Gordon Central officially starts new era on Friday
A new chapter of Gordon Central football will officially get going on Friday as the Warriors open the regular season at home at Ratner Stadium against Murray County at 7:30 p.m. in head coach Cory Nix’s first game.
The first-year head coach, who took over for David Humphreys back in March, is looking to change the culture and expectations for the Warriors’ program, and Friday’s game will be the first official test in seeing how far they have come in a short amount of time and how far they still need to go. Nix said he and his players are excited and ready to see what Friday night will hold.
“We’re pumped about it,” said Nix. “We can’t wait to go to war on our home field with our fans here behind us. There is a lot of buzz around the campus here. The faculty, teachers, students, players, coaches and community are all pumped up about Friday night. They want to see this culture change that we’ve been talking about. We expect it to be a packed house and great atmosphere to play in on Friday.”
Nix and the Warriors got a small taste of the renewed support from the community last Friday when they traveled to Sonoraville for their preseason scrimmage and the visiting stands were filled to capacity with fans clad in blue, silver and white. Gordon Central dropped the contest 28-0 to the host Phoenix, but the Warriors showed plenty of promise and progress from where they were at the end of 2016’s 0-10 campaign. The Gordon Central defense had a solid night as they went seriesfor-series in the first quarter with Sonoraville before the Phoenix offense put together three scoring drives to lead 21-0 going into the half.
Nix said there is always room for improvement, but just based on how hard his team played, he considered the scrimmage a great first step toward success.
“We nailed it on the head with the mistakes after the game,” said Nix. “We had some contain issues that need to be fixed, but I thought defensively we played well. We need some help from our offense sustaining drives, but at the same time, we didn’t really show much on that side of the ball.
“I was very happy with how we competed. We’ve just got to execute, and we definitely know we’re still not there yet with where we need to be on conditioning. But overall it was a positive night.”
The Warriors’ offense had several players carry the ball in the rushing game, and they rotated Cameron Pierce and Brent Silvar at quarterback during the varsity portion of the scrimmage. Nix said they will continue that same strategy against Murray County.
The first game will be no easy task as the Warriors host a much-improved Murray County team over the past several seasons. The Indians have won four straight over Gordon Central, including a dominant 55-13 victory last year to open the season. Murray County went on to go 6-4 for their first winning season since 2005.
The Indians are led by senior running back Tucker Gregg, who has received some preseason attention on the state level and scored multiple TDs against Gordon Central last year. Nix said his team knows they are in for a challenging night trying to contain Gregg and the Indians attack as a whole.
“They are a tough, physical bunch, and Coach (Chad) Brewer does a good job up there,” said Nix. “He has been there five years now and has really re-established the program. They know how to compete. They have a quarterback that can make plays, and they can really hurt you with smoke screens and bubble screens. But in our opinion, the biggest thing we have to do is shut down their running back, No. 17 (Gregg). We need to hold him to less than 100 yards and not let him control the game. We also need to get some turnovers.
“Defensively, they are mostly 4-3 and play some Cover 3 a lot like we do. We’ve got to execute and get our blocks on the offensive line to move the ball. Our biggest key is just to compete every single play in all three phases. We want to improve from last week, be physical up front and compete no matter what. It doesn’t matter if we are up or down, we have to play with that refuseto-lose mindset.”
Prediction:
While many will look at a 28-0 loss as a failure, it was far from it on Friday night as the Warriors took on Sonoraville in their scrimmage. Gordon Central showed that they are different bunch than the team that lost 10 games a season ago and have only won two games in the last four seasons.
The change will not happen overnight, and Nix, the players and the fans know that. But this Warriors’ team is going to compete hard and turn some heads this season. Expect that to start with a hard-fought contest on Friday in front of a big, energized crowd.
Score: Murray County wins, 24-16.