The Gosnell Pirates will try to get on the winning track this Friday night against the Kennett, Mo. Indians.
Last year at this time, the Pirates were in a similar situation. Coming off of a physical loss to Dollarway, the Pirates bounced back with an impressive 62-34 win over the Indians.
The Pirates (0-1)are once again trying to bounce back from a physical loss at Dollarway and hope to repeat last year's performance against the Indians.
"We just need to do things right," said Pirate head coach Brian Sims referring to the Dollarway loss. "They were a big and physical club. If they stay together, that team's got a chance to go a long way this year."
Kennett comes into the game with an 0-2 record. They lost to Charleston, Mo, 27-22 in their first game of the year and were routed, 47-7 by Caruthersville, Mo. last week.
The Indians return with quarterback Adam Grantham. Grantham put up some big numbers against the Pirates last year. He passed for 387 yards and four touchdowns and completed 27 of his 53 attempts. 230 yards came in the second half.
"He (Grantham) knows how to throw and run," said Sims. "He has great touch on the ball and is extremely athletic. He throws well enough to cause problems."
The Gosnell defense found an answer to those problems last year sacking the quarterback eight times and picking him off once. They'll need a similar effort to keep the Indians from putting up a lot of points.
Gosnell got some good production from the secondary last week during parts of the game at Dollarway.
"Marquell Clark did an excellent job," said Sims after the game. "He did what we asked him to do and he keeps getting better."
Clark and the rest of the secondary will need to cover the Indian receivers long enough to force Grantham out of their spread offense.
Defensively, the Indians stick to a basic 4-4 coverage.
"No matter what set the other team gets into, they'll stay in that 4-4," said Sims.
Sims feels that his team has improved upon the mistakes they made against the Cardinals this week in practice.
"We've cleaned some things up," he said. "We just need to do things the right way."
As for injuries, the Pirates appear to be in better shape than last week with Gavin Sullivan and Farontae Royster being closer to 100 percent.
Jordan Fells should be at full strength and linebacker Ethan Bryant should be able to suit up for the first time since suffering an injury in the Blue vs. Gold game back in August.
Note: Gosnell has not lost back-to-back games since losing to Osceola and Newport in consecutive weeks in 2009.
afitzpatrick@blythevillecourier.com