PLEASANT GROVE @ PITTSBURG
TEAMS: Pleasant Grove Hawks (3-2) at Pittsburg Pirates (0-4)
KICKOFF: 7:30 p.m., Pirate Stadium LAST WEEK: Pleasant Grove fell to Carthage, 35-7. Pittsburg had a bye week.
LAST YEAR: The Hawks stomped the Pirates, 49-19.
GAME FACTS: Pleasant Grove senior running back Logan Johnson leads the team in rushing with 570 yards on 54 carries and seven touchdowns. Nick Martin is the second-leading Hawk rusher with 285 yards on 37 totes and five scores. Pleasant Grove averages 36.8 points per game and gives up 24.4, while the Pirates average 8.8 points per game and give up 23.4 per contest. This is District 8-4A, Div. II opener for each team. The game will be live blogged at www.texarkanagazette.com/pleasantgrove.
COACH’S COMMENTS: Pleasant Grove’s Josh Gibson — “Pittsburg is better than what the record indicates. They’ve had some kids out with Covid, but I think some of those kids will be coming back. They have been playing really good defense. They always play
us well. Coach Baca’s dad is the defensive coordinator and he is a really intelligent guy. He lines up well to the Wing-T offense and makes it tough to get yards. I think their defense will continue to play really well. Their offense has struggled more than their defense. They are well-coached on that side of the ball too.
“We are going to do the same things that we always do. We are going to continue to try to grow and build. We’ve had a lot of success offensively except for one. In that game, we ended up with six players out. We had started that game with four players out. It is hard to overcome injuries, and we’ll have some of those guys out again this week. I think we will take a step and grow. We need to dominate the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. When we do that, we are usually in good shape. We need to be able to throw the football and have success through the air. We didn’t that against Carthage, but we have a chance to correct those errors in order to win and keep growing.”
RADIO: KTRG 94.1 FM, 7 p.m. pregame.