Sometimes it’s about survival.
Entering the season with a freshman quarterback and five sophomore starters on offense, Aberdeen High School football coach Chris Duncan felt his Bulldogs would have a chance to play for a league championship if they could just make it to the Class 3A, Region 2 portion of their schedule.
Duncan was right.
Aberdeen (5-4, 3-0 region) enters tonight’s showdown at Water Valley (7-2, 3-0) tied for the league lead. A victory would give the Bulldogs the region title with one regular-season game remaining.
“I think we are getting better every week offensively,” Duncan said. “If our quarterback plays well, we do well on offense. If he’s making enough plays, then we’ve got a chance.”
Freshman quarterback Josh Williams is closing in on 1,000 yards passing this season.
“I think offensively we have been playing as good or better than we have all season,” Duncan said. “We have had over 400 yards in offense the last three weeks.”
After a 2-4 start in non-region games, Aberdeen has defeated Mantachie (40-0), Nettleton (43-7), and Mooreville (35-20) in region play. Last week, Aberdeen led Mooreville 14-13 at halftime before taking over in the second half.
“We just settled down in the second half,” Duncan said. “Offensively, when we didn’t make mistakes we scored. Early in the game we would have a bad snap or a bad play that would set us back.”
While Aberdeen has been playing well as of late, Water Valley has been rolling. It has region wins against Mooreville (21-20), South Pontotoc (49-7), and Nettleton (53-7).
“We knew at the end of last year they were going to have a good team again,” Duncan said of Water Valley. “They made it to the third round last year and we knew before the season began that Water Valley, Charleston, and (Cleveland) East Side were going to be the teams to beat in the North half. That hasn’t changed.”
Despite knowing his team was going to be young entering this season, Duncan didn’t take the easy route. He built a schedule that featured Columbus, Noxubee County, West Bolivar, and Louisville. Those teams are 30-7 this season. Duncan said the benefits of the schedule have been obvious.
“There is no doubt it has made us more physical and has made our young kids step up and become better football players,” Duncan said.
Aberdeen will close the regular season Oct. 28 at home against South Pontotoc.
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