Hornets preparing for Pettus, biggest game in years
By KRIS BAGLEY sports@leader-news.com

31-A Football DISTRICT STANDINGS

The Hornets are finished with their open week and preparing to play in the biggest game of Head Football Coach Rodney Dowell's three-year tenure.

Louise will travel to Pettus Friday with a chance at making the playoffs for the first time under Dowell. A win puts the Hornets second in District 31-A while a loss means a fourth-place finish and no post-season.

"Pettus is good," Dowell said. "They lost a heartbreaker to Flatonia (Friday). Pettus was really winning the whole game. They were really dominating both sides of the ball the whole game, but Flatonia just kept hanging around."

An 80-yard drive with time running out delivered the win to Flatonia.

Though Louise touts a win over Flatonia earlier this season, Dowell said that the win alone is not a reason to be confident.

"We beat Flatonia and we really kind of handled them," Dowell said. "Flatonia made a good surge at the end of the game, kind of like they did with Pettus. Pretty much the whole game, we dominated the Flatonia game.

"However, Falls City beat us and Pettus beat Falls City. If you want to play that game, we can play that round and round. That thing goes in circles. If you want to break the circle, you've got to do something to get outside the box. Our kids are going to have to bust out and play the game of their life."

Specifically, Dowell wants to see his offense perform well, particularly rushers Kyle Lawson and Antwon Parson and quarterback Cory Hajovsky.

"We need to have some big games out of Kyle Lawson and Antwon. I really feel like Cory Hajovsky has to have a big game for us to make this a triplethreat attack. I say a big game, but really, I just expect Antwon to do what Antwon does, Cory to do what Cory does and Kyle to do what Kyle does."

Pettus brings statistically the district's best offense to face the Hornets.

The Eagles average 324 yards per game and have a total 2,919 yards this season in a balanced attack.

Dowell said he knows his defense will need to play their best.

"We need our defense to play really physical and really well," Dowell said. "Pettus has five or six pretty good linemen, but they have to play both sides of the ball. We have two, maybe who play both sides of the ball and not even the whole game. Four or five of our offensive linemen either don't play defense or split time."

Dowell said his team knows how important Friday's game will be and pointed to Louise tight end Javier Padron as an example.

"They know what's on the line and they want to win bad," Dowell said. "Javier was in here earlier and he said, 'It's just going to come down to who wants it more.' I told him, 'I know and how much pain you're willing to go to get it. What are you willing to do?' He looked at me and said, 'Anything it takes.'"