MCHS hoping to win second straight against North Central

Morgan City will look to win its second straight contest Friday when it hosts the North Central Hurricanes.
Morgan City (1-0) escaped Hanson Memorial’s upset bid with a 29-24 victory a week ago when Kerwin Francois returned a kickoff for a touchdown with less than a minute remaining for the Morgan City lead.
The play came almost immediately after Hanson had taken a 24-21 lead with less than a minute remaining.
While it was mixed emotions because Morgan City got the win but didn’t play well, the Tigers have to regroup because they face a North Central team that broke its 28-game losing streak a week ago with a 16-14 road win against Mentorship Academy. It was the team’s first win since the 2014 season.
A safety sealed the victory for the Hurricanes.
“They’ll be excited, especially after losing a big long streak like that,” Morgan City Coach Eric Howard said. “They’ll be coming in trying not to get back on that losing end, so they’re going to come out here and try to fight us pretty hard.”
Howard, who watched the Hurricanes’ game against Morgan City from a year ago, said North Central has some more athletes than a year ago are more consistent on offense and defense this year. He said the team is making a lot more plays this year.
Offensively, he said the Hurricanes are a “diverse” group.
“They do line up in some two-back with a wide receiver, and then they do a lot of empty stuff, and so they kind of jump back and forth from a heavy run set into a heavy pass set,” Howard said.
He said if North Central shows an empty look, they will utilize motion in it, too.
Defensively, he said North Central is similar to Morgan City. He said the Hurricanes run a 4-4 look and play cover 3 behind it.
“They tend to bring their guys a little more off the edge than we do,” Howard said.
Additional reporting by www.thedailyworld.com/sports