Dragons ready for Bears
Tonight marks the formal end of an era and the start of another in Junction City football.
David Carpenter, who retired from coaching at the end of the 2016 season, will be honored by having the stadium where he watched the Dragons make winning a matter of routine named after him.
But Friday night also marks the debut of Steven Jones as the Dragons’ head coach.
Jones, who played for Carpenter and won state titles in both football and baseball during his playing days, was hired in January to take over.
Tonight, Jones leads the Dragons against archrival Bearden to open the 2017 season.
Game time is set for 7:30 p.m. from Junction City.
“It’s a special night because they’re renaming the field to David Carpenter Stadium, so it’s really been pretty easy for the football guys to fly under the radar this week and just really prepare,” Jones said.
The Dragons and Bears have staged some epic clashes over the years, and Jones believes the Bears have the opportunity to be in the thick of the 8-2A race.
“They return a pretty athletic team from last year,” Jones said. “On the defensive side of the ball, they’ve got some good skilled guys that move around really well. They have some depth
in their secondary. They’ve got four or five guys that will rotate in and out on that back end that can really play. Up front, we match up well with them, so we’re anxious to get out there and get after it.”
With Bearden's secondary a major strength of their defense, what the Dragons will do in passing situations will be a something to keep a close eye on.
“I think it’s a pretty good matchup. I don’t think there’s really a concern there,” Jones said. “They matchup well with us, but as far as how much we throw the ball, that will be dictated by the weather, so we’ll have to wait and see.”
Junction City's wide receivers seem to be rounding into form.
After a solid performance in their scrimmage at Harmony Grove last week, Jones believes he has some depth at that spot, and he is eager to see what quarterback Shuvasceiaye Frazier can do.
“Shuvasceiaye Frazier has improved every day at quarterback, and we’re excited to see what he does on the offensive side of the ball,” Jones said.
“We’ve had a couple of guys step up at receiver in Taylon Dixon and Tykeon Hollidy, so we’re hoping to add some depth on that side of the ball.”
Against the Hornets, Jones was happy with the play of the offense, and he added that the team has focused more on conditioning since playing last week.
“Offensively, we came out and were really sharp early,” Jones said. “I felt like our tempo was a lot better than we had our intersquad scrimmage. We’ve had about 10, 11 days to prepare, and we’ve worked on our conditioning a little bit.”
Although it has rained for much of the week, Jones said the Dragons will be ready for any weather conditions.
“We don’t really try to change anything up as far as what goes on when we’re out there at practice,” Jones said.
“We try to stay in a routine. We might do some different drills, but we’ll be ready for any kind of weather this week.”
For Jones, he believes the Dragons' offense must have big plays.
“We’ve got to make explosive plays on offense,” Jones said. “We’re looking for plays of 12 yards or more. We’ve got to win the turnover battle. The rivalry is a big deal in South Arkansas.
“We expect a good crowd to be there. It’s two good teams getting ready to kick off the season. We’ll be ready to play. It’s not tough to get up to play your rival.”