Heritage, Nashville Christian set to lock horns
White House Heritage coach Hunter Hicks won the very first game he coached against the biggest rivalry the Patriots have on their schedule, so you would think it would only get easier from here, right?
Wrong. Heritage will now host last year’s 1-A state champions, Nashville Christian, something that hasn’t gone unnoticed by Hicks.
“When I started watching film of Nashville Christian today, I started getting flashbacks from last year when I was calling plays,” Hicks said laughing. “I found myself getting a little sweaty because their big guys just keep coming and coming and coming.
“They had one linebacker (Daniel Bituli) that went to the University of Tennessee and is still fighting for a starting position as a freshman, but they still have that nose guard (Brant Lawless) and he’s big enough to take out a couple of players. Nashville Christian is one of those teams that doesn’t rebuild after a strong season like last year, they just reload.”
The one encouraging thing that Heritage does have on its side is they were able to limit the potent Nashville Christian offense to just one score last season, something Hicks will be looking to duplicate this year.
“Coach (Scott) Ballard always has a great game plan for the defense, and I have no doubt he’ll have his side of the ball coached up and ready to go Friday night,” Hicks said.
“Hopefully we can limit our mistakes Friday night, but in order to do that we have to come out and play physical on both sides of the ball for a full four quarters.”
Hicks also said his teams needs to work on conditioning and cut down on penalties. The Patriots are going to have to play the same offensive game they played with White House last week, the coach said.
Kickoff for Friday night’s game will be at 7 p.m. at Heritage.