Trojans face tough test at Hampton
After four weeks of dress rehearsals, the curtain officially rises on the race for the 8-2A crown tonight with one of the more intriguing rivalries the league has to offer, as Parkers Chapel and Hampton collide.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. from Hampton.
The series has been one of the most competitive in the conference with the Trojans holding a 6-5 edge in the series.
However, Hampton has won the last two meetings, and the Bulldogs will try to become the first team to win three straight games in the series.
Interestingly, home-field advantage has meant little in the series with the road team winning nine of the 11 contests.
Hampton (1-1) enters on a high note having topped 4A rival Star City 28-7 last week, while Parkers Chapel (1-2) was downed by Mayflower 52-8.
In last year’s meeting, the Bulldogs had 369 of their 412 yards of total offense come on the ground in a 35-12 road victory, and Parkers Chapel coach Jacob Midyett said Hampton’s balance in the backfield will be difficult to contend with.
“They do a really good job of running their offense,” Midyett said. “They’re a flexbone team, and they really don’t have one kid that just stands out, they’re all really, really good. There’s no one that’s going to go for 300 every night, but they have three or four kids that will get you exactly what you want out of a running back out of that offense.
“They’re big up front both offensively and defensively. Their offensive line is a little more athletic than just brute strength. They do a good job of playing really physical. You know they are going to come out and try to hit you in the mouth and continue to do that as much as possible.”
In the win over Star City, four different players scored touchdowns with three rushing for over 50 yards.
Browning Welch, a senior, had 97 yards and a score on 11 carries to
lead the way.
D.D. Stephens, also a senior, added 55 yards and a touchdown on eight carries, while sophomore Ja’quez Cross had 11 carries for 52 yards with a touchdown.
Senior Tre Murphy also scored while adding 28 yards on four carries.
Hampton’s defense turned in a terrific performance, holding Star City to under 200 yards of total offense.
“They run a 4-3,” Midyett said. “They do a good job of staying in their rush lanes. They really don’t bring a ton of pressure, but when you’ve got the four guys they’ve got up front, you really don’t have to. Kade Pennington and Desmond Brow are both big boys that are athletic and move well. They’re hard to block, so you have to contain them up front long enough to make things happen.”
The Trojans trailed 16-8 in the second quarter against Mayflower when junior quarterback Caleb Jacobs left the game after taking a hit, and Midyett said he is taking a wait-and-see approach on his status for tonight’s game.
“He got a little banged up, but he seemed to be moving fine,” Midyett said. “He tried to come back in, but we left him out for precautionary reasons. We’ll see.”
With Jacobs out, third-string quarterback Preston Stivender came on to run the offense.
“There was definitely a little deer in the headlights,” Midyett said. “We joked around with him earlier in the fall about him being the third-string quarterback, and honestly, we haven’t worked him a ton because we had two in front of him. We made a last-minute decision to sit Trace (Shoup) Friday night, and then Caleb went down, so he had to jump in. He did a good job. He got us lined up and did what he could.”
An area of concern stemming from the loss to the Eagles for Midyett is the defense.
“We were out of position a lot of times,” Midyett said. “We continue to preach that week in and week out about doing the assignment and being in the right alignment. It really showed last week. Just one guy being out of position, that gave him a lane and they took advantage of it.”
With the conference season now set to start, Midyett said he is ready to put last week’s loss to Mayflower behind him.
“The season is really broken down into three parts,” Midyett said. “You’ve got your non-conference, and I don’t want to say they’re practice games, but coming from Louisiana where everything counts and it’s a power ranking system, the non-conference in Arkansas is just practice games. It doesn’t count for anything. It doesn’t affect anything what you do at the end of the season. It’s really just tune-ups.
“Now we’re in the part of the season where what we do in this part determines if we get a third part or not. We’ve just got to get over it. We didn’t play well. We weren’t happy with what happened, but at the end of the day, we can’t change it now. We have to move on and get ready for Hampton.”
If the Trojans are to pick up a road victory, Midyett said his team must avoid miscues and not allow Hampton’s offense to have big plays.
“We’ve got to limit mistakes offensively and limit big plays defensively,” Midyett said. “We’ve got to make them drive the field, create turnovers and capitalize when they do turn it over.”