Indians present another tough test for Bulldogs

New Albany’s road to a potential division championship continues this Friday night with the Bulldogs hosting district foe, Itawamba.

Elizabeth Zaremba

New Albany looks to avenge a 34-7 loss they suffered against the Indians last season.

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The Indians have had New Albany’s number for several years, with the ‘Dawgs last winning in 2005. This game is yet another challenge for the undefeated Bulldogs.
“Last week was a huge hump getting over Pontotoc and beating them,” NAHS head coach Ron Price said. “Now it’s just moving on to the next challenge. Itawamba has been the lead dog in our division, so if we can knock them off, it would show that New Albany is for real and keep us in position to do what we want to do, and that’s have a chance at the end of the year to win the division.”
Ole Miss commitment Maikhail Miller is again the leading force for the Indians (4-3, 1-0), as he accounted for all seven of Itawamba’s touchdowns in their 48-45 win against North Pontotoc last week. Completing 52 percent of his passes while throwing for 10 touchdowns and rushing for 11 so far this season, it is obvious where the ‘Dawgs will focus on defense.
“Our defense has stepped up to several challenges so far this season, and this is just another challenge,” Price said. “We know that Maikhail’s a great quarterback, and he’s getting a ton of attention from a lot of different colleges. Our defense has been faced with a lot of different challenges, and they’ve stepped up to them, so hopefully they can come out and do that again Friday night.”
Looking to fix the little mistakes that plagued his team early on against Pontotoc, Price hopes to see more improvement with his squad heading into this divisional game.
“After watching a lot of the film from last week, we were fortunate to come out with a win,” he said.
“For us to have been able to win last Friday night and not doing the little things well, we know there’s still a lot of room for improvement. If we can continue to improve from week to week, this team will really have a chance to win our division this year.”
Kickoff for Friday's contest is set for 7 p.m. at Kitchens’ Field.