By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

The numbers were good, and the play was solid most of the time.

Look at stats, and you’d have thought Houston County got the best of Perry last week, and you’d be wrong.

Three turnovers and a few big plays will do that.

“We played well enough to win, for sure,” Houston County head coach Ryan Crawford said. “The No. 1 thing in football is turning the ball over. You turn the ball over more than the other team, you’re probably not going to win.”

Turn it over in the red zone, and life is tougher.

Houston County expects to have tightened things up when it hosts Central on Thursday night at Freedom Field in non-region action.

The Bears lost 23-17 to Perry, despite outgaining the Panthers 324-175, and holding Perry’s running game to 1.2 yards a carry.

It wasn’t complicated.

“They’re smart kids,” Crawford said. “I think they realize, from the stats and the video, they shoulda, coulda, woulda. We just gotta go do it.”

It’s the opener for Central, which scrimmaged Veterans (a 37-0 loss) and Glenn Hills (2-0 win).

Head coach Joaquin Sample said the Chargers didn’t get much out of the Glenn Hills scrimmage because of a wet and soggy field, and felt a bit better about the performance against Veterans after last Friday night.

“I think we all realize we were a little bit better, and that’s a team that’s a little better than we thought,” Sample said of the Warhawks’ 31-0 win at Class 4A Upson-Lee. “They went down there and spanked Upson-Lee.”

The Chargers went 2-7 last year under one-year head coach Larry Harold, so some staff changes have them tough to figure again.

Central lost a number of players who made some level of all-region honors, but Crawford saw something just looking at a roster.

“They've got over 20 seniors, which is a good number for a program of that size,” Crawford said of the 3A Chargers. “You’re playing older kids, kids that played last year.”

On, however, a two-win team in transition with new leadership is still a team of question marks.

The Chargers are better on defense than offense, while the Bears are a little more consistent on both sides.

Taylor Dean anchors a Central offensive line that will have a decent task.

“The thing that jumped out to me the most is how fast their defense runs to the football, especially the perimeter stuff,” Sample said. “They’re very aggressive, they’ll run down and get you.”

Houston County has some proven weapons in quarterback Max Rigby and running back Wesley Steiner, the latter of whom – for a variety of reasons – didn’t have a normal impact last week.

Sample is mighty hopeful that continues.

“They have a guy that’s been tearing up the combine circuit all summer,” he said of Steiner, an all-region pick in 1-6A despite less than 800 rushing yards on a 2-8 team. “He’s everything that’s been billed.”

Crawford and Sample both say their teams worrying about themselves is a bigger focus than scouting reports and Xs and Os. The Bears, though, know more about themselves, with a game under their belts rather than two scrimmages.

And the equation for taking a step forward is pretty much the same for both teams: short memories after adversity.

“Just limiting that big play when it happens and overcoming it,” Crawford said. “It’s one thing to give up a big play for a first down. It’s another to give up a big play for a touchdown.

Also Thursday

Hawkinsville at Rutland, at Ed DeFore

Rutland has lost four straight season openers, two to Westside and two to Class AAAA Perry. And the Hurricanes haven’t won since Sept. 29, 2016.

So getting early-season momentum has been difficult for the program starting its 16th season with only two winning records under its belt.

Head coach Mark Daniel is seeing more intangibles from a team that, as WHO said last week at Bibb County’s media night, may be tired enough of losing.

Hawkinsville is a Class A program that is 9-20 since winning the 2014 state title.

The difference in classifications is likely to add to the intensity. Rutland doesn’t want to lose to a smaller program, and Hawkinsville wants a road win over a 3A team.

East Laurens at Johnson County

The good news for struggling East Laurens and new head coach Bin Turner is that they’re not playing a bigger school or powerhouse smaller program.

Not 4A, like season-opening opponent West Laurens. And not any perennial playoff team like Tattnall.

But Johnson County hasn’t had a losing season since 2003. Conversely, East Laurens has had only two winning seasons since then.