Henry County finds a way to win at South Gibson

Henry County High School senior Norman Duncan splits South Gibson defenders Jack Cunningham (9) and Jonathan Reed (2) as he makes a move on a pass play durin g the Patriots’ 29-7 victory on Friday in Medina. Duncan finished the game with two catches for 8-yards. Henry County gained 217 yards through the air in the contest.

Going on the road to post a 29-7 victory over South Gibson County High School on Friday night in Medina had Henry County High School head coach James Counce Jr. in a good mood when talking about his football team after the game, but he wants his team to up its preparation for this Friday’s contest at Region 7-5A rival Springfield.

“Well, I’m not sure that we were as sharp as we’ve been in some other games. Hot weather caused us to have to change our outdoor preparation this week. I don’t want to make excuses, but maybe that is why we weren’t as sharp at times, but still we played through that situation and found a way to win against a really good football team,” said Counce.

He said the Patriots threw the football well and ran the ball better in the second half while doing a pretty good job of defending the Hornets’ power-based rushing attack. South Gibson was able to give itself good field position with strong kickoff returns and the Patriots missed an extra point during the game.

“You know we spend a lot of time working on the kicking game each week. It all comes down to execution. Everyone that is on the field has to do what we are asking them to do depending on the scheme or design of the kick. That will determine the kind of coverage and what their role will be. They have to do their job whether it is in coverage or on a block call or whatever. We are going to get busy working on it more and try to find some answers. We need those answers quickly because we are heading into the biggest week of the season so far,” Counce said.

Henry County improved to 4-2 on the season with the victory over South Gibson in a non-region battle. Next up for the Patriots is a trip to Springfield (6-0). The Yellow Jackets knocked off Rossview 32-7 on Friday and the reigning Region 7-5A champions are 2-0 in region games so far this season. The Patriots are also 2-0 in the region and looking forward to facing the Yellow Jackets.

“We know they are a good football team. We can’t let ourselves get caught up in comparing opponents or anything like that. Springfield has a team that cares about each other and they care about their program. They always play very, very hard. They have that big quarterback back. Their linemen aren’t as big as some other people that we play but they play extremely hard. We are going to have to get prepared to play up there,” said Counce.

Counce said cleaning up the kicking game was a priority this week in practice, but not the only one.

“We are going to spend the week getting ready for that game. We are going to work on being the most physical team in the game and we are going to work on being focused and playing sharp. We know they are the kind of team that will get after you. We want to be sure we are ready to rise to that level and take it back to them. That is our goal is get after them and see what happens,” said Counce.

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