Heritage Academy football coach Sean Harrison said his team has one main aim in mind for Friday’s home opener against Kirk Academy: fixing the mistakes the Patriots made last week.
In a 41-13 loss at Jackson Prep on Aug. 21, Heritage Academy occasionally lost focus and was prone to unnecessary worries, Harrison said. That led to poor route-running and missed blocks and tackles, and multiple mental mistakes.
But that has to be cleaned up this week against a Kirk team Heritage Academy beat 43-7 last fall in Grenada en route to the Patriots’ undefeated year, Harrison said.
“Especially here early in the season, the opponent doesn’t matter,” Harrison said. “We’ve got to continue to get better.”
Kirk went 4-7 last season and lost this year’s season opener 36-0 to Carroll Academy, but Harrison said he saw some promise in the Raiders’ film from that game. Kirk runs a spread offense similar to Heritage Academy’s with a run-pass split of approximately 50/50, and former Pillow Academy assistant Mike Beagle was hired as the Raiders’ new head coach this offseason.
Harrison recalled that Kirk had a large sophomore crop last season but doesn’t know how many players the Raiders have lost. No matter what, he knows the Patriots can’t take Friday’s game lightly.
“They’ve got a good-looking team,” he said of Kirk.
Hebron Christian (0-1) at Calhoun Academy (0-1)
Hebron Christian School coach David Foster knows his team didn’t play up to its potential in last Friday’s season opener against Marvell Academy (Arkansas).
“We didn’t block real well, we didn’t tackle real well, and we didn’t run very well at times,” said Foster, who admitted the Eagles’ 32-6 loss was a “group effort” in which he was involved, too.
Foster also knows that Hebron (0-1) can’t play like that again Friday when it faces Calhoun Academy (0-1) on the road in Calhoun City.
Calhoun, which lost 42-0 to Lee Academy (Arkansas) last week, isn’t a district opponent for Hebron. But a win would even the Eagles’ record and give them “power points,” which go toward playoff seeding. With district competition starting next week at home against Ben’s Ford Christian (Louisiana), Foster said Hebron needs improvement now.
“We really need to kind of polish ourselves up before we get that district play going,” he said.
A good week of practice has the coach optimistic Hebron can handle Calhoun — the two teams’ rosters are roughly the same size — if the Eagles can maintain that energy Friday night.
“We’ve just got to take that from the practice field and put it on the football field for game time,” he said.
Hebron has just 16 players, including two ninth graders and an eighth grader, so it’ll be up to the Eagles’ seven seniors to execute like they couldn’t last week, Foster said.
Will that happen? Foster thinks so, but he can’t be sure.
“We’ll find out Friday night,” he said.
Alabama: Coosa Valley Academy (1-0) at Pickens Academy (1-0)
Ask anyone on the Pickens Academy (Alabama) football team last year, coach Scotty Pennington said, and they’d give the same answer: The Pirates’ attitude and mindset were lacking, and stringing four solid quarters together was rare.
“They struggled with putting out that effort through a whole game,” Pennington said.
It’s a big reason why Pickens went 2-9 last season, Pennington’s first as head coach. But last Friday, in a 41-40 season-opening win over Banks Academy, the Pirates reversed that trend, opening up a big early lead and hanging on for the victory.
“That win last week, even though it was a close one, it was huge for our guys,” Pennington said.
Now, the Pirates have a chance to start 2-0, which would already match last year’s win total.
On Friday, Pickens hosts Coosa Valley Academy (1-0), which played eight-man football last year after falling short of the number of players required to join the Pirates in the Alabama Independent School Association. The Rebels beat Hooper Academy 45-6 last week, but Pennington said his opponent’s roster is still fairly thin beyond its starters.
Last week, Chandler Box rushed for 94 yards, and Lane Goodman went for 80, allowing the Pirates to get their passing game into gear. Pennington said he hopes quarterback Aidan Johnson, who threw for three scores last week, will have a chance to do so again.
“If it opens up and we can throw it around some, we’re sure going to do it,” the coach said.
If Pickens can pull off a repeat performance successfully, the Pirates will head into Week 3 with a 2-0 record.
“It’d be big for us,” Pennington said. “It’d get us moving in the right direction.”
Other games
Delta Streets Academy at Columbus Christian Academy
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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