Charles Henderson rolls past Daleville in season opener
Published 11:53 pm Friday, August 29, 2014
The Charles Henderson Trojans faced head football coach Brad McCoy’s former home, Daleville, Friday night and beat the Warhawks in a 38-6 blowout.
Charles Henderson gained the lead early in the first quarter scoring a touchdown after only seven minutes of play. The Trojans’ momentum continued through the second quarter into the half with the Trojans leading the Warhawks 31 to nil.
McCoy said the enthusiasm and momentum from the first quarter and half should have carried through to the remaining quarters, but said the team got complacent with their lead.
“I think complacency sets in,” McCoy said. “It happened last week. We get a lead going in to halftime, sit back on your laurels a little bit and it catches up with you. It allowed Daleville to go down and score, which we had to make an adjustment there, which I thought we did.”
Starting quarterback for the Trojans, Austin Ingram, had almost 150 passing yards at the half, and his passing game stayed strong through the third and fourth quarters. While McCoy said the team has been aiming to work on tits run game, but said sometimes it was easy to rely on Ingram’s passing abilities.
“We’re more geared offensively because we have Austin to throw the ball down the field,” McCoy said. “Right now, we’re trying to get our run game in-sync and make it better, but you’ve got to go where your strength is and our strength is throwing the football. If it’s working you keep doing it.”
Running back and wide receiver for the Trojans, Mondarius Dixon, was a large component for Ingram’s passing game, and said he just played the game he knew to play.
“I just made moves, and I ran my lines,” Dixon said. “Playing a good first half, it just makes us want to play even harder. We want to go into the second half like tonight was. We should have kept playing hard in the second half, and we’ve got to get better about that.”
With just over two minutes remaining in the third quarter the Warkhawks fumbled a ball, which was recovered by No. 2 for the Trojans, Marquise Simmons. Simmons recovered the ball from the Warhawk 20 yard line and ran ball back in to the end zone increasing the Trojan’s lead over the Warhakws by 32 points.
“It sets the tone,” McCoy said. “Any time you get a chance to make a big play like that, I mean it’s changes the whole swing of the game. That’s what you try to do, you try to create big plays and try to keep those going throughout the game. We want to make those kind of plays.”
The Daleville Warhawks scored just once in the third quarter with 5 minutes and 25 seconds left in playtime. Labrijan Bloodsaw, halfback for the Warhawks, ran 13 yards for the touchdown. McCoy, who previously coached for the Daleveille Warhawks, said it was an odd feeling to be going against his former team.
“It’s a little bit different, especially with having spent so much time trying to get those kids better and the coaching staff and everybody involved, really the whole program,” McCoy said. “Then you flip the script, and you’re trying to beat them.”
The Trojans will face the Dale County High School Warriors in Midland Friday, Sept. 9. McCoy said he hoped the Trojans would be able to work on the team’s aggressiveness for both halves between now and Sept. 9.
“It’s hard not to do,” McCoy said. “You teach them, you talk to them about it but it still happens. It’s football, but you try to not let it happen so much.”