By Nick Nunn
Staff Writer

Following the loss to Elbert County last Friday, you’d expect that some part of the MCHS Bulldogs’ team would like to take a little breather during fall break this week.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
While most of the student population was probably still at home in bed, the Bulldogs were up and at the school early Monday morning, waiting for the rain to break so they could get out onto the field to start preparing for their next opponent, the East Jackson Eagles.
Head Coach Bill Malone doesn’t appreciate fall break as much as some of the students at MCHS do, but he sees his players’ attitude towards practicing during the week as an indication of the team’s respect for itself and its goals for the season.
“I hate fall break if you look at it on a piece of paper,” said Malone. “But the way our kids are, the way this team is, we had nobody late today and we had no varsity player absent. It’s a testament to these kids and how dedicated they are.”
The members of the team are already showing that they are going to be able to overcome the setbacks they have faced in the last two weeks.
“Nothing is good about a loss,” said Malone, “it’s still going to be there as long as people look at our record for this year, but, as far as growing up and learning from last week’s game… I think that our kids showed that they will react in the right way.”
Although there were big setbacks during the game against Elbert County, Malone noted that the team had their best passing game since 2009. Trent Hawk was able to complete 8 of his 12 attempted passes, for a total of 100 yards.
Coach Malone hopes that the team will be able to forgive itself for the mistakes made against Elbert County.
“If you look back at the things that went wrong, any of the ‘what-ifs’ make the game go in a different direction. Unfortunately, kids tent to take too much credit when they do something, and they also take too much blame.”
Although East Jackson, the opponent for this week, has a 6-0 record so far this season, Coach Malone is taking all of the steps necessary to make sure that the Bulldogs are prepared for the game.
“They’re not a big power-oriented offense,” said Malone. “Primarily, it looks like they want their quarterback to maker it all happen. He throws it well, he throws it often, and, if he’s not throwing it, generally, he’s running it.”
The Eagles’ defense will be more mobile than the defense they faced with Elbert County, who mostly remained in their formations.
“We can expect these guys to be moving. These guys are going to be in multiple places with multiple movements. What we’re hoping to be able to do is to control that blitzing with the fast-paced tempo of our offense.”
As far as the rest of the season goes, Coach Malone has goals, although he admits that they, “seem to be ever-changing.”
“Definitely, the goal right now is to go to the playoffs and win a playoff game,” said Malone.
“If we win these next three, we’ll know we’re in. We just don’t want a repeat performance [of last year] in the playoffs. We just don’t want to be one-and-done.”
So, in the final four games of the regular season, Morgan County will be fighting against East Jackson, Franklin, Hart, and Jackson Counties in order to secure a spot in this year’s postseason games.

Printed in the October 18, 2012 edition