Bowling Green’s Buccaneers are on the road for the first time this regular season, heading to Wayne Academy to play against the Jaguars in a battle of 1-0 teams.
Both clubs enter tonight’s contest after a lopsided win. Bowling Green blanked New Orleans Home School, 42-0, while Wayne was victorious over Russell Christian, 50-8.
In Bowling Green’s opening week win, Cameron Cowart ran for 118 yards and three touchdowns. Jordan Barnes ran for two scores and Jace Ball intercepted a pass and ran it back for six. Also, Hayden Thompson converted all six of his extra-point attempts.
Defensively, Jack Bickham made five tackles while Matt Pierce, Brandon McElveen and Sammy Graves had three each. The Bucs forced three turnovers. Besides Ball’s pick, Graves and Seth Schilling both recovered a fumble.
Bowling Green coach David Currier said his team is facing a blitzing defense.
“They play a 50 defense, blitz and play man, so that’s a cause for concern,” Currier said. “I don’t think they’ll overpower us. When you blitz and play man, you’re gambling, so hopefully they’ll lose some of those gambles. If we can execute, we can make them pay for gambling.”
Currier said that offensively, the Jaguars are a sound team.
“They’ve got some tall receivers,” Currier said. “They like to throw it up to (one of them). He’s about 6-3. He may not run past us, but he’s so tall, he can still catch the ball over you.”
He also said Wayne  has a big tight end.
Currier said that Wayne likes to run a read option out of the shotgun where the quarterback has the option to keep, handoff or throw it out into the flat. Currier said it’s like a pitch.
For the Jaguars, the victory snapped a 25-game losing streak.
“I only lost one starter from last year,” Wayne second-year coach Sean Harrison said. “We’re a little more mature. We only had three seniors last year. We’ve got 10 this year. Last Friday, we won our first game in two and a half years. We’re trying to turn things around.”
Wayne runs a pro style of an offense, but will spread it out.
Quarterback Zach Hutchinson completed 5-of-6 passes last week for 164 yards and three touchdowns. He also ran nine times for 131 yards (14.5 yards per carry) and three scores.
“I had him last year,” Harrison said. “He’s real raw still, but he’s a good kid who works hard and executes the offense.”
Running back Matt Landrum finished with 75 yards on 10 carries and a score last week.
Landrum, a junior, played guard his sophomore year, but Harrison said Landrum dropped some weight and stepped up as a running back. Harrison said Landrum did not miss a summer workout and even showed up for all of the makeup workouts that were for the players who had missed.
Wide receivers Grayson Livington and Brayden Doss posted one reception each for a touchdown opening week. Livington’s went for 55 yards and Doss’ was 38 yards.
Defensively, Wayne operates out of a 5-2 base, which changes depending on the opponent.
Ends Kyle Sanderson and Steven Keane both had strong performances last week. Keane made 11 tackles and three sacks while Sanderson was in on 16 stops.
After this week, the Bucs return home for a two-game homestand. The Buccaneers play against Adams County Christian School on Sept. 4.
The following week, Bowling Green is hosting Amite School Center.