BRUNDIDGE – It may have been listed as a pre-season contest on the schedule, but on the field both teams fought with the same tenacity as ever in the historic rivalry as Charles Henderson High came away with a 10-6 win over Pike County High Friday night in Bulldog Stadium of Brundidge.

Both teams had momentum and began drives at times, but penalties and turnovers by both squads bogged down each offense.

For CHHS head coach Brad McCoy, the pre-season win was a step in the right direction, but he was quick to point out that much work needs to be done.

“The good thing is we found a way to win,” said McCoy. “I think we overcame some big mistakes in the first half. We had some critical plays and also made a critical stop. There are a lot of things to learn from and a lot of things to build on. We don’t have a lot of time to think about it before our first game next week. Right now I’m going to talk to our team and talk to them about some of the things we can control. We can’t let it happen next week.

“I also thought there were a lot of positives we had. We had a lot of big plays, but we made a lot of big mistakes as well. I think the mistakes outweighed the positive plays because we only scored 10 points. We found a way to get a field goal in the second half, to give us a chance to win, and that is the biggest thing we have got to take from it.”

The Trojans jumped out to an early 7-0 lead in the first quarter on a 13-yard TD pass from senior quarterback D.Q. Toney to junior wide receiver Sean McKinney, and the extra point was good from Caleb Guice with 3:24 remaining in the quarter.

That was the score at halftime, and as with any pre-season contest there were plenty of turnovers and penalties by each team throughout the contest. CHHS built a 10-0 lead in the fourth quarter when Guice hit a 26-yard field goal with 11:03 to play in the game.

The Bulldogs did not go quietly as quarterback Jaidyn Wilson found Amaghie Lampley in the right corner of the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown pitch and catch, the extra point was no good, and CHHS led 10-6 with 5:48 to play in the game.

PCHS was moving the ball late in the game, but Malcom Hall of CHHS picked off a Lampley pass to end the drive.

Sophomore running back Jonathan Carter was the leading rusher for CHHS with 75 yards on 19 carries, while Hornando Wheeler had 41 yards on five carries.

Pike County head coach Fred Holland saw promise in his team at times, but also knows they have to work hard this week to get ready for their season opener Friday.

“We made some mistakes, I felt like we were a better team at times, but we’ve got a lot of improvement that needs to be made,” said Holland “I was proud of our team and our kids for fighting all the way through. It was a jamboree game, but I was proud of our team for what they did. We had a lot of kids with little to no playing experience, but this will carry over to the next game and allow us to improve in some areas that we need to do to get a little better against Alabama Christian.

“I will sit down and look at the film, and see some things that maybe we did not see in the game. Sometimes its hard to see everything in the game, but we will see how much we need to do to get better.”

McCoy believes the Bulldogs have a good team and will only get better.

“I’m very impressed with Pike County,” said McCoy. “The rumor was that they are going to have a very good football team, Coach Holland has done an excellent job, and they have a real good chance in 3A football, because they gave us everything that we could handle.”

PCHS will host Alabama Christian this upcoming Friday night, while CHHS is on the road at Class 7A Enterprise.