Saying they got the bad taste out of their mouths with a win last Friday night, the J.Z. George football team heads over to Montgomery County to take on rival Winona High School Friday at Tiger Field.
J.Z. George knocked off Coffeeville High School 36-6 last week to move to 1-1 on the young season. Senior quarterback Jordun Normal threw for 200 yards and four touchdowns. Two of his TD passes went to senior receiver D’Anthony McGlothan, while the other two went to junior Keiyhaun Wilks. Senior running back Kendarius Head ran for 70 yards and had two 2-point conversions.
“It was a tough week last week because of all the distractions,” said head coach Rusty Smith. “We didn’t practice Monday with the weather turning bad, and the field was soaked Tuesday. Then we find out Thursday that four of our senior starters were in quarantine and one other kid we held out for disciplinary reasons. We were glad to make it through the week.”
Senior cornerback Ja’Darius Fluker scooped up a fumble right before the half and ran it in from 30 yards out for a touchdown. That gave the Jags a 28-0 lead headed to the locker room.
“The way it happened was hard to understand,” Smith said. “There was only two seconds left on the clock and Coffeeville called a time out. They fumbled the ball and Ja’Darius took off with it.
“With us coming off a loss in our first game, we needed to get a win to get the bad taste out of our mouths. We had so many guys out it caused us to go out Thursday and move some guys around. It wasn’t an ideal Thursday walk through.”
The Jaguars opened their season with a 58-0 loss to Greenville Christian School.
Winona will be a different challenge from the Jags’ first two opponents.
“We need to be at full strength to take on Winona. They have a solid football team. They do about the same things on offense they did last year. It’s no secret they are going to give the ball to No. 7 (Deriaun Townsend),” Smith added. “They are doing some different things on defense. They are a talented football team, so we will need our playmakers to make plays.”
Winona (2-0) won a thrilling 50-47 double overtime contest against Newton County last week. Townsend, who played his freshman and sophomore seasons at J.Z. George, ran for 238 yards and four touchdowns on 37 carries. He also caught four passes for 47 yards and a pair of scores.
Winona holds an 18-3 lead in the all-time series and beat the Jaguars 41-20 in 2020.
