Montgomery Catholic may not have been a good pick for a homecoming game, but Straughn head football coach Trent Taylor said his Tigers understand the “task at hand” that awaits on Friday night.

The Tigers will be facing a Knights football team chalk full of transfers from nearby St. Jude Catholic School, which closed at the end of school last year.

Taylor said the Knights (2-3, 1-2 in Class 4A, Region 2) run the ball a lot with a Wing-T offense from the pistol, or gun formation.

“They do a good job of it,” he said.

The Knights’ only region losses came to St. James and Ashford. St. James topped Catholic 21-14 on its last drive of the game, and Ashford took advantage of some turnovers and ran right at them in a 55-6 win.

“I’m sure they’re a team who would love to play either one of those guys again,” Taylor said.

The special thing about a Wing-T team is that it runs like an option-oriented offense, the coach said.

“You’ve got to be real disciplined and got to be real assignment conscious,” Taylor said. “There are so many things going on in the back field that your eyes don’t come to see if you don’t focus on your keys.”

Film study on Monday gave the Tigers a good look at the Knights, Taylor said. In fact, it was the first day of the season that Straughn didn’t practice in full pads and as a unit.

Taylor said the offense studied film for 45 minutes while the defense did some outside work. At the end of the 45 minutes, both swapped.

“Last Friday night was a physical football game,” the coach said about his Tigers’ 28-6 win over Beauregard. “They ran to the ball and they were big up front both offensively and defensively.

“We felt like right now (Monday’s practice) was probably the best thing to do,” he said. “We talked to our kids about that. This was not a reward because it was homecoming. The limited practice was given because it was a matter of trying to be smart.”

During last week’s win over BHS, the Tigers played an all-around good game defensively, except for one blip.

SHS held BHS at the 1-inch line and then drove it 99 yards the other way.

In the second half, the Tigers (4-1, 2-1) threw the ball more because their run game was non-existent in the first 24 minutes.

“We were able to get some things going in the passing game,” Taylor said. “That eventually led to opening some things up for us throwing. We feel good about the job that our five or six guys are playing in three different receiver spots.”

Taylor added that the offensive line, which was graded the highest this year for last week’s performance, has given senior quarterback Rollin Kinsaul good protection all year long.

“He’s become more comfortable,” Taylor said. “There were a lot of confidence builders (for the team as a whole) from that game.”

Kick off Friday night is at 7.