Lions aim to down Dragons on road

Jessieville is on the road again as the Lions take to the interstate and head to Texarkana to face Genoa Central at Dragon Field tonight.

The Lions (2-3, 1-1 3A-5) are looking to keep their energy up after a successful 57-29 victory at Bismarck last Friday.

“We’re excited,” said Jessieville head coach T.J. Burk. “We’re coming off a big win last week, and we’re trying to keep that momentum for tomorrow night.”

Jessieville limited Bismarck to just 290 yards for the night, but Bismarck struggled to control the visitors, allowing Jessieville to accumulate 621 yards.

Junior quarterback Carson Hair completed 10 of 15 (66.7%) passes for 253 yards with 18 rushes for 214 yards and four touchdowns. Senior Charlie Davis led the receivers corps with four catches for 122 yards and two touchdowns with classmate Landen Daley reeling in three passes for 89 yards with one touchdown.

“Any time you have a quarterback, you hope he’s a leader just by the position on the field,” Burk said. “So we’re looking to him. We’ve got Charlie Davis who’s a senior and Drew Speers, who’s a senior as well. He’s one of our linemen. All three of them are leaders on the field for us.”

The Dragons (3-2, 1-1) were unable to keep the momentum from their conference opening win over Bismarck going as Glen Rose blanked the team on its home field, 42-0.

Genoa Central has plenty of talent, and Burk said their game plan involves “trying to stay as balanced as we possibly can” while also not overlooking junior quarterback Trent Bearden.

“We’ll spread them out and use all parts of the field and make them cover the whole field,” he

explained. “I think it’s going to be a good ball game. They’re really good up front. They’ve got a few skill kids that can make some plays, and it should just be a good high school football game. They’re a little bit more run-oriented than we are, but they’re very good at what they do. They will run the ball and control the clock. If you can’t get them off the field, it can turn into a long night.

The Lions plan to have a complete lineup back on the field tonight.

“We’re pretty good,” Burk said. “We’ve got some bumps and bruises, but everyone should be a go for (tonight).”

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.