Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The Charles Henderson Trojans (5-3) will wrap up the 2024 regular season this week on the road at the Class 6A Pike Road Patriots (6-3) in a non-region game.

The playoff bound Trojans secured home field advantage in the first round with a win over Eufaula on the road in the region finale last week. Meanwhile, Pike Road won its third straight region win on Oct. 18 over Russell County. That win secured a No. 1 seed in the 6A Playoffs for the Patriots.

Pike Road features two of the top high school recruits in Alabama for the Class of 2026 in running back Ja’Michael Jones and linebacker Braylon Outlaw. Jones is a four-star rated athlete committed to Auburn, while Outlaw is a three-star rated player with offers from numerous Power 4 schools like Arkansas, Georgia Tech, Michigan, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Oregon and more.

“Pike Road is fast and physical and they’re very disciplined on both sides of the ball,” CHHS Coach Quinn Hambrite said. “It will be a tough one for us to match up against because of their speed and physicality.”

So far this season, Jones has 939 yards and 15 touchdowns on 180 carries, while quarterback Cason Myers has thrown for 1,179 yards and nine touchdowns with eight interceptions. Receiver Omari Smith has hauled in 29 catches for 520 yards and seven scores.

On defense, Outlaw has 80 tackles, two tackles-for-loss, one sack and one interception, while Rufus Boone Jr. has recorded 85 tackles, two tackles-for-loss, one sack, one interception and a blocked punt.

Last week, Nemo Williams led the way for the Trojans in their big region win over Eufaula. He recorded 84 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries along with registering five tackles on defense. He also forced a fumble, which he scooped up and returned 62 yards for a score. Big 6-foot-2-inch tight end Noah Greene hauled in four passes for 42 yards and linebacker Quay Grimes recorded 10 tackles, 4.5 tackles-for-loss, two sacks and a forced fumble on defense.

While this game means nothing as far as the playoffs go – and CHHS comes in banged up – the Trojans are still hungry to finish off the regular season with a fourth straight win.

“We’re coming in banged up, so we don’t know if we’ll be full participation this week, but we’re coming to win,” Hambrite emphasized. “When you keep score you are always playing to win. So, that’s what we’re doing. We’re playing this game just like it’s a region game and going out there to compete our best.”

One Achilles heel for the Trojans last week was penalties as CHHS was flagged 21 times. Hambrite wants to see that, and other mistakes, cleaned up.

“Execution is the biggest thing for us this week,” he said. “It’s really that simple. If we executed better last week, like we should have, I think that game would have been different. We missed a lot of blocks and we were out of place at times. I want to see us clean that up and clean up those penalties more than anything. Just go out and execute.”

Charles Henderosn and Pike Road will kickoff at 7 p.m. this Friday, Nov. 1, in Pike Road.