PURVIS – For the Tornadoes, it’s been a start to the season they want to soon forget, and they’ll get a chance to with one more non-region game still on tap.
Purvis and Seminary will meet Friday at 7 p.m. in Purvis, and the Tornadoes will try to stop their two-game losing skid and get back in the win column. Purvis had opportunities to beat Columbia Academy and Mendenhall its last two games, but fourth-quarter woes hurt any chance to pick up the wins.
“I think it’s a little of everything, I mean, I think conditioning is a factor,” Purvis coach Perry Wheat said. “There were about 170-something snaps in that game, so that’s a lot, and we had kids who played not all of those snaps, but a lot of those snaps. I think conditioning from the standpoint of the number of snaps we had to play, eventually, it took a toll on us.”
In those two losses, sometimes it came down to just one play, Wheat added. Change that one play, and Purvis could be sporting a 3-1 record. Of course, there are other mistakes, too.
“We have to try and make fewer mistakes and try to finish the football game,” Wheat said. “We’re working on conditioning, and it all comes back to fundamentals and making plays. The last two games, you can take one play and change it and win the ballgame. We just have to make that play. Just stay in there and fight and make that one extra play that’ll win the ballgame for us. We had a chance to beat a good football team (last week), and we just didn’t get it done.”
Seminary enters Friday night’s contest with a 3-2 record, winning its first two games before dropping back-to-back games, then the Bulldogs claimed a 23-7 win over Raleigh last week to stop the two-game streak. Their losses have come to Taylorsville (46-15) and Poplarville (47-0).
The Bulldogs run a wing-T offense primarily, so Wheat knows his team will have to read their keys on every play.
“The big thing is you have to read your keys,” he said. “You have to read your keys and let your keys take you to the football. When you get there, you still have to tackle. That’s been part of our problem. We’re not good tacklers.”
Freshman Marquis Crosby has a team-high 352 rushing yards and three scores on 41 carries for the Bulldogs, and sophomore Jordan Barrett is second on the team with 192 rushing yards and two touchdowns on a team-high 51 attempts.
Defensively, Seminary has had good performances in its wins, allowing just four points per game in those three games. In its two losses, opponents have scored 46.5 points per game.
“I think their strength of their team is their defensive line,” Wheat said. “They have an outstanding defensive line, so we have to work hard to block them.”
