The Charles Henderson Trojans return home with a sense of urgency as they host region foe Greenville tonight.

After falling to previously ranked number one UMS Wright in the season opener and to Carroll a week ago, the Trojans need a positive outcome.

“We have had a good week,” said Trojans head coach Brad McCoy. “We are excited about coming back to Troy and playing in our own stadium. I think the kids are excited about playing in this region game and trying to bounce back and get a win.”

Charles Henderson knows all to well the challenges they face when going up Greenville. The Tigers are the defending Class 5A Region 2 champions. Last season the Tigers got the best of the Trojans defeating them 35-10 a year ago in Greenville. The Tigers enter this game with a lot of new faces. They are coming off a 39-13 loss to Beauregard in their only game of the season so far.

The Tigers will present a spread offense and plan to run the football out of the shotgun formation behind the line that rarely features a tight end. Their offense will feature a lot of bubble screens and passes to the tall and athletic receivers.

“They lost quite a few of their players from last year,” McCoy said. “Their quarterback is coming back, and he is a really good player.”

On the defensive side of the ball the Trojans will get tested by an athletic Tiger front.

“They are going to give you multiple looks,” McCoy said. “They will have three down lineman and they like to bring linebackers from different locations. They will try to confuse the quarterback and they are really fast.

During the first two weeks of the season the Trojans matched up with two teams that love to run the football in UMS Wright and Carroll.

Last week Eagles running back C.J. Roberts rushed for 201 yards while teammate Jonathan Fells picked up 124.

“With UMS and Carroll I would really put those two guys among the best in the state when it comes to running the football,” McCoy said. “UMS had a division one running back that has already committed … I think our kids are resilient and they want to bounce back and answer the challenge of stopping the run.”

McCoy and the players are looking at this game as an important one. “They need to win psychologically and we need to win in region play,” McCoy said. “For our kids’ psyches, they need something positive to happen.”

To do that the Trojans will look to Jabronksi Williams and Jared Wilson to lead the way.

“If you’re not going to rely on them, you really don’t have anybody else to rely on,” McCoy said. “We are going to have to give Jared and Jabronski multiple opportunities to carry the football. We are also going to have to give the ball to Josh Roberts our big wide receiver.”

Kick off is 7 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Stadium.