Mounties hope home is to their advantage

ROGERS — Coach Ronnie Peacock wants to see his team take advantage of playing five of its first six games at home.

The 7A-West Conference opener against Fort Smith Southside would be a good time for a big home victory.

"The schedule should be a benefit for us," said Peacock. The Mounties are 4-4 at Mountie Stadium after leaving David Gates Stadium with a 13-home game win streak. "Hopefully the kids will feel the advantage and feel the comfort of playing at home."

The Mounties (2-1) and Rebels (2-1) have alternated wins in their seven meetings since 2003, including a 23-22 Rogers loss in the 2006 state championship game.

The Mounties also lost last year, giving up five turnovers in a 27-13 loss at Southside.

The Rebels will bring a strong running game - led by senior tailback David Adair and his back-to-back 100-yard games - to Rogers, which has already played two hard-running opponents.

The Mounties allowed 84 points and 774 rushing yards to undefeated Webb City, Mo., and winless Van Buren in two nonconference games.

Peacock said his defense - with several two-way players - just has to keep getting better.

"We don't have a whole lot of depth there. I think it's a matter of some of our kids just have to get better and improve," Peacocksaid. "We point out good and bad things (in film) that they do and it's a matter of them fixing it or getting better.

"The competition gets a whole lot better when we get into the conference and the margin of error is a little bit smaller. Execution becomes a real prime factor when you start conference."

The Rogers defense does have seven interceptions, including four by senior linebacker D.J. Smart, and a shutout of winless Kansas City (Mo.) Central.

"I'm pretty satisfied with our nonconference, what we did, Peacock said. "Hopefully we learned and grew (from the Webb City game) and it made us better.

"I think it was a good thing (the Van Buren game) was tied at the half and we had to play four quarters to beat them."

NOTES: Rogers senior lineman Britton Coffin, another two-way player, will likely miss Friday's game after suffering a concussion in an off-thefield accident. Peacock said Coffin fell in the shower and hit his head. : Senior running back Brandon Austin missed practice last week with a hip injury and had only a few reps in the Van Buren win. Peacock hopes he'll be full strength this week.