The Blytheville Chickasaws head to Paragould Friday night to take on the Greene County Tech Golden Eagles.
Blytheville (2-3, 1-1 5A-East) is coming off a huge, 12-7, win over the Nettleton Raiders. The win stopped a three-game losing streak for the Chicks who also ended a 10-quarter scoreless streak in the process.
Greene County Tech (1-4, 0-2 5A-East) is coming off a 48-14 road loss to the Wynne Yellowjackets. The Eagles are in the midst of their own three-game skid and haven't won since their week two win over 3A Rivercrest.
The last time the Chicks made the trip to Tech, Blytheville appeared to have won the game on a dramatic Kyle Walker touchdown as time expired in 2010. However, the Chicks were called for a highly-questionable penalty and Tech escaped with a 13-8 win on their Homecoming.
"We have a history of not playing well up there," said Chicks head coach Vince McCrosky. "That may be our biggest challenge of all."
The stage is very similar to the 2010 game. Both squads came in with 1-1 league records on homecoming night at Tech. While the Eagles have yet to win a league game this year, McCrosky said the sentiment is the same.
"We want to be homecoming wreckers," said McCrosky. "When someone schedules you for their homecoming game, that means they think they can beat you."
Tech will be the third "Spread" offense team in a row that the Chicks will face.
"They're a lot like Nettleton," said McCrosky. "They are well-coached. They are good at changing formations and they love to throw the screen."
The Tech offense is lead by quarterback Dylan Hartwig. "He's dangerous," McCrosky said. "If you play too aggressive on defense for the screen, he'll beat you over the top."
Offensively, the Tech is putting up some good numbers averaging 29 points a game. Hartwig threw three touchdowns against 4A powerhouse, Highland, in a 48-40 loss. But their defense is giving up over 42 including 69 on opening night to Jonesboro.
Defensively, the Eagles play out of a familiar 3-3 stack.
"They like to blitz a lot. They'll come at you and come at you. Our guys just need to be patient on offense. Sometimes they'll (Tech) blitz right and sometimes they'll blitz wrong. We have to take advantage of the times they blitz wrong."
While only scoring 12 points against Nettleton last Friday night, coach McCrosky sees a lot of improvement in his offense that was shut out three straight games.
"I feel the offense is coming around. We saw some glimpses of that last Friday night. We have to come out stronger in the second half. We haven't executed four whole quarters this year. I think a lot of that gets back to conditioning. I know I keep saying it but that's where the short summer has really hurt us. We can't just do conditioning at the end of practice and expect to be ready to play hard for four quarters. It has to be year round. We also need to do a better job of getting fresh players in if we're not going to be in the best shape."
Health wise, Blytheville shouldn't have anyone miss Friday's game because of injury.
"We're a little banged up," said McCrosky. "But that happens this time of year. No one's going to miss Friday though."
The Chicks rushing attack is averaging 4.6 yards a game and when they hold on to the ball, they have been effective. They turned the ball over six times in two games against Little Rock Mills and Wynne. They didn't turn the ball over in their two wins against Osceola and Nettleton.
afitzpatrick@blythevillecourier.com