Straughn, Beauregard to clash tomorrow night

There’s a first time for everything.

That’s going to be the case for Straughn tomorrow night as the Tigers play host to Class 5A No. 10 Beauregard in regular-season action.

SHS head football coach Trent Taylor admitted that the Hornets are not a team he would’ve picked to play in the middle of the season.

“People I talked to said that Beauregard would be a good game for us because they lost a lot of kids. If they did, then they’ve put on a lot more,” Taylor quipped. “This is a really good game for us. They’re obviously a complete opposite of what we faced last Friday night with Trinity who is going to throw it.”

Taylor said BHS (3-0) is a rushing football team, and added that it’s going to be good for the Tigers to be able to see both a passing team and running team back to back.

Beauregard’s Quay Wright, a back up quarterback, is starting for the Hornets these days. The Hornets’ starter went down with a foot injury early this season.

“He’s not a typical quarterback,” Taylor said about Wright. “He’s good. He’s very fast and elusive. He’s got a strong arm.”

Leading the charge in the back field are running backs Hunter Feaster and Alizedrian Meniefield.

“They’re more of a power running football team,” Taylor said. “They’re a lot like Ashford was several years ago.”

Expect the Hornets like to run a jet sweep with their runners, Taylor said.

One of the main issues confronting the Tigers this week is playing against a bigger football team.

Taylor said they have big players in the trenches on both sides of the ball, along with a few others in skill positions.

“You can’t change anything we do,” the coach said when asked how one plays against a bigger team. “It’s been a good week. You can kind of take a deep breath because it’s a non-region game. Unless we put ourselves behind the eight ball several weeks ago like we did in region play (in a 10-7 loss to St. James), we’re got to make sure we’re treading water.”

Taylor went on to say that from there, it is a “sigh of relief” to play in a non-region game.

“The other side of that is that as far as I know, they’re going to put the scoreboard on and keep score,” he said. “If we’re going to keep score, then we’ll be in it to win it.”

In the Class 4A, Region 2 race, the Tigers are 2-1 behind Ashford and St. James who are both 3-0.

Taylor said right now with the start of the second half coming up, making sure the team is in a constant state of “improvement” is essential.

“Because it’s a non-region game, we can spend more time working on ourselves,” Taylor said. “We want to get more proficient in the passing department and we’ll try to do some of that this Friday night as well.”

However, Taylor said the Tigers will stick to running the ball this week.

“It’s a good barometer and measuring stick,” he said. “The quality of Beauregard is good. I think from what I can tell that our kids are going to do right. The know they’re playing a team that’s ranked and in a classification above you is always a good thing. I hope we see it as that.”