They say to never judge a book by its cover.
Thus far, the ledger for Haynesville (La.) shows a team that enters this week’s clash with Junction City without a win to its credit.
However, the Golden Tornado annually rank as a contender for Louisiana’s Class 1A state title, and they have exactly one season with fewer than 10 wins dating back to 2008.
Tonight, the border rivals renew acquaintances with Haynesville seeking their fourth win in five years over the Dragons, while Junction City looks to extend its home winning streak to 18 straight.
Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. from David Carpenter Stadium.
The Golden Tornado (0-2) have suffered losses at the hands of North Webster (La.) and Minden (La.).
The Dragons (1-1) enter off a bye week that followed a 42-18 win over Smackover.
For Junction City coach Brad Smith, this week has been spent on making sure his team doesn’t get fixated on Haynesville’s record.
“Exactly. They’re Haynesville. We were 1-2 last year and the next person that got us thought they were getting something easy and found out differently,” Smith said. “They’re embarrassed at their record. They’re not used to their record, and they’re going to find every ounce of their ability to come out and play. They’re going to circle the wagons and load up for bear and do what they do.”
Minden, a Class 4A school, topped Haynesville 34-7 last week.
“Minden looked like a college team. They were some kind of talented,” Smith said. “They fought and fought. Minden is huge, and they just kept fighting and fighting. When they scored a touchdown, you could see the excitement was there even though they were losing. They’re Haynesville. They play extremely hard and they’re extremely well-coached. They’re going to be a very tough challenge for us.”
One name to watch is senior lineman CamRon Jackson, who has verbally committed to LSU.
“He’s got the God-given size. He’s 6-6, 280-plus,” Smith said of Jackson. “He’s got good feet, and you can tell he’s been in the weight room. When he gets his paws on you, it’s over. He has good pad level. He’s the one that gets excited at things. That’s something we noticed a couple of times. A big play would happen, and he gets excited. He loves to play football. LSU got themselves a good one there.”
So how will the Dragons try to slow down Jackson?
“We just tell our guys that people are going to be watching him, so there’s your opportunity to get on the map,” Smith said. “He is your opportunity. Whether you take advantage of it is up to you. He is your opportunity to get some recruiters.”
The two schools share a similarity in that they are both young squads with the Golden Tornado having just five seniors on their roster.
“They’re definitely young,” Smith said. “It showed in the first game. It was very un-Haynesville like, but if they had played like they did against Minden in Week 1, they would be 1-1. You have the jitters and new kids that hadn’t played a lot, and they made just enough mistakes to lose. Minden is loaded for bear talent-wise, and they fought them tooth and nail. Everything that Minden got, they earned.”
The Dragons’ defense will be pitted against Haynesville’s Wing-T, an offense that they haven’t seen much of since returning to the 2A ranks.
“You don’t get to see much of it in 2A, but we saw a bunch of it in 3A,” Smith said. “You just get used to what you have to read, where you have to position yourself and what to expect from them.
“It’s misdirection, angle blocks, and you’ve got to be key sound. If you’ve got a key, you have got to stay on that key. It is designed to split you. It is designed to divide you. Read what your keys are and go to it and you’ll end up at the ball. That happened several times (in practice), and when we chased ghosts, we got burned. I think we learned quite a bit as we put everything in.”
Smith said the Dragons spent their bye week getting back to work on the basics.
“Fundamentals,” Smith said. “We worked a lot of offensive line drills, getting our pads down and worked on ball security. We cut our fumbles in half, but still, the half we cut them to is way too many. We worked on tackling, pad level, hand placement, all the things you get a chance to do, plus we kind of understand what Haynesville is going to do, so we kind of looked at their offense a little bit.”
If the Dragons are to prevail, Smith said they must avoid mistakes.
“It’s the same old, same old,” Smith said. “We’ve got to protect the football, have no stupid penalties and be very aggressive. Dictate, don’t be dictated to.
“We got dictated to in the first half of (Harmony) Grove, and it showed. I thought we dictated pretty much except for about a four-minute span against Smackover, and they got 12 points in those four or five minutes. You set the tone physically, emotionally, all of these things. Your the boss. Don’t react, act.”