MANGHAM, La. &045; Careful to choose his words at such an early point in the season, Ferriday head coach James McFarland will tell you this much &045; his Trojans are improved.

How much over the last two seasons remains to be seen. He and his staff felt a little more confident following Friday’s 32-0 mauling of Mangham, but the coach warned it’s only Week 1 despite an evening where the offense clicked both with the run and the pass and the defense allowed only 44 yards total offense and two first downs.

&uot;It’s still too early to tell, but I can tell you this &045; we are a little better than we were last year,&uot; McFarland said. &uot;Not much, but a little.&uot;

As for the players, they may be considerably more confident heading into a Week 2 assignment, and they’re riding a little wave of momentum following a wild ending in their jamboree win over Vidalia last week.

True, the season has just started, and no one knows for sure if this team can go deep in the playoffs as that 2002 team did.

&uot;The level we’re on right now, we can’t be touched,&uot; quarterback Terrence Johnson said. &uot;We’ve got to get on back and practice, play hard and come out with a victory. That’s all we want &045; a victory.&uot;

For now, the Trojans looked good on both sides and controlled the game from the onset. They piled up 394 yards total offense to the Dragons’ 44, scored with a big play while cashing on a couple of drives and allowed only two first downs on defense.

The big key was the offense at the start of the game. By the time the horn sounded on the first quarter, the Trojans led 13-0 thanks to two Montario Tennessee touchdowns and had the ball again.

Tennessee led the team with 98 yards rushing and three touchdowns.

&uot;We came in different formations,&uot; Tennessee said. &uot;And that’s what we did &045; execute. I give all the credit to the offensive line and the coaching staff. Without them, I couldn’t have gotten anything. In the first half, all my runs were within 5 (yards). Coach said to run the ball hard in the second half, and that helped me show what I could do.&uot;

It took the Dragons by surprise a bit, who were on their heels trying to stick with the offense. The Trojans went with some shotgun with splits out wide and some tights sets with Johnson running the option, and it worked well at the start.

Johnson broke a 33-yard run on their first drive to set up Tennessee’s 1-yard run for a score for a 6-0 lead. On the next drive Johnson hit passes of 2, 13 and 10 yards to set up Tennessee’s 5-yard touchdown run for a 13-0 lead at the 2:06 mark.

&uot;We had the same problem last week,&uot; Mangham head coach Paul Shaw said. &uot;We had to adjust to game speed. It happened last week, and it happened again this week. Once we adjusted to the speed of the game, we were more competitive defensively.&uot;

The Trojans came up empty on their drive at the end of the first quarter, but they made up for it on the first play of their next drive. Johnson hit a streaking Alonzo Booth for a 77-yard pass for a score for a 19-0 lead with 11:01 left in the second.

&uot;We tried to be balanced,&uot; McFarland said. &uot;This year it looks like we’ll be able to do that. That’s just what we’re trying to do. We’re going into the game and taking what they give us. We saw that they backed off our receivers, and we tried to throw some passes underneath and then get them in the open field.&uot;

Penalties marred the Trojans’ possessions for the remainder of the first half before Montago Tennessee came up with an interception of a Adam Romero pass on the Dragons’ first drive of the second half.

The Trojans took over at the MHS 40, and a 20-yard connection from Johnson to Dra’Carl Walker set up a Montario Tennessee 18-yard run for a score for a 26-0 lead. Montago Tennessee added a 2-yard run in the fourth for a score.

The Dragons, meanwhile, struggled on the offensive end and couldn’t get anything going. The offense was forced to punt nine times and had one first down in each half.

Each of Romero’s interceptions led to scores. Walker picked off a pass on the Dragons’ first possession and returned it 50 yards for a touchdown before a penalty wiped it off.

Romero connected on only four of 29 pass attempts due to a number of dropped passes.

&uot;It’s tough to be passing team and drop all those balls,&uot; Shaw said. &uot;The timing seemed to be there, but we just dropped too many balls. We can’t do that. Our young guys were dropping them, and our old guys were dropping them. Everybody was dropping them.&uot;

The Trojans’ defense, however, may have set the tone on the Dragons’ first couple drives of the game. They brought hard hits at the start along with the early turnover, and a 24-yard pass from Romero to Donta Smith near the end of the first was the only first down of the half.

The Dragons tried to go a bit more with the run later in the half but couldn’t gain more than four yards. Darius Cain hit Denorrio Smith in the backfield for a 3-yard loss on the first play of Mangham’s second possession.

&uot;We wanted to set the tone defensively,&uot; McFarland said. &uot;That’s what we want to do. We felt we were better than them from the onset. The kids just came on and played.&uot;