Mired in a five-game losing streak, with an offense that’s struggling to gain yards and score points, and with their playoff hopes dimming, the St. Aloysius Flashes are getting something they can ill afford this week — a date with Adams County Christian School.

ACCS (3-2) has won three games in a row after losing to two MAIS Class AAAA powers and is a favorite to contend for the Class AAA championship. It’s a tough matchup at any time, let alone for a team as in desperate need of success as St. Al (0-5).

“We’ve got a good football team, and that’s all we’re focusing on,” St. Al coach BJ Smithhart said. “They’re probably the best in the state in our class. They’ve got a lot of speed, and a lot of weapons, and a lot of size to boot.”

ACCS has averaged 36 points per game during its three-game winning streak, and offers a multitude of offensive sets for opponents to deal with. The Rebels go from a pass-heavy spread offense to a tight single-wing formation that emphasizes a power running game.

That means the Flashes need to play assignment football, which is something they struggled with at times last week against Hartfield Academy and its veer offense. On Hartfield’s first play, quarterback Kyle Waterbury went straight up the middle for a 66-yard touchdown.

“It gets back to assignments, like last week. We can’t blow an assignment early and get behind. We did that last week, and it’s not because we missed a tackle it’s because we missed an assignment,” Smithhart said.

The Flashes also need to generate some offense. After averaging 27 points and nearly 350 yards of offense in losses to Pisgah and Madison-St. Joseph, they’ve fallen flat. St. Al has had a total of 410 yards and scored 21 points on offense in its last two games.

Injuries and depth have hurt, but more troubling is the lack of consistency. St. Al had a 14-play, 75-yard touchdown drive in the second quarter against Hartfield, but only had one other snap in the red zone the entire game.

“Keep working. We’ve got to find what we can do consistently well. The problem is, nothing has consistently worked,” Smithhart said. “Washington is a pretty good defense. Against Hartfield, not being able to run the football between the tackles hurt us. We ought to be able to run it more consistently. We’ve got to be able to run our base runs. It’s little things, but little things that are big. More things we did.

There’s not much room for error against a team like ACCS.”

Last week’s 33-14 loss to Hartfield put St. Al in a must-win situation for its three remaining District 3-AAA games. It might still be able to earn a wild card berth with a strong finish, but needs to start winning its non-district games as well.
It has two left this season, Friday against ACCS and next week at home against Greenville-St. Joseph.

FRIDAY’S AREA GAMES

All games start at 7 p.m.

St. Aloysius at Adams Christian (Radio: 1013. FM)

Vicksburg at Germantown (Radio: 1490 AM)

NW Rankin at Warren Central (Radio: 105.5 FM)

Clinton Christian at PCA (Radio: 104.5 FM)

Christian Collegiate at Tallulah Academy

Franklin Academy at Sharkey-Issaquena

Calvary Christian at Rebul Academy

Central Hinds at Manchester Academy

Port Gibson at Jefferson County

Lakeview at Madison Parish

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