The West Marion Trojans (1-5, 0-1) will return to their home field on Friday for another Region 8-3A matchup with the St. Stanislaus Rock-A-Chaws (3-3, 0-0), eager for a chance to get back into the win column after a disappointing road loss to Seminary last week.
The Trojans were unable to get anything going in a tough 46-6 loss to the Bulldogs, during which head coach Brandon Thornhill said his team just failed to execute the way they know they're capable of. In order to turn the ship around, he believes his players will have to get back to the core fundamentals that they spent most of the summer trying to establish.
"We committed too many penalties, we didn't tackle very well and we committed a lot of turnovers," Thornhill said. "Those are three core ingredients for losing a football game. Those are things we've been working on throughout the season, but I thought we took a step back in our execution last week. We've just got to play better football than that."
This week, the Trojans will take on yet another tough challenge, hosting a Rock-A-Chaws team that is fresh off of back-to-back wins over Bay (St. Louis) and Lakeshore (Mandeville, La.). Last fall the Rock-A-Chaws edged out West Marion in a 26-20 ball game, evening up the all-time record between the two programs at 1-1. Thornhill believes the Trojans are capable of doing what it takes to avenge last season's loss and get back into the win column, but it'll take much better execution and focus than what he saw on the field just a week ago.
"You don't get very many off weeks when it comes to this district. The competition is always tough, and that'll be the case again on Friday with St. Stanislaus," he said. "That being the case, there's really no time for us to be down on ourselves for how the season has started. We know we're capable of competing on a higher level. We've just to cut out those costly mistakes find more ways to create opportunities on offense. We're excited for another challenge and another chance to show everyone what we're about."
Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
