By Chris Kinkaid

The Daily News

Ben’s Ford Christian School is on the road tonight, heading to Centreville Academy tonight for its District 5AAA opener.

Ben’s Ford enters this week with a 1-2 record after defeating Acadiana Home School, 39-0, last week.

Eagles’ coach Robert N. Cook said spirits are up.

“We’ve had really good practices, so I’m hoping we can carry that over to Friday night. We’ll have to see what happens,” Cook said.

In last week’s game, Jeremiah Slocum threw for more than 300 yards and had three touchdown passes.

Cameron Miller, Andrew Smith and Cameron Byrd had one touchdown reception each.

Cook said that defensively, Andrew Smith led the way and the front four did an outstanding job.

Cook said the team played as a complete unit last week and that he’s proud of them.

Centreville won last year’s match up, 40-16.

The team is coached by Bill Hurst. Cook had nothing but praise when talking about Hurst.

“Coach Hurst always has his team prepared. He’s one of the finest coaches that I know,” Cook said. “His team executes what they do extremely well. They are well disciplined. You can tell when it’s a Bill Hurst-coached team. I look up to him and I admire what he’s able to do.”

Centreville offensive coordinator Robbie Isonhood said Centreville’s homecoming is this week, and it can be hard to keep the team focused on the game. Even so, Isonhood said the team has had a good week of practice.

Centreville comes into the game with a 2-1 record. Last week was a 39-14 victory over Brookhaven Academy.

“Offensively, we see a marked improvement,” Isonhood said. “I would say Ben’s Ford has a large line offensively and defensively. We’re kind of small, so it’s imperative to get on our blocks.

“Defensively, with them having a large line, we’ve got to be disciplined. Everybody’s got a job to do on defense. They run some unbalanced sets, so we’ve got to be able to line up properly so we don’t leave holes in the defense.”

The quarterback is Tyler Thomassie.

Three players see time at running back/wide receiver, including Stone Reynolds, Scott Chandler and Wyatt Bradham. Austin Addington is a running back and Chad Jenkins is a receiver.

The top defenders include linebackers Daniel Vine and Hollis Gunter, linebacker/defensive end Chris Jones and Addington. Two of the top defensive linemen are B.J. Parent and Coleton Peterson.