Article: Clark Leonard/Shelby Star

Players and coaches alike are ready to roll Friday night as county rivals Burns and Crest will face off at 7:30 in both teams’ regular-season opener at Sid Bryson Stadium.

And with the Bulldogs’ last win in the series coming in 1998, Burns coach Matt Beam is looking forward to trying to end that streak.

“There’s no pressure on us, you know. Nobody around probably thinks we can beat them,” Beam said. “So we’re going to go out there and play loose and have fun and fly around and see what happens.”

While Beam is in his second season as the Bulldogs’ head man, Mark Barnes will be in his first regular-season contest as Crest’s coach.

“We feel like we’re ready. Our players are excited about the game, and we feel like we’ve got a good game plan,” Barnes said. “And they’ve executed it well in practice so far, so hopefully we’ll do it well Friday night.”

Burns will have extra motivation after seeing a 20-0 lead disappear in last season’s 30-27 season-opening loss to the Chargers in Lawndale. Perhaps more than anything, Beam said his guys learned the value of protecting the ball, particularly against Crest.

“If you make errors, they’ll go down there and score and put the pressure on you. And then you kind of maybe get out of your game plan of what you want to do, and you kind of press a little bit more,” Beam said. “And when you press against them, they roll it up and score a bunch.”

Barnes, meanwhile, knows the Bulldogs’ offense rides largely on junior quarterback Brandon Littlejohn, though he’s certainly not the only dangerous player for Burns.

“Everything goes through their quarterback. We’ve got to find a way to control him. You know, obviously, controlling means he’s still going to get his yards, he’s still going to make his plays,” Barnes said. “And we’ve just got to find a way to not let him make big plays because they do have a lot of athletes on offense.”

Both coaches saw plenty of room for improvement from their scrimmages. Barnes cited the need to be more physical and Beam is looking for better effort.

The players will certainly be ready to fight for county bragging rights, making this contest like few others on either team’s schedule this season.

“When we play each other, you just kind of throw everything out the window and see what happens,” Beam said. “Like everything in football, it’s going to come down to, you know, who makes the mistake and who gives up the big play.”

View Article at the Star

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