Sports Editor

Opp comes into Richard M. Scrushy Field at Memorial Stadium tonight with a Class 4A No. 6 ranking to face Charles Henderson High School.

It will be the opening season contest for the Trojans. Opp beat St. James last week 14-7 in their inaugural 2000 game

The Trojans defeated Pike County 20-14 two weeks ago in a Jamboree and CHHS head coach Hugh Fountain feels that,

in the long run, this week of extra practice has really helped his team.

"I don’t thing it will hurt us," Fountain said. "I really believe we’ve gotten better as a team in practice these past two weeks. It’s going to be interesting to see how we come out. Our kids are eager to play."

Fountain said mostly, the Trojans went back to working on the fundamentals of playing good football.

"We’ve worked on catching and running with the football," he said. "We wanted to come out these two weeks and really correct the things that hurt us in the Pike County game, like tackling, the kicking game and turnovers."

Although the Bobcats have a new head coach in Jeff Rhoades, Fountain expects Opp to come out and play Charles Henderson much the same way they’ve played them in the past.

"They’re going to be very tough physically and option-orientated on offense," he said. "They’ll probably throw more then they did last season, simply because they return their quarterback and he’s got a year of experience."

Last week Opp jumped out to a 14-0 in the first half. St. James scored in the second half and seemed to be gaining momentum against the Bobcats. But Opp was able to grind out a few first downs in the fourth quarter and kill the clock.

"At the end of the game when they had to get it done, the Opp offense came up big on the ground," Fountain said. "That shows you what kind of team they have and is a testament to their character."

Fountain said he’s eager to see how is defensive line will match up against the Bobcat offensive front.

"It’s going to be a challenge to our front, because they have a very good offensive line," he said. "Our defense will definitely be tested."

When the Trojans have the ball, Fountain said the biggest thing will be execution.

"We have to execute," he said. "I think this year Opp has gone into more of a four-man front then the five down linemen they were using last year, so that has been something we’ve looked at this week in practice."

Fountain also said CHHS would have to utilize the depth advantage they have over the Bobcats

"We have more players then they do, so we should be able to keep our kids fresh for most of the game" he said.