Bogue Chitto head coach Gareth Sartin is hoping that his Bobcats do the opposite of Tropical Storm Gordon when they take the field Friday night again Mount Olive — he wants his team to show up and create some havoc for homecoming.

The homecoming week festivities were cut short one day by the cancellation of school on Wednesday, so the Bobcats (0-3) had to put in a little extra work on Thursday.

“We have to adjust by making Thursday — which is usually our walk-through day — a little longer as we still needed to do a little game-planning,” said Sartin.

Mount Olive coach Dante Durr and his team are also 0-3, with losses to West Lincoln, Mize and St. Patrick. When Sartin looks at the Pirates on film he doesn’t see large numbers dressed out, but he does see a gritty group of players.

“It looks like their numbers are down and they have a lot of guys playing both ways,” said Sartin. “Their effort never lets up, though. They’ve got a group of kids that play hard for all four quarters.”

For the Bobcats to realize their first victory of the season, Sartin said his team needs to limit big plays.

“We can’t give up big runs or other explosive plays,” said Sartin. “That comes back to being fundamental in our tackling. We have to make teams drive the ball down the field and earn it instead of getting big chunks of yards on one run.”

The Bobcats’ passing game has shown improvement as the season has progressed. First-year quarterback Shaw King has his team averaging 127 passing yards per game.

Sartin still sees room for his offense to improve.

“We’ve just got to be more consistent,” said Sartin. “When you are protecting for a passing play all it takes it one person not doing their job for the whole thing to fall apart. We’re getting better, but we can still do better.”

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. on Troy Smith Field, with the crowning of Homecoming Queen Leslie Moak taking place at halftime.

Story by Cliff Furr