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The Pike Liberal Arts Patriots are 2-0 for the second time in three years. The Patriots knocked off Hooper in their region opener. After a day off Saturday, head coach Mario White and the Patriots got back to work and has had one of their most physical weeks of practice.

“We took Saturday off and then Sunday after church we came back to work,” White said. “We got back to work and got a little conditioning in. Monday morning we had a good offensive day then on Tuesday we had a very physical day on defense.”

In last week’s shutout win over the Colts, White emptied his bench and allowed a lot of his younger or inexperienced players to get in the game, including senior Neel Petal.

“There was a lot of extra excitement,” White said. “Those boys don’t get to play very often. It was special when Neel got in; he has never played before. He is one of our hardest workers and nicest guys on the team. Our scout team can probably play at other places. They are competitive. When they got in the game everyone was excited.”

Running back Aaron Greenwood got everybody’s attention last Friday night when he rushed for 223 yards with two touchdowns. One of his touchdowns was on a carry for 75 yards.

“He is a really smart guy,” White said. “He is a great kid. He comes to work every single day and is one of the hardest working guys in the weight room. We would like to say that touchdown run was a shock to us, but we see it every day in practice. He runs like that against our first team defense in practice.”

Greenwood is small in stature, but can make his prescense known in the back field.

“He came here with a chip on his shoulder,” White said. “I told him we are going to use that chip, and we’re going to use it the right way. When he first got here he went right to work in the weight room. He had something to prove.”

The Patriots will take on rival Lee-Scott on Friday night. The Warriors have gotten off to an 0-2 start under new head coach James Daniel. The Warriors have been outscored in their two games 99-14.

The Patriots fell to the Warriors 52-21.

The Patriots will celebrate senior night prior to the game on Friday night. Even though the Patriots will have plenty of new faces this season, many of whom are seniors, Friday night will be a special time for everyone involved.

“We all feel like we have been around each other for so long because of everything going on,” White said. “We have been hunkered down together. While everybody else may look at us like a new team, we’re like the Brady Bunch. We came together and we’ll be tied together for the rest of our lives.”