The first round of the LHSAA football playoffs will be a tale of two Tigers. Just like the last regular season game and the contest two games before that. Jonesboro-Hodge is hoping that in regard to this tale that the third time is the charm. For the record JHHS will travel to Logansport for a #26 vs #7 matchup in the “non-select” Division IV playoffs. Game time is set for 7:00pm.
For the local Tigers the matchup is like having a new life as it was thought that after the loss to Winnfield in the regular season final that the season was over. As it worked out, even with the loss JHHS that dropped the season record to 3-7, the Tigers climbed three spots from their previous, out of the playoffs, ranking of #29 allowing them the opportunity to keep playing.
JHHS head coach Terrance Blankenship hopes that his squad will take advantage of the unexpected break.
“Like I told the guys, you are playing on house money now,” laughed Blankenship. “Might as well take advantage of it and make it pay off.”
The local Tigers face a tall task ahead in order to advance to the second round. Loganport will welcome JHHS to their field sporting a 7-3 overall record after a second place finish in District 3-1A. The teams have played two common opponents this year in Mansfield and Red River. In comparison, Logansport won by 52-8 and 32-16 scores while JHHS lost to both by scores of 28-22 and 20-12. An addtional comparitive is that Logansport has scored less than 22 points only one time all season, while JHHS has scored more than that total only once.
That was during the regular season though and coach Blankenship knows that now that the playoff has started it is like a new season.
“Every year you always see first round upsets,” said Blankenship. “Sometimes just the fact that it is the playoffs brings out the best in a player and team. We are going to hope our guys respond that way.”
Keys to victory!
- Find some offense! Quite simply, JHHS is going to have to score often in order to beat Logansport.
- Create turnovers! When JHHS has been succesful this season, the defense has pitched in by creating turnovers.
- Play clean football! Can’t afford to make the same kind of mistakes that have been drive killers.
How to get to Logansport:
The trip will take you roughly two hours. There are a couple of ways you can go, one being go to Winnfield, get on Hwy 84 west and just stay on that until you reach Logansport. Another way is to take Hwy 4 west to Hwy 155 and follow that all the way to Coushatta where you then get on Hwy 84 west the rest of the way to Logansport.
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