WOODVILLE — After starting the season with a 30-0 win on the road at ACCS, the WCCA Rams now turn their attention to MPSA District 6-A action when they take on Huntington today at 7 p.m.

“We had some OK practice. We’ve had rain Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday was church night, so we had to get out early,” WCCA head coach Sam Byrd IV said.

Byrd added that the players on the team need to put last week’s win behind them and focus on Huntington, still ranked No. 2 in Class A despite a tough 20-13 loss to Class AA Central Private last Friday.

Last year on Oct. 6 in a key District 7-A game at Huntington, the Hounds had 425 rushing yards – 177 of those by running back Jody Cottongin, who scored four touchdowns in a 55-32 win over the Rams.

However, Cottongin did not have that kind of performance against Central Private last Friday night as he was held to just 51 yards rushing on 10 carries by a swarming Rebels defense.

But as Huntington head coach Chad Harkins said, the Hounds tried to spread the ball around as fullback Josh Lee and wingback Martez Tolliver each had almost as many carries as Cottongin did. But two fumbles inside the Rebels’ 20-yard line hurt their cause.

“We’ve got a pretty good fullback and a pretty good wingback. We had some success, but we weren’t able to hold on to the football,” Harkins said. “I think he (Cottongin) will get the ball a little more this week. The other guys had seven or eight touches.”

“He did well at the 100-meter dash at State this spring. We’ll do our best to keep up with him,” Byrd said about Cottongin. “Anytime you get a kid to average over five yards a carry, you usually win. But that wasn’t the case. We’ll have a couple of guys on him all night.

“We’re trying to stop their speed. They have some real fast men that run the football. We’ve been working on assignments.”

Harkins said that his team’s offense will stick with what it does, and that’s run the football as long as it can eliminate the turnovers. The Hounds will throw the ball a few times as well.

Offensively, Byrd hopes his team will continue to have success running the ball like it did against ACCS. The Rams scored all four of their touchdowns and racked up 268 yards on the ground.

“We believe that’s our strength, so we’ll continue with it,” Byrd said. “Trumaine Norwood had two touchdowns and 34 yards, but he had two long runs called back. Corey Havard had over 100 yards rushing. Justin Davis had 86 yards and (quarterback) Cody Cullen had 68 yards.”

Havard also scored two touchdowns for WCCA, both in the second half, including a 70-yard run in the fourth quarter.

“They play extremely hard,” Harkins said. “They’re on cloud nine after beating their old coach (Paul Hayles) at ACCS. They have a good quarterback. Their line gets after it. They’re going to get at us for four quarters. Hopefully, we’ll stay on the field with them.”

Byrd knows that Harkins will have his team ready to play and put the memory of last week’s loss out of their minds.

“Huntington is the top team in district. I know they’ll be ready to go after their first win of the year. We’ve just got to get out there and get after it,” Byrd said. “This is a big district game for (our) kids. This is our season now.”