By Adam Brown
Sports Editor
adam.brown@hottytoddy.com
The Oxford Chargers step into region play for the first time this season on Friday night as they take on the Southaven Chargers. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
“Now is when everything starts to count,” Head Coach Chris Cutcliffe said. “Everybody is 0-0 in the region and in 6A football every week is going to be a big test. We will have to play well each and every Friday night.”
Oxford (2-0) has opened the season strong with wins over Grenada and Lafayette prior to going into the bye week.
“Our team handled the bye week well,” Cutcliffe said. “We had a good week of practice and some opportunities to get some guys better. Started working on things that we need to improve on. That’s sometimes easier to do in a bye week when you’re not playing an opponent. I thought we did a good job, and I was proud of our guys taking advantage of that bye week.”
In the Cross Town Classic, Oxford found themselves in a hole after the Lafayette Commodores scored 22 unanswered points late in the second quarter. The Chargers defense kept Lafayette off of the scoreboard for the rest of the night.
“I was proud of our team for responding to that situation,” Cutcliffe said. “Defensively we did a great job not pointing fingers and not getting down. We just rallied together and came out and played a great second half.”
Southaven enters with a 1-1 record on the young season. Last Friday night, they fell to Bartlett 0-27.
“Southaven always has a ton of team speed,” Cutcliffe said. “They have a lot of weapons at wide receiver, quarterback (Jordan Hibbler) is a three-year starter. He makes big plays for them. They do a fantastic job getting ready to play… (We) are going to try and pressure your quarterback, and a lot of things we have to be ready for.”
