FORSYTH - Full padded, the Greyhounds put a summer of workouts in the mirror on Friday when they got the closest thing to a game environment since the spring game when they took on Mary Persons on Friday in a preseason scrimmage.
And although the night was cut short by weather in the area with less than 3:00 to go in the first half, Jones County coaches walked away from Dan Pitts Stadium with multiple things to feel good about going into Friday’s season opener at Greyhound Field against Veterans. Although no score was officially kept, Jones County outscored Mary Persons 21-10.
“There’s definitely some guys who can make plays for us on both sides of the ball,” Jones County head coach Mike Chastain said. “We’re excited about that and that we got to see our guys compete in a tight game against someone else.”
On offense, JCHS showed flashes of its big-play potential with quarterback Devin Edmonds hooking up with Jaivon Solomon multiple times downfield, one being a 36-yard touchdown pass and another score from 75 yards away.
The Greyhounds also got some strong secondary receiving impact from Kaden Johnson, whose fourth-down catch set up Solomon’s first score while another catch late in the half set the stage for linebacker Zacarri Thomas – one of multiple players set to play both ways this season – rumbling 20 yards through the Bulldogs defense for a touchdown.
“In a scrimmage game a lot of times, a lot of people are not really scheming other people up,” Chastain said. “I imagine some other teams may have a few plans ready for what we have on both sides of the ball, so we have to be ready to have those answers.”
Speaking of the Greyhounds defense, it came up with multiple stops against Mary Persons and also held on one scoring drive, forcing a field goal.
“We’re excited about what we saw. We’re still getting better and better every day in the trenches with our o-line and d-line play,” Chastain said. “Those guys are playing hard, which is what you want. We want our guys to continue to keep fight as hard as they can and keep playing hard.”
Jones County will continue to fight hard on Friday in its season opener against Veterans. Due to being in a 10-team region, it’ll be the only non-region game for the Greyhounds this season.
Two numbers separated by a hyphen serve as motivation enough for Jones County on Friday. That would be the Greyhounds’ overall record against Veterans – 0-2.
“I know this, we are 0-2 against Veterans,” Chastain said. “We played them in a spring game and got after them, but when the game counts, we are 0-2 against them. We have to come out hungry and be ready to go.”
The Warhawks will roll into Gray Friday as a very battle-tested team. Veterans is led by thirdyear head coach Josh Ingram after going 5-5 two years ago and 3-7 last year. That record, however, comes from playing in a gauntlet of a region. The last two years saw the Warhawks in a region with last year’s AAAAAA state champion Thomas County Central as well as Lee County, Northside and Houston County. This year finds Veterans in AAAAA in a region with two defending state champs in TCC and Coffee.
“They play in a really tough region and might not get as much respect as they need. They’re a bigger school and have almost 600 more kids than we have so that’s more than likely 300 more boys to choose from, more than likely,” Chastain said. “They’re a bigger school and play in a tough region, we don’t need to let them try and gain any confidence against us. We need to come out ready to go and get off to a fast start.”
