The Charles Henderson Trojans head to Mobile today to face 7A Davidson, hoping to repeat last year’s upset.

“I think the kids are excited about getting on the bus for a Thursday night game in Mobile,” said head coach Brad McCoy. “We told them yesterday that in reality, yeah it’s 7A versus 5A. They have more numbers, but the11 that we put on the field you have to believe that there is not a lot of difference (between the teams). We saw that last year we competed at a very high level and we were able to win the ball game.”

The Trojans (2-2, 1-1 in the region) wrapped up an easy 49-7 homecoming win over Alabama Christian a week and hit the field on Sunday afternoon to make sure they had four good practices in a row before hitting the road to Mobile.

“It’s not a big adjustment our guys are pretty resilient,” McCoy said. “They go with the flow.”

The Trojans knew they could not sit on their laurels and had to prepare for a tough match up with a bigger and faster football team. “You always caution and look for that area of complacency that can set in,” McCoy said. “I didn’t really sense that very much. They were business as usual. The thing is you try to take the good and the bad and the highs and the lows.”

The biggest challenge for any smaller school going up against a bigger opponent is always depth. Although teams may be able to match up evenly to start the game, the game is ultimately decided through endurance and depth.

“The ones that go on the field in the beginning are pretty close when you’re talking about the upper echelon of the 5A, 6A and 7A schools. When injuries set in that’s when you start getting the biggest separation,” McCoy said. “Davidson might have another running back just as good as the starting running back. We are usually relying on our first 11 and we may have another backup in one or two spots. We don’t have that complete second group.”

Davidson will present a tough task for the Trojans. The Warriors enter the contest with a 1-3 record, but their offense will provide a tough challenge to the Trojan defense.

“One of the biggest differences from last year to this year is at the quarterback position,” McCoy said. They are better at quarterback. They have a junior who played some last year but did not play a lot against us. He is more of an option style quarterback. He can throw the ball well. He has good legs on him that can break tackles and make people miss.”

The Trojans will have to play mistake-free football and capitalize on any mistakes the Warriors make if they hope to come out of the game victorious

“We are going to have to have some breaks go our way,” McCoy said. “We have to find a way to score on special teams. We had a kick off return and punt return for a touchdown last week get called back because of a penalty. Against a team like Davidson we need 14 points on the board we can’t have blocks in the back and holding calls and not come away with points.”

The Trojans and Warriors will kick things off tonight at 7 p.m. from Ladd Peebles Stadium in Mobile.