, and life at this point is good.

&uot;We just feel good about where we are,&uot; Trinity head coach David King said. &uot;We’re a little banged up. We feel good about our offense. We’re doing a lot of different things each week, and we’re keeping teams off balance. Right now our backs are really running hard, and Ryan (Rachal) is throwing the ball extremely well. We’ve never been a one-dimensional team, and we’re not going to start now.&uot;

That’s the beauty of being a team with a number of good athletes, and the Saints are certainly using that to their advantage. How else do you explain in their 57-0 blowout of Plain Dealing when officials stopped allowing PDA to punt and forced the Saints to start each drive at their own 10?

But of those athletes comes a low spot &045; Walt Ketchings and Ivan Nastally are nursing sore knees heading into Friday’s game, and calling that a low spot would be a stretch since both are expected to play.

&uot;They’re probably one of the best teams in all of the MPSA,&uot; Huntington head coach Hugh Hathcock said. &uot;That’s what I would say. They’ve got everything &045; size, strength, speed and quickness. They’ve got it all. It’s hard to tell where their weakness is. I don’t know how many players they have, but we’re down to 13.&uot;

The Hounds, meanwhile, come into the contest after struggling offensively in a 6-0 overtime win over CM&I last week. After moving the ball well in their first two games, the Hounds had trouble against an improved CM&I and are still searching for an indentity on that side of the ball.

On Friday they’ll be without Trey Keith, Lynn Loomis and three others, mostly due to a virus that’s going around the school.

&uot;I thought we were going to be better than we are,&uot; Hathcock said. &uot;We lost four or five seniors, and those seniors did well, looking back. It’s hard to replace guys like Patrick Clayton and one or two of those others. We need somebody to step up this year, but the year is not over yet.&uot;

The Saints will have to defend the Hounds’ option attack with Adam Trevillion at quarterback, and that’s the plan without looking ahead to next week. It’s next Friday when the Saints travel to Amite, La., in a showdown with a strong Oak Forest club, last year’s Class AA champions.

&uot;This is a district game and homecoming week,&uot; King said. &uot;We’ve got an anxious group that’s ready to go out there and hit somebody else. We’re not looking past Huntington. We’ve had some battles with them throughout the years, and we’re expecting another tough test.&uot;

Copiah at ACCS

When you gawked at the stats Saturday morning of Luke Ogden’s efforts at Central Private, you’ll notice two things. He ran like the bull he was likened to, and the supporting cast did their job in keeping would-be blockers away from him.

Much of that credit goes to fullback David Barnes and the offensive line after the line had problems blocking at times in the Rebels’ first two games this year.

&uot;The offensive line really did do better, but Barnes never gets mentioned,&uot; AC head coach Keith Walters said. &uot;He’s the fullback, and that’s a thankless job. But we’re young on the offensive line, and the more we play we’ll improve. We’re not staying with a block as long as we’d like to, but we’re improving. We’ve got two kids up there who had never played a varsity game in their lives two weeks ago.&uot;

That improvement has been one of the cornerstones for the Rebels’ turnaround so far this season. Sitting 2-1 and 1-0 in South District 3-AAA play, they’ve got a shot at going 2-0 Friday at home against Copiah Academy.

It would be the second step in improving from last year’s team that started out with losses to Central Private and Copiah.

&uot;They were in good spirits in practice (Monday),&uot; Walters said. &uot;But after the game I asked them, ‘Do y’all get excited about anything?’ They said, ‘Coach, we haven’t done anything yet.’ When you win a big game, all of a sudden the next game gets a little bigger. It’s been a long time since AC and playoffs were in the same sentence, so it’s a new experience.&uot;

The Rebels will have to rely on Ogden again Friday, but he may be needed more for offense than defense. While the senior is banged up from the Central Private game (sternum, right knee, left calf), the defense may be a focal point against a Copiah team that features a triple option offense under first-year head coach John Callahan.

Charlie Nunnery will get a significant number of touches at the running back slot, but the offense is designed where no one really knows who will get the ball until the last second.

WCCA at Tensas

Things started off bad enough for the Rams with their first two games against Oak Forest and Centreville. Now add to the mix a virus that’s gripped the school, and they’re just hoping to keep things together now as the District 7-A season cranks up.

And if they can survive the turnover bug that’s also plaguing them, then life would be a whole more simple.

&uot;We’re still making too many mistakes as far as turnovers,&uot; WCCA head coach Paul Hayles said. &uot;If we can’t control the turnovers, we can make everyone competitive with us. Seventeen percent of our plays were a fumble against Centreville. We dropped the ball and either landed on it and lost yardage or gave it to the other team.&uot;

The good news for the Chiefs is there are no new injuries to speak of. Sophomore fullback Cody Hill is back, and they’ve got a chance to regroup from Friday’s 34-0 road loss to a tough Tallulah Academy team.

&uot;They had us pretty well outmatched man to man,&uot; TA head coach Chris Jacobs said. &uot;They’re that good. I thought we got after them pretty good. Defensively we got after them, but we kept giving them a short field. Had we not played well, they would have beaten us 60-0.&uot;

While the Rams have newcomers up front, most of the players have some size advantage on the under-sized Chiefs, who are short in the numbers game. But the biggest thing nagging Tensas right now is turnovers after throwing three interceptions and losing two fumbles to Tallulah last week.

&uot;When they’ve got a 240-pound lineman going up against the 180-210-pound lineman, the bigger kids wins if he’s a good football player,&uot; Jacobs said. &uot;They (WCCA and Tallulah) are almost carbon copies of each other. We can’t turn the ball over and give them a short field. We’ll have to make them work for what they get.&uot;

Bowling Green at Centreville

The Tigers continue District 4-AA play at home Friday when they host the Buccaneers after kicking off district last week with a 29-0 win over Brookhaven.

Bowling Green comes in after losing its district opener last week to Columbia, 21-13.

CHA at Riverfield

Chamberlain-Hunt is in search of its first win Friday when they travel to Riverfield. The Wildcats were blanked 39-0 last week at home to Central Hinds in the District 3-AA opener for their 14th straight loss dating back to last season.