HATTIESBURG – Tigers’ coach Tony Vance said it best. Both his team and Gautier are 0-0 this week.
Sure, it’s coach speak, because his Tigers are 4-0 and ranked No. 5 in the state, while Gautier is 1-3 and on a three-game losing streak. But, he’s not lying about both teams being 0-0. Friday night marks the start of seven straight weeks of Region 4-5A play, and the Gators are the first test.
“This is the second part of the season, and I reminded them all last week and I think they fully understand that we have identical division records as Gautier,” Vance said. “We’re 0-0, but we would rather be 4-0 (overall) than 0-4. Those first four games, we have to put them behind us and the goal for this week is to be 1-0.”
The Tigers have had a stellar first few weeks of the season by beating teams like Oak Grove, Petal and Laurel, and they’ve escaped that gauntlet healthy for the most part. Hattiesburg did lose senior linebacker Dshun Mitchell for the season, but other than that, Hattiesburg is in good position injury-wise.
The off week came at a good time, too. It gave Vance and his team time to take a break to refocus and work on themselves.
“One thing is for sure is we stayed healthy, so that’s always a plus,” Vance joked about the bye week. “We spent a lot of time working on ourselves to work on some things. We needed the time, and it was definitely a week where we got some work done.”
Entering region play, the Hattiesburg defense has been playing well. Besides allowing Petal to score 37 in the season opener, the Tigers followed that up with 14 points against Laurel and 13 against Moss Point. Oak Grove did score 28, but the Warriors added a late touchdown on a long pass play with the game was out of reach.
Vance likes where his defense is at right now, but he agrees there is still room for improvement. There is, however, one statistic that has caught his eye.
“Some things we’ve done well, and our take-a-ways, I think we’re plus-12 in the take-a-way category,” Vance said. “I think we have one offensive turnover and I think we’ve taken it away 12 or 13 times. That’s the big thing we’ve done really well. We’ve taken the ball away from our opponents, and that’s something we have to continue to do. We have to win that battle each and every week.”
The Tigers’ defense will face a Gautier offense that has struggled the last three games. After beating Ocean Springs to start the season, the Gators are on a three-game losing streak.
“Offensively, their quarterback is their biggest weapon without a doubt,” Vance said. “He’s a playmaker. He can hurt you with his legs, and he’s probably 75, 80 percent of their offense. It’s one of those deals where we have to make sure we contain him. If we don’t, they can hurt us.
“If we allow him to run around in the pocket, he does a great job of keeping his eyes downfield throwing the football. That’s just who they are offensively.”
The Gautier quarterback, junior Kameron Kincaid, passed for 86 yards and rushed for -25 yards in the double-overtime loss to Moss Point. The next week, The Gators’ offense was shut out, then Kincaid passed for 142 yards and rushed for -4 yards in the next week’s loss to Pascagoula.
