Although much of the angst from the Greenville Christian Saints 61-21 defeat of Indianola Academy Colonels back on Oct. 16 has been reconciled, there is perhaps no other team that IA would rather be facing when the teams square off for their second round MAIS 3A playoff contest on Friday.
Greenville Christian will once again host Indianola Academy. In their regular season meeting, Greenville Christians celebrated its emphatic win as time expired.
Meanwhile, an IA player sustained an injury that required medical attention. IA fans misconstrued the celebration as a response to the injured player and they expressed their disgust by exchanging verbal barbs with the GSC faithful.
“As far as anything between the players and coaches lingering, I think that it’s all over,” said Saints head coach Jon Reed McLendon. “We’ve talked and I believe that we all want to learn from it, move on and look forward to good playoff football.”
Greenville Christian’s eight straight wins after dropping its season opener have been characterized by an offensive onslaught and a plethora of speedsters for junior quarterback DJ Smith to find downfield.
However, IA played perhaps the most competitive half of football of any team against the high-powered Saints. At one point during the second quarter of the previous contest, the Colonels were down 24-21 with an offense moving the ball very effectively.
“They’re a good football team, very well-coached, and good at what they do,” McLendon said. “They can execute a game plan and make it tough on opponents. They have some guys that can really run on offense, and they hit some big plays on us in the first half. They really competed hard. We expect the same thing from them this time. They will be ready to play, and we need to be our best.”
With a bye week last week and time to focus on an effective game plan in practice this week, the Saints are specific in their strategy for Friday night. “Practice last week, on a bye week, was a time for us to re-evaluate ourselves and try to really focus on us,” he said. “… kind of a time to refocus, clean up things we weren’t good on the last couple weeks, on both sides of the ball, especially pass coverage, and make sure we’re in a good place heading into our first playoff game.”
McLendon said that in addition to the great talent that he has this season, that one of the most understated factors in the team’s success has been the health of the team. There have been no major injury issues to speak of.
“We’ve been blessed on the health front,” he said. “We’re excited. We are thankful for the opportunity to still be playing and we want to enjoy it, but I think there is a business-like mentality as well. We know we still have a lot of football in front of us, and we want to be our best.”
Kickoff is 7 p.m. Friday.
