The Charles Henderson Trojans return to region play Friday evening when they travel to Opelika to take on Beauregard on Friday night.

The Trojans (1-2, 1-0) stepped out of region and conference play last week when they traveled to Oxford to take on 6A Oxford. Following their 49-14 loss, the Trojans got back to work, gearing up to return to region play.

“It’s been a steady week, just trying to put in our practice reps,” Trojans head coach Brad McCoy said. “Trying to fix mistakes that were made on Friday night. Trying to clean up everything and get our guys healthy.”

The Trojans held their own with Oxford in the first half last Friday night. The Trojans were tied with Oxford at 14 late in the first half. A late Oxford touchdown gave them a 21-14 lead going into halftime. Oxford outscored the Trojans 28-0 in the second half. Despite the lopsided score in the second half, McCoy believes his team’s conditioning is getting to where it needs to be.

“Our conditioning is much better,” McCoy said. “I think we match up with our region just fine seeing how we matched up with Oxford. Conditioning is what ended up getting us against them. We have guys that play both ways. I learned that we are getting better and getting in better shape.”

Even though the postseason doesn’t start until early November, the Trojans treat each region game as a playoff game.

“It’s how you make it to the playoffs,” McCoy said. “You have to take it one game at a time. I believe you have to treat every one of these games like a playoff game. They’re all big and they’re all important.”

The Trojans next “playoff game” comes Friday night when they take on a Hornets team coming off a 33-21 loss to Rehobeth on the road. The Hornets are 0-3 on the season and 0-2 in region play.

“They surprisingly lost to Rehobeth last week,” McCoy said. “To me that was a shock to most everybody. I have been saying the whole season that Rehobeth’s football team is so much better. Beauregard is a confident bunch. They have a lot of tradition and a lot of support. A few years back they were state champions in 5A. Those guys believe that they should win ball games. They’ll bounce back. This is one of those games that will go down to the wire. I don’t expect anything less.”

The Hornets have been shutout twice this season and are averaging 20 points per game. The Hornets allow 38.5 points per game on defense.

“They are a spread football team on offense and an even front on defense,” McCoy said. “They will play zero coverage and do some stuff that makes it really tough to throw the ball.”

Beauregard knocked off the Trojans a season ago 41-26 in Troy.