By By Matthew Nascone
Homecoming is a time to celebrate and relax, but the Northview High School Chiefs football team can do no such thing during their Homecoming game.
The Chiefs host Blountstown, who is a 2-3 team that before this year had gone 25-2, according to NHS head coach Cody Keene.
"They have a really good team," Keene said. "We will have to execute and take care of business out there Friday. We have to execute and be mentally ready to play."
Keene said if the Chiefs concentrate on their assignments they will be all right, and he has told his players to treat this game like any other.
"This is just the next week for us," he said. "We have told our guys that it is our job to win the football game. And we are focusing on doing that during practice. We are not going to worry about the Homecoming stuff when we hit the field."
And Keene said if the Chiefs can focus like they have the previous two weeks, they would be fine. They have outscored their opponents 76-13 in two games.
"When we focus we are a good team," Keene said. "And the team on the other sideline is a good team as well, so this should be a good football game. If we execute and play like we are capable of playing, it should be a good win for us on Homecoming."
The Chiefs took down Marianna last year on Homecoming and Keene said they hope to duplicate that success against a good team this year.
To pull out a win on Homecoming, Keene said the Chiefs will have to shut down wide receiver Jon Lockhart, who has already verbally committed to Georgia Tech.
"We will let Tarus (Thomas) handle him and we have confidence that Tarus can deal with him and keep him in check," Keene said.
On the other side of the ball, the Northview backfield will have a tough time finding holes against Ryan Baker, Blountstown's inside linebacker who has verbally committed to LSU.
To help the Chiefs deal with Blountstown, Keene said there will need to be help from another source.
"We need a crowd out here to support these kids," he said. "They are working so hard and the community needs to continue to come out and watch them play."
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. and the Homecoming festivities will begin around 6:20 p.m.