Foster believes Eagles can win with right effort
Hebron Christian School head football coach David Foster was bluntly honest with his team going into this game week.
Foster told his Eagles that they can get a win tonight against Ben’s Ford Christian if they strive to execute and play the best they possibly can.
Hebron defeated Ben’s Ford 22-14 last season down in Louisiana and Foster believes it can do it again.
“I told them you’ve got to go out there and play,” Foster said. “They are capable of doing it. We match up with them well. If we play well and compete, we’ll have a chance to win. If we don’t compete well, we don’t have much of a chance. That’s with anybody.”
Ben’s Ford has to make the long road trip this year with kickoff set for 7 p.m. in Pheba.
Hebron has given up 32 points in each game this season during losses to Marvell (Arkansas) Academy 32-6 and Calhoun Academy 32-14.
Foster did see some improvement in the Eagles overall from week one to week two, but fatigue was still an issue.
“When we get fatigued, we give a little poor effort,” Foster said. “We’ve still got to work on our blocking and work on our tackling. We have plenty to work on, but we did show improvement. We’ve got to do it every play and can’t take plays off.”
Hebron basically has the same team back from last year, except for one player. With 16 players on the roster, Foster is trying to manage the best he can so fatigued won’t be a factor.
“I got them all in the game at some point and time and tried to give some of my big guys a little more breathing time on the sideline,” Foster said. “That seemed to kind of work, but we still need to get more intensity to us. I’m trying to figure out ways to help them. I talk to them about it and they’ve got to tell me things. We’ve worked on conditioning a lot.”
Braeden Triplett scored both touchdowns against Calhoun Academy last week on trap plays and Foster would like to keep getting him the football in various ways. There are some areas where Foster would like to see some improvement from Triplett.
“I’ve just got to get him a little more physical, see things a little quicker and react to things a little quicker on the offensive side,”
Foster said. “He’s come a long way and takes charge. That’s what I’ve been wanting him to do. We’ve just got to become more physical on the offensive side and defensive side.”
Ben’s Ford has split its two decisions this season. After defeating Rebul Academy in the first game 58-21, Ben’s Ford lost to Wilkinson County Christian Academy 60-24 last week.
This will be the first district game of the season for Hebron and Foster knows how important those are.
“I need to win all of the games, but I especially need to win the conference games,” Foster said.
Newton Academy at Oak Hill, canceled
The scheduled game between Oak Hill Academy and Newton Academy tonight was canceled on Thursday.
Cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) emerged at Newton Academy, so the game was called off due to safety concerns.
Oak Hill was trying to get back on the field after a week one loss to Benton Academy and being open last week. The Raiders try again with a road game at Tunica Academy next Friday.