The Charles Henderson Trojans faced a stiff challenge in their home opener against No. 2 Oxford last Friday night.

After a disheartening 62-0 loss, the Trojans turn the page and prepare for region foe Beauregard on Friday night.

“I think we have rebounded well,” said head coach Brad McCoy. “I think we learned a lot from a real disappointing loss against a very good opponent. We went back to practice and we just had to get back to work. That has kind of been our mindset. Trying to focus for our next region game which is really where our interests need to be.”

McCoy scheduled the game against Oxford in order to learn more about his team as they get ready for a stretch of region games. After the lopsided score, the Trojans immediately set out to correct the things they could control.

“There were one-on-one matchups where they were simply better than we were; there isn’t a whole lot you can take away from that other than getting back in the weight room,” McCoy said. “A lot of it was Oxford was just a better football team on Friday night. I don’t know if they were 62 points better, but they were Friday night.”

The Trojans “failed to show up” according to McCoy, who also said they looked like deer in the headlights for much of the game.

“I think we had to take that and swallow our pride,” McCoy said. “You can’t come into ball games not ready to play. Oxford was just a better football team.”

Beauregard is up next for the Trojans as they head back into region play. In the end, all that matters when it comes to a postseason berth is the team’s place in the region standings.

The Trojans enter game two of region play with a 1-0 record and they hope they are ready for their next challenge.

“We really don’t have a choice,” McCoy said. “We didn’t dwell on Oxford past Monday morning. After we watched the tape and made corrections, it turned really quickly to Beauregard. These are the games that matter in our playoff future.”
The Hornets come to Troy with a 1-3 record. They won their first game of the year last week against Rehobeth 38-7.

“They played in the state championship a couple years ago,” McCoy said. “They bring a lot of confidence to the table. They have some really good football players. They lost a really good running back that really carried them for two years. Their personnel is different, but they have a good quarterback that can throw it around.”

Kickoff between the Trojans and the Hornets is scheduled for 7 p.m.

“We match up pretty well,” McCoy said. “It’s going to come down to not making mistakes in the kicking game like we did on Friday night and trying to win those one-on-one battles that we are going to have all night.”