By Jason Avery
News-Times Staff
For the first time in nearly a month, Parkers Chapel will be playing in front of its home fans.
Tonight, the Trojans host Fordyce in an 8-2A showdown featuring two of the top quarterbacks in the league.
Game time is set for 7 p.m. from Victor Nipper Stadium.
In addition, it is also homecoming for the Trojans (1-4, 0-2), who have lost three straight, but played well last week in a loss at Bearden.
Fordyce (4-2, 2-0) has recovered nicely from an 0-2 start by winning four straight.
Both schools are led by quarterbacks who can make big plays in a variety of ways in Fordyce sophomore Jaheim Brown and Parkers Chapel junior Caleb Jacobs.
Although the schools have squared off against one another in other sports, tonight is their first-ever meeting on the gridiron.
“Very athletic. They have speed in a lot of places,” Parkers Chapel coach Jacob Midyett said of the Redbugs. “They’re very young. Their quarterback and running back last year were both freshmen, and they started a couple of freshmen linemen last year, so they’re sophomores, but they’re really not sophomores. They’re young, but experienced. They kind of go back and forth from Wing-T stuff to spread stuff. You’ve got to pay attention to what they’re lining up to and be able to line up correctly and make sure we play our assignments.”
Brown has been outstanding over the past two weeks, completing 24-of-35 passes for 397 yards with six touchdowns against one interception, but Midyett said their depth makes them tough to defend.
“They’re very similar to Hampton in there’s not going to be one guy who stands out and goes for 150 yards every night,” Midyett said. “It’s going to be three or four guys you have to watch and can hurt you in a lot of different ways.”
Defensively, Midyett said the Redbugs will mix their looks.
“It looks like they’re going to play either a 4-2 or a 3-2,” Midyett said. “They kind of bounce back and forth. They’re athletic. They move around well. They’re going to play a lot of man and try to stick with our guys.”
After being held to just 15 points combined in losses to Mayflower and Hampton, the Trojans’ offense produced last week with Jacobs finishing with over 350 yards of total offense.
“We ran the ball for over 100 yards for the first time all year,” Midyett said. “We did a much better job. We made a couple of changes up front that really helped us. It was good to get some momentum and get clicking.
“It’s a lot better to say that we didn’t finish drives than us going three-and-out and punting a lot of times like we’ve been doing the past few games. It’s also a credit to our competition. Foreman, Hampton and Mayflower were very, very good. We matched up a little better with Bearden, and it showed. We’ve got to build on that, continue the success we had and finish drives this time.”
Midyett was also pleased with the play of his defense, and he is hoping they can build off of their performance from last week.
“I sure hope so,” Midyett said. “I don’t know if it was just a mentality thing or if it was just that they were that much better than us, but the past three weeks, we really haven’t played worth a darn offensively or defensively. Last Friday, we actually showed some life and showed some fight.
“We played very similar to the way we played the first couple of games of the year. Hopefully, we can continue that and get some momentum and play with some energy and life. I think it’s going to really help us out in the long run.”
As far as homecoming is concerned, Midyett said he has spoken with his team about not letting it get in the way of their preparations.
“I think if you ever meet a coach that tells you he’s going to embrace it, he’s a liar,” Midyett said.
“It is a complete distraction. They’ve got floats to build, they’ve got parades and dress-up days. There’s 15 million things that distract them from the task at hand.
“We’ve talked about it already and I’ve told them every day, ‘Homecoming is not for you. The game on Friday is for you. Everything else is for everybody else. You get the game. You get to play in the game. That’s what part of homecoming you get.’”
If the Trojans are to upend the Redbugs, Midyett said his offense must complete drives.
“We’ve got to play like we did Friday,” Midyett said. “We’ve got to be able to shut down their power run.
“We’ve got to finish drives better. We’ve got to come away with points, and honestly, we’ve got to make sure that every drive ends with a kick, whether we’re punting, kicking an extra point or kicking off, we’ve got to end every drive with a kick.”