Ferriday — Huntington School’s game last Friday against Centreville Academy pitted it on the wrong side of a size disadvantage, as the Hounds lost 56-28.

Huntington assistant coach Matt Mason said he hoped the game served as a learning experience for his team.

“We got out-manned,” Mason said. “They were bigger and more physical. Hopefully we learned from it and it makes us tougher going into play against teams more our size.”

Physical is also a word Mason used to described Tallulah Academy, the team his Hounds (1-2) will host tonight.

“Tallulah will try to run and control the clock,” Mason said. “We’ll have to match them physically and stop their running game.”

Following a game in which the Hounds gave up 484 yards of total offense against Centreville, Mason said a key for his team going forward is improvement on the defensive side of the ball.

“We have to get better defensively,” Mason said. “That’s the biggest thing for us. We feel they’ve prepared and worked hard this week, so hopefully it will show (today).”

On offense, Mason said a key factor in scoring points will be the continued improvement of the Hounds’ young offensive line.

“They’re working hard,” Mason said. “They’re not very big, so they’re having to learn to play hard and use their quickness against bigger guys. They’ve gotten better each will and will continue to get better.”

As they get more experience, Mason said the linemen get closer to when they can no longer be considered “young.”

“They’re not quite to that point yet, but we feel like they’re getting there,” Mason said. “As long as we don’t take steps backwards or just stalemate and don’t improve at all, we’ll be fine.”

Because the running game is the main weapon Tallulah utilizes on offense, Huntington’s practices this week have been geared towards preparing to defend against it.

“We’ve worked hard on stopping the run,” Mason said. “We’re trying to get better linebacker and defensive end play in that regard.”

On offense, Mason said the Hounds will have to depend on their own ground game and learn to eat up time off the clock.

“We have to establish the running game this week,” Mason said. “We can’t keep depending on big plays to score our points. We have to sustain long drives.”