GOSNELL — The Gosnell Pirates (3-4, 2-2) travel for the second straight week Friday, when they face 4A-3 conference foe the Highland Rebels.
Highland head coach Adam Carter and the Rebels (1-6, 0-4) will come into the matchup with GHS still seeking their first conference win.
Pirates head coach Brandon Barbaree explained that tradition-rich Highland has struggled the last few years but but still plays hard and physical.
“Highland is a very, tradition rich place. The last couple years they have been down but they still play hard and they still play a physical brand of football,” Barbaree said. “They will be a challenge to us. Like I’ve said we haven’t had that complete game of football yet. Hopefully, it happens this week but we need to come out and be prepared and ready to go.”
The Pirates practiced inside the gym Monday with the rainy weather that has been throughout Mississippi County all weekend. Barbaree said the change in practice helps energize the players.
Barbaree explained, “We just stayed inside today since it is more of a walk through day. We usually have pretty good practices in the gym, because it’s a little bit of a change up for them — kind of energizes them — and it is more of a mental day for us anyways. We know the rain is going away and cold isn’t the thing but rain and cold is what gets you. So we made that decision today and had a good practice. Hopefully, we will continue that throughout this week.”
Barbaree added that junior quarterback Brett Barbaree will remain under center Friday against the Rebels.
“Yes, Brett is going to be the starting quarterback. I thought he did a good job at handling the offense, getting us in the right plays, in the right formation, and leading our team,” Barbaree said. “Of course we want to score more points. That ultimately falls more on him and me, but I thought he did a good job of leading us down the field.”
The Pirates were helped out last week with all-state senior running back CaDarius Young’s performance, which included two touchdowns for the Pirates. Also, sophomore Waylon Kuykendall ran really well for the Pirates last week, which Barbaree said is a positive. Junior running back Jy Young will also return to the field Friday night after sitting against the Bearcats last week.
“CaDarius, like I’ve said has been banged up, but he breaks two touchdowns for us last week and actually gets some confidence back,” Barbaree explained. “Devin ran hard. We are going to get to where we need to be. It’s just a grind everyday and hopefully with Jy coming back he will have a good week. Waylon ran really hard last week. So, that’s a positive of watching him. Hopefully, we will have a great week of practice and our guys will come out ready and prepared to run the football.”
The Rebels run a spread offense that is led by senior quarterback Tristan Hudson.
“They really like to throw the ball a lot. Tristan Hudson, quarterback, as a sophomore 1,800 yards passing and over a 1,000 yards running. He was really a scrappy football player, ends up tearing his ACL and MCL last year in the first game, as a junior. So, he’s come back and they are throwing the ball quite a bit,” Barbaree said. “He’s still their leading rusher and still their leading passer. So he’ll give us a lot of challenges because we haven’t seen a lot of teams that will line up and throw the ball at us. Other than that they have a lot of receivers…They have some weapons, we’ve just got to be able to line up and play the way we need to play and we’ll be fine.”
The Pirates defense came up big last week with a goal-line stand on fourth and one in overtime against the Bearcats. Barbaree said this week Hudson will give the Pirates a challenge and he hopes his players will step up.
Barbaree added, “I thought last week, the bend but don’t break was exactly what last week was. The goal-line stands and stopping them inside the 10 two or three times. I thought our kids played hard and played with more energy. It’s going to be the same thing this week. It’s going to be on the road again this week. We need good energy. Great passion. Hudson is going to give us a challenge and hopefully our kids love the challenge and will step up to it.”
The matchup between the Pirates and Rebels is set to kick off at 7 p.m. Friday in Highland.
Follow Joseph Fondren on Twitter, @CN_JosephF, for live game updates.