The Charles Henderson Trojans look to build off last week’s win when they take on the second-ranked Oxford Yellow Jackets in their 2018 home opener.

Charles Henderson (1-1) is coming off a 34-20 win over Rehobeth on the road in the region opener last Friday night.

The Trojans overcame sloppy conditions and got their first win of the season.

“It was a wet environment,” said head coach Brad McCoy. “We had to persevere through those elements. We thought the boys handled it really well. I think it came down to imposing our will and putting forth the effort to make sure we made plays. There were a lot of mistakes from the standpoint of the weather, but we overcame and we ended up with that first region win.”

Running back Chance Pollard finished last week’s game with 146 yards and two touchdowns on only four carries. His two touchdowns came on runs of 79 and 68 yards.

“Chance was certainly the skill player of the week,” McCoy said. “Chance was really the spark I think we needed. He played a heck of a football game. I think we realized that he is definitely a game changer. He is a guy that we really lean on and he answered the call.”

In week one’s loss to Enterprise, the Trojans rushed for 65 yards. After challenging the offensive line last week, the Trojans ground attack tallied over 250 yards against Rehobeth. In McCoy’s offense, the run game is most important.

“It’s the first thing that we talk about and we feel like we have to instill a running game because we don’t feel like throwing the ball is something that we can do to win a game,” McCoy said. “We had a really good night against Enterprise throwing the ball, but when you have elements like we faced against Rehobeth, you’d better be able to hand the ball off.”

The Trojans have a tall task this Friday night when they go up against a Yellow Jackets team that is coming off a 12-win season and a berth in the third round of the 6A state playoffs.

“I think you learn more about your football team when you’re challenged,” McCoy said. “Playing a third-round Oxford team is going to tell us the truth about where we stand before we get into that long stretch of region games.”

This year’s version of the Yellow Jackets is 3-0. They have outscored their opponents over the first three games 93-6.

“They have a lot of guys back,” McCoy said. “They have an LSU commit at linebacker, they have another D-I commit on the offensive line. Across the board they are just a very athletic, fast, physical football team. I think 11-on-11 it’s going to be a challenge winning those one-on-one matchups because they have such good football players. We feel the same type of confidence, we just have to maintain that for 48 minutes to have a chance to win the game.”

The Trojans will host Youth Trojan Night on Friday evening.

“We are always excited to have all of our recreation league football players and cheerleaders involved on this night,” McCoy said. “They get to run us out of the tunnel. The fans get to see them in their youth jerseys. It also gives the kids a vision of what they all are playing football for.”

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.