Business as usual

There hasn’t much that’s kept Charleston from doing what it set out to do before the season started.

The Tigers have been business-like in their approach, and it’s shown.

“Morale is real high right now,” Charleston Coach Ricky May said. “The excitement is there, but they were excited anyway before the season started. And now, to go through nonconference play sitting at 3-0, it’s right where we wanted to be at this point.”

Charleston breezed through its first two games but needed a late touchdown last week to beat Franklin County rival Ozark. Quarterback Brandon Scott threw a 53-yard touchdown pass to Reese Merechka with 23 seconds left to seal a 31-28 victory. The eventual game-winner capped another solid outing for Scott, who finished with 182 yards passing to go along with 70 yards rushing. The junior was an all-state selection last season after contributing 33 touchdowns.

The Tigers will have to switch gears Friday when they host Greenland (1-1), a team that May said gives them fits consistently.

The Pirates lost its opener to Elkins, but like Charleston, rallied in the final seconds to beat Berryville last week.

“Coach [Lee] Larkan and his staff do an awesome job,” he mentioned. “They’re always well prepared, and we know we’ve got to be prepared. Beating a rival last week was good, but we’ve got to forget about that because it’s over. For us, we kind of split the season up into three seasons.

“I told them that the preseason part is now over, and the conference season is the one we’ve been waiting on. So now we’re ready to go.”