With a much steeper hill to climb this week, the Greenwood Bulldogs have put their season-opening win over Wilkinson County behind them.
Well, almost.
"The one thing we'll carry out of that game is the character and fight our young guys showed," GHS head coach Jeff Gibson said of his team's 28-12 season-opening victory. "Wilkinson County scored first and was driving for another score when we got a key stop. Then we responded on offense. Our guys showed a lot of perseverance."
Things will be much tougher this week against Yazoo City, which opened its season with a 26-7 victory over Humphreys County last week. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. Friday at Greenwood's Bulldog Stadium.
"Yazoo City is a pretty good team, maybe not quite as strong as they were last year, but much better than Wilkinson County," Gibson said. "We are excited to play a team of their caliber. Playing a perennial playoff team helps us with the maturation of our program."
Tamarcus Grayson scored three of the Indians' four touchdowns on runs of 1, 3 and 44 yards.
The Indians use a spread attack, Gibson said, in an effort to isolate one-on-one matchups with their skill players.
"They make you defend the whole field. They use a lot of different sets and motion to create confusion. Our guys will have to win those one-on-one battles with good open field tackling to slow them down," he explained. "This has been a very productive offense for them over the last few years."
The Bulldogs hope to keep the Indian offense off the field as much as possible by controlling the ball with its offense. That means senior Terrence Jones will likely get plenty of carries. He was the bell cow for the Bulldogs last week with 20 carries for 132 yards and one touchdown. He also had two catches for 22 yards, including one for a TD.
"It's hard to score when their offense is on the sidelines, so we want to keep their great athletes off the field by controlling the ball and the clock," Gibson said.
The Bulldog offense, led by junior quarterback Jeremy Collins, will face a defense that is bolstered by one of Mississippi's top defensive players in senior Fletcher Cox. The 6-foot-4, 240-pounder had 103 tackles and 11 sacks last year as the Indians posted an 8-3 record. He committed to play for Mississippi State in May.
The Bulldogs have not let this week's wet weather keep them from practicing outside.
"It's either going to be wet or raining Friday, so we've got to be ready to face those kind of elements. We want to be a hard-nose, physical football team," Gibson said.
