All games are important.
Beginning this Friday, they take on added significance as Class 6A, Region 1 play opens for the Grenada High School Chargers as they travel into DeSoto County to face the Lake Cormorant Gators.
“This is what we have been working for,” GHS head football coach Michael Fair said. “The first six games are supposed to prepare you for this game. From here on out, every game has playoff implications and seeding for the postseason. Our goal is to win the Region, but you have to take it one week at a time to make that happen.”
Fair’s Chargers face a Lake Cormorant team that stands at 3-2 on the season and is coming off an open date. The Gators are led by Ole Miss commit senior Jarcoby Hopson (6-foot-2, 211 pounds).
“He is a Dandy Dozen pick, who has been a really good player for them,” Fair said. “We will see him at linebacker, and he will play some quarterback in a Wildcat formation, along with some carries at running back. They do a good job of utilizing him in different areas, but they have some talented players all over their roster.”
As a runner, Hopson has 129 yards on 13 carries and two touchdowns. Defensively, he has 41 total tackles to lead the team. Senior linebacker Curdarrius Bullock (6-foot, 239 pounds) is second on the team with 31 total tackles. Senior Ja’Shun Adams (5-foot-10, 176 pounds) has 24 tackles.
Senior Blake Beal (6-foot-2, 185 pounds) is the returning starter at quarterback. He is 13-of-24 for 277 yards and one touchdown to go with two interceptions.
“They aren’t a one-dimensional team – you have to defend both the run and the pass,” Fair said. “The quarterback can throw the football well.”
Fair said from an offensive standpoint, his players will have to be able to recognize the different defensive fronts that the Gators will use throughout the game.
“They will lineup up in multiple defensive formations and shift back and forth with the same personnel,” he said. “Our offensive linemen will have to do a good job of recognizing the defense and make the appropriate adjustments, getting us in the right blocking schemes. Opponents have shown throughout the year that they will change the looks on every snap. We are going to have to be able to adjust. Our guys have done a really good job to this point in the season with this and making sure all gaps are taken care of.”
For the second time in as many weeks, Fair will face a coach that he has a close friendship with. Lake Cormorant head coach Nick Nester is the only football coach the school has ever had, taking over the program in 2006, when the school opened.
“It’s fun competing with someone that you get along with and respect,” Fair concluded. “I have been coaching against Nick Nester for a long time. It’s fun coaching against guys like that – his guys are coached up and in the right spots. He is a coach that has won a lot of big games.”
Nester echoed those sentiments.
“I loved playing Michael (Fair) when he was at Senatobia and Lafayette, and I loved it when Scott (Martin) was at Charleston,” Nester said. “Getting to compete against each, you get to see each other, but other weeks you are pulling for them. When we go places as coaches, we hang out and go to dinner with them. They are great people, and Michael has a really good staff and an outstanding football team. We will have our work cut out for us.”
Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. Lake Cormorant is located off Interstate 269 West heading toward Tunica.
