Porter’s Chapel Academy was among the 19 MAIS football teams who did not win their season opener. Besides getting in the win column, one of the challenges they’re facing this week is the urge to freak out about it.

The Eagles lost 74-50 to River Oaks in Week Zero, but did enough good things — especially on offense — that they aren’t pressing the panic button as they pivot to their Week 1 match-up with Delta Academy.

“I think we saw good things, and we saw things we need to work on. I think we build on the good and try to improve on the things we need to improve on,” PCA head coach Blake Purvis said. “I don’t think there’s a red alert or an alarm to sound that we need to make wholesale changes. We had success in different areas.”

A lot of that success was on offense. PCA rushed for 325 yards and six touchdowns as a team, and that total includes 56 yards lost on bad snaps that sailed over the quarterback’s head. Jase Jung had a team-high 265 yards and four TDs, and also caught a touchdown pass.

“Offensively, I think we looked pretty good running the football. You put up 50 points and run for 400 yards, I think every football coach in America would take that,” Purvis said.

Defense was a different story. River Oaks scored touchdowns on seven of its first eight offensive snaps and led 60-28 at halftime. The Mustangs also scored three touchdowns on defense and special teams that accounted for most of the 24-point final margin.

Purvis chalked up some of that to River Oaks’ superior speed. It threw four touchdown passes on deep routes where the receiver blew past the coverage, and several others on long runs. The Mustangs’ seven offensive touchdowns all went for 40 yards or more.

Correcting that against Delta Academy is an obvious point of emphasis, and Purvis said some of it is simply making adjustments to put people in the right positions.

“Largely, for us right now, it’s still finding where guys fit,” Purvis said. “With roster sizes like ours it’s hard to get looks in practice to work out some of those kinks. With the amount of inexperience we have, working those out these first couple of weeks is just the nature of it.”

Porter’s Chapel swamped Delta 58-8 last season. Purvis noted that was another challenge for this week — not getting too confident because of last year’s result, nor from the positives of last week.

“They’re improved. They’re a good football team. They can run it, they can throw it, they’ve got some good athletes and are big up front. Definitely not one to take light,” Purvis said. “We’ve got to prepare and have a good week of practice. We’ve got to sharpen our defensive skills, and as good as our offense was the other night it was not perfect. There were several things we got exposed offensively on. We can’t hang our hat on one game of good offensive performance. We’ve got to continue to work on that.”

FRIDAY’S AREA GAMES – AUG. 23
Preseason scrimmages
Vicksburg at Clinton, 6 p.m.
Warren Central at Northwest Rankin, 7 p.m.
MAIS regular season
All games at 7 p.m.
Porter’s Chapel at Delta Academy (Radio: 104.5 FM)
St. Al at Adams County Christian School (Radio: 101.3 FM)
Riverdale at Tallulah Academy