The South Hardin football team will look to take another step forward when the season begins Friday night. They’ll host West Marshall for a non-district tilt.
Coming off last year’s 9-2 season that featured a 1A quarterfinal appearance, the Tigers have gained statewide preseason attention in many polls. While they’ll look to retool their run game, quarterback Peyton Welch is back for his senior season after 21 touchdowns and eight interceptions last year. After earning first team all-state honors with a 1,000-yard season, Sam Benson is back at wide receiver to provide a spark in the passing game.
Coming off a 7-3 season where they advanced to the second round of the playoffs, West Marshall will have a new-look team after graduating most of its production. However, South Hardin coach Nick Eller expects a physical battle.
“I’ve never seen a West Marshall team not be physical,” Eller says. “So we’ve got a lot of respect for their program. We knew putting them down on the schedule was gonna be a tough battle for us, but we wanted that for our non-district games. So it’s definitely gonna be a good battle. They’ll come play hard. We’re a little bit of rivals from a lot of different sports. There’s kids know each other well and usually get after each other pretty well. I’m expecting them throwing the sink at us. Got nothing to lose going against one of the top ranked teams in the state in our class. So we’re expecting their best shot, them throwing everything they can at us, and we’ve really got to come ready to play and play physical, smart football, because they’ll really make you defend the entire field.”
It’ll start at 7:00 p.m. at Tiger Field.
