All five area football teams will be in action this week as the public schools kick off their season.
Newton County heads to Winona to on the defending Class 3A champions while Union will head to Choctaw Central with an almost new offensive unit. Newton will begin the Jeffrey Crosby era as they head to Jackson to take on Lanier, while Lake will host Enterprise and their vaunted wing-T offense. In private school action, Newton will host Delta Streets in 8-man action.
Here’s a look at this week’s games.
Newton County at Winona
Newton County will hit the road to start the season and will get s stiff test from the Tigers.
Winona is coming off a magical season in which the Tigers went 15-0 and beat Noxubee County for the Class 3A state championship. They started that season with a 47-14 win over Newton County last year.
“They are young in some spots but have some dynamic athletes,” Bass said. “They attack the perimeter pretty good on offense with some option stuff. They lost some offense from last year but the kid this year looks a lot like the quarterback from last year. He is pretty dynamic. And they have the big linebacker that everybody is recruiting. So it will be a challenge going up there.”
Union at Choctaw Central
The Yellowjackets will hit the road this week as they make the short trip up Miss. Hwy 15 to take on the Warriors of Choctaw Central.
Last year, the Yellowjackets hung a season-high 61 points on the Warriors.
“They had a scrimmage on Friday night and I sent some coaches to watch it while we had Meet the Yellowjackets,” Union coach Jordan Wren said. “They are big as usual and they have the Ben kid playing quarterback. He’s probably the best athletes in our area. The thing that scares me about him is you can do everything right on defense and he can still go score on you. He will probably be the fastest kid we will see this year.”
Newton at Lanier
The Tigers will hit the road to open the season as they head to Jackson to take on Lanier.
The Class 4A Bulldogs went 3-8 last season after beating Newton 52-32.
First-year Newton coach Jeffrey Crosby knows the Bulldogs will come after the Tigers.
“On defense, I know they will come at us aggressively so we will try to hit them with some play-action passes,” Crosby said. “We are going to try and run the football, that’s a must for us. I think we will have a better shot with setting up passes with the play action because they are going toe so aggressive.On offense, they will be running the Power I and we will have toward on our run-stopping scheme.”
Enterprise at Lake
The Hornets face a tough test to start the season against the Bulldogs and their wing-T offense.
Last year, a young Lake squad lost 21-20 to the Bulldogs, who went on to a 5-6 record on the season.
“That’s one of those games we thought we should have won last year,” Lake coach Tate Hanna said. “I think they are very similar to last year. They are going to be big and physical and are going to be good at what they do. We have to prepared for that wing-T offense. It’s hard to replicate it in practice because they are so good at it. They only throw it four or five times a game but when they do, it gets you. They do a great job and usually win eight or nine games a year. We will have to be physical and be ready to play ball.”
Delta Streets at NCA
The Generals are back at home this week as they host Delta Streets.
Delta dropped down to 8-man football and hasn’t played a game yet this season.
“I have seen a little film on them but not much,” NCA coach Stevie Nelson said. “This will be their first game so I’m hoping that will help us out with time and conditioning. They played in a jamboree and looked like they are very athletic. They called me in the middle of may and said they had to drop down to 8-man this season and wanted to play. I told them I would play but I wouldn’t travel to Greenwood so they agreed to play here.”
