Genoa hosts familiar foe Spring Hill

GENOA, Ark.—The first impression is what you always remember.

David Clark and Buddy Ray are both first-year head coaches at their schools and set to face off at Dragon Stadium, as Spring Hill travels to Genoa Central, with kickoff slated for 7 p.m.

“We played much better last week,” Genoa Central head coach Buddy Ray said. “The kids bounced back from a hard opening loss and played well. Spring Hill has a very good ball club, they’re very big. The one thing that worries me is their size.

“The run an unconventional offense and you really have to be disciplined to stop. I’m looking forward to a good ball game. I think we’ll play well, plus we’ve had a good week of practice.”

The Dragons fell in their season opener to Gurdon, bouncing back to blank Lafayette County, 17-0.

The Bears only loss this season came against Conway Christian.

“We’ve had a good week of practice leading up to this game,” Spring Hill head coach David Clark

said. “I know we played them last year and ended up beating them by one point. I know they have a new head coach. I’ve read some that the community is excited for him to be the head coach. Of course, I’m the new head coach at Spring Hill.

“I know we’ll be running a different offense than we ran last year and I’m sure they’ll run a different offense than what they ran last season. It’s just a case of who has the kids that want it the most and the coach that’s most prepared. Hopefully, the weather won’t play a factor into it or anything like that.”

Spring Hill owns the overall series with Genoa Central, 5-2-1.

“Last week, we did a much better job of helping our defense out by controlling the ball a little bit,” Ray said. “We didn’t have as many turnovers and we’re just hoping to carry that over to tonight. We want to play good ball control offense and not put our defense in hard situations.

“Our defensive line and linebackers have played really well for us,” Ray said. “We need to focus on executing our overall offense, cut out the turnovers and play for good field position.”

Genoa Central has given up 35 total points to opponents this season, while score 16 points.

The Bears have scored 12 points this season, while giving up 82 points to opponents thus far.

“If we go in and capitalize off their mistakes, I think we have a good chance of winning,” Clark said. “I think we have a good game plan going in. We run the single-wing formation on offense. I don’t really think we have to do anything different on defense.

“You don’t want to show more than you have to in nonconference. This is a ground and pound offense, you won’t have much success in any offense if you have turnovers. We have to cut down on the mistakes.”