Dukes change game to Thursday

Published 2:57 pm Wednesday, September 3, 2008

WINDSOR—With a nice victory over Nansemond-Suffolk Academy Friday night, Windsor High School will face a Northampton High School team that was beaten up by Franklin High School last Thursday night.

The non-district Windsor-Northampton contest will be held Thursday at Windsor at 7 p.m.

The game is being rescheduled because of a weather forecast that predicts the area will be adversely affected by Tropical Storm Hanna. Hanna was downgraded from a hurricane Tuesday morning, but may pick up strength before hitting the east coast, which is predicted to occur sometime Friday.

The Yellow Jackets (0-1) are reeling from a 50-0 demoralizing loss to Franklin. Windsor head coach Bruce Carroll scouted the game and said that Northampton has some solid parts to its game.

“They have a solid running back (Herbert Lane, 79 yards on 19 carries against Franklin). The kid is powerful,” Carroll said. “Franklin handled them well. Northampton controlled the ball the first 11:30 of the clock and was down 24-0. The difference is going to be handling that kid. They come at you off tackle, which has been our weakness.”

Carroll said Northampton does some thing on defense that could give Windsor some problems. “They stunt a tremendous amount and play a lot of pressure. Franklin was able to get by that first wave.”

Despite beating Nansemond-Suffolk Academy 20-7 on Friday, Carroll said his team still has things to work on.

“We still got to get more kids to the football and tackle better. Those were two things we weren’t pleased with,” Carroll said. “We got some turnovers, but we still got to get to the football better, and when we get there, we have to tackle.”

In other action (schedules subject to change this weekend):

Southampton opens against Bay Rivers District foe Tabb on the road at 7:30 p.m. Tabb beat Grafton 28-7 in its season opener this past weekend.

Southampton Academy (0-1) plays at Kenston Forest at 7:30 p.m.

Tidewater Academy travels to Blessed Sacrament Huguenot for a 7:30 kickoff.

Isle of Wight Academy travels to Hampton Christian Academy for a 7:30 p.m. kick off.

NSA hosts Trinity Episcopal at 7 p.m.

Franklin has a bye week and will travel to Southampton for a 7:30 kickoff on Sept. 12.