Central will make home debut vs. Blytheville

~ The Tigers face a stiff test against Blytheville.

When Central quarterback Chase Johnson returned home last Friday after his team's 61-16 loss to New Madrid County Central, he did not try to sleep off the memories of his two fumbles and one interception. Instead, he relived the game.

"I went home and stayed up until 3 o'clock in the morning watching the film over and over," Johnson said. "I wanted to see what I could have done to prevent [the mistakes]."

Tigers coach Lawrence Brookins opted for some sleep and to watch the game Saturday morning. And when he did, he was surprisingly pleased because he saw the Tigers do a lot of things right. He said he thinks his team played more physical than New Madrid. He added that his team was losing by only 10 points in the third quarter, and if it was not for those three turnovers, the result could have been different.

"The thing that separated us from being losers and them from being winners was stinking turnovers, and late in the game, the inability to tackle consistently," Brookins said. "In our mind, we gave them three of their scores off of turnovers."

The loss to New Madrid was the Tigers' second straight lopsided defeat to begin the season. In Week 1, Central lost to Parkway North 56-7. Brookins said he is much more optimistic about his team's performance in Week 2.

He told his players to watch both Monday Night Football games this week so they could start learning more about their own jobs and what the players do around them. He said this would allow his team to cut down on mistakes, turnovers and penalties.

Personnel changes, such as moving Shawn Hammock to nose guard and John Ritter to offensive guard, have helped the team become quicker up front on the line of scrimmage. He added that the addition of Rickien Russell to the left of Hammock on the defensive line also helped last week. Russell missed Week 1 with a concussion.

Central will face another big challenge in its home opener tonight against Blytheville (Ark.) at 7 p.m. The Tigers lost to Blytheville 41-21 last year.

Blytheville runs an offense that features one or two wingbacks outside either a single or double tight end formation. The backfield typically consists of just a quarterback and fullback.

"If you don't stop that big kid, then they'll just run dives and all kinds of stuff with him and just beat you to death all night," Brookins said.

"We're upbeat and the kids seem upbeat about our chances in the next few weeks. We hope to turn this sucker around and get on some sort of win streak here starting this week."