Jonesboro-Hodge High School begins a three game home stand this Friday evening as they take on DeQuincy High School for a non district contest at Caldwell Peacock Stadium set to begin at 7:00 pm.

The unusual step out of district play came about when district 1-1A member Ringgold refused to play the Tigers at the beginning of the season, forcing JHHS head football coach Terrance Blankenship to do a last minute scramble to find an opponent. 

He got a good one.

DeQuincy High, which hails from District 4-2A, makes the long trek from the Lake Charles metroplex ranked #6 in the LHSAA Division IV Power Ratings with a 5-1 record. Their only loss was last week to the top ranked team in Division III, Erath. 

The contest marks the second straight that pits the Tigers against a top ten ranked opponent in Division IV following the 46-0 loss to district 1-1A foe and #9 ranked Haynesville. 

“We have our work cut out for us again,” reflected Blankenship. “The good news is we are expecting to have our full compliment of players for this one.”

JHHS was forced to play Haynesville without three starters who play heavy minutes on both sides of the ball. 

“When you lose players who play both ways, you are in reality losing six position players,” said Blankenship. “When you already have a short roster, that makes things difficult.” 

The silver lining was that several younger players who hadn’t seen any varsity action before or at best a very little, got lots of playing time, something that Blankenship said will bode well for the rest of the season and the future. 

“It was good to get some of our younger players game experience,” continued Blankenship. “Even though it was a tough test for them being thrown into the fire against possibly the strongest team on our schedule, they learned from it and that will only make them better.”