No. 1 vs. No. 2

Published 12:00 am Friday, November 10, 2006

After weeks of talk, the game the Miss-Lou has waited for all season has arrived.

Trinity will host Huntington tonight a 7 p.m. in a game that will pit the Nos. 1 and 2 teams in the latest Clarion-Ledger MPSA Class A poll.

The general consensus throughout the area has been that Huntington may have a few more athletes, but Trinity&8217;s Stevan Ridley may be able to make up for that difference.

Email newsletter signup

Stopping Ridley &8212; or, at the very least, slowing him down &8212; will be at the top of the mind of Huntington head coach Chad Harkins.

&8220;We&8217;re going to try to do a good job of tackling (Ridley),&8221; Harkins said. &8220;We want everybody flying to the ball. We want to contain him. We don&8217;t expect to stop him. He&8217;s going to get his yards. He has the utmost respect from me.

&8220;We just want to play sound enough defensively to slow him down.&8221;

Trinity head coach David King said the No. 1 Hounds would give them plenty of trouble on offense.

&8220;They have a lot of athletes and a lot of weapons,&8221; King said. &8220;Nobody has been able to stop them on offense. They&8217;re probably a little bit bigger and quicker than we are. They&8217;ll score some points.&8221;

With both teams sporting incredibly strong offenses, the key may come down to who can stop the other one more.

&8220;I think, outside of one bad half against Central Private, our defense has played pretty well all season,&8221; King said.

&8220;I think we&8217;re more physical. I think it is going to come down to who can be more physical at the line of scrimmage and who can force some turnovers and limit mistakes.&8221;

Harkins agreed, and said he didn&8217;t foresee either team making many changes.

&8220;We&8217;re going to dance with what brought us here,&8221; he said. &8220;We&8217;re 8-0, and the things we&8217;ve done offensively and defensively have worked pretty well. We&8217;ll just see how it goes.&8221;

If things don&8217;t go well for Huntington, it certainly won&8217;t be for lack of preparation, as Harkins put in plenty of scouting work for the Saints.

&8220;That&8217;s something we do every week,&8221; Harkins said. &8220;We always spend plenty of time on film. We did a little bit more, but it&8217;s nothing out of the ordinary. We always have a six or seven page scouting report. We scouted them pretty well, and I think you have to do that to win.&8221;

King reiterated his belief that physicality would win this game.

&8220;They may be a little bigger than us on the lines, but we&8217;re just going to have to be more physical up front,&8221; he said.

&8220;We&8217;re going to have to put more people up there and be tough when we get there.&8221;