FERRIDAY, La. — When Ferriday High School's varsity football schedule came out earlier this summer, the Trojans were scheduled to host LHSAA District 2-2A foe Mangham High School at Melz Field this Friday night.
But after a 26-14 homecoming win over another district opponent in Beekman Charter School last Friday night, Ferriday assistant coach DeVante Scott said late Tuesday afternoon that the Trojans can no longer play on their own field — at least not for the rest of this season because of issues with the field.
Which means that while Ferriday (5-0, 2-0) will still be the 'home' team, the game will now be played at Mangham (5-1, 2-0). Kickoff will still be at 7 p.m.
As for how the rest of the season will play out regarding where Ferriday's 'home' games will be played, Scott said, "We'll play wherever."
As for what allowed Beekman Charter to stay in the game at Ferriday last Friday night, Scott said, "They did exactly what we thought they were doing to do. They hit us in the mouth. But we responded back. We needed that. We grew as a team. We kind got relaxed. Defense did a good job making stops. They bailed the offense out."
Scott also noted there was some miscommunication between sophomore quarterback Jase Harris and his receivers, which resulted in a lack of focus.
"We were missing open receivers. A lot of dropped balls and overthrown passes. The quarterback and receivers were not on the same page," Scott said.
Which cannot happen against a Mangham team that is coming off an impressive 42-8 victory at home over Madison High School.
"They know it's going to be big. It's going to be a home game, but we'll have to travel to Mangham. Against Beekman Charter, they used a three-man front and it confused the offensive line. Offensively, we're working on the offensive line," Scott said. "Defensively, we're working on alignment. Mangham runs a lot of misdirections. We're going to have to be physical up front as a defense."
Scott said that the Dragons run a spread offense, but they also run a lot of misdirections with receivers going in motion while defensively, they'll play a 3-4, noting, "They've been effective with it."
When asked who will have to step up and have a big game for the Trojans to stay undefeated, Scott said, "My defense and my quarterback (Harris) have to show up. Against Beekman Charter, we had a lot of short fields because of the defense."