Gentry set for third road game

— Three games into the season, the Gentry Pioneers are already familiar with the challenges of playing on the road.

The Pioneers opened the season with two road games - a 24-21 win at Colcord, Okla., on Sept. 3 and a 36-21 loss at Class 3A No. 1 Charleston on Sept. 10.

That's why head coach Brian Little doesn't think opening the 1-4A Conference season on the road at Farmington will be a big issue on Friday.

"I think this group does well (on the road)," Little said. "We don't consider that much of a factor. Our fans have shown they'll travel with us. We feel pretty good about that."

The Cardinals (1-1-1) rebounded from a season-opening loss to Siloam Springs and a tie against Ozark with a 46-0 win against Marshall last Friday at Allen Holland Field.

"Farmington is a good ballclub," Little said. "They've very capable, very talented and wellcoached. They're always going to be prepared."

The Pioneers (1-2), meanwhile, have put their 38-7 home loss against Siloam Springs last week behind them, Little said.

"You know despite the score we still did some good things," Little said. "We're never pleased with a loss but we had some goals going into this year. : One of those goals was to make it throughthree weeks of Colcord, Charleston and Siloam without any major injuries and we've done that. I think preparation for the 1-4A is going to serve us well here having played these three games.

"We've learned some good lessons from those three games. The way we're approaching this thing is it's a brand new start. It's a new season. This is what matters and it's time to get busy."

In terms of yardage, the Pioneers had their lowest output of the season offensively against the Panthers. However Little said the offensive unit did a lot of things better against Siloam Springsthan it did against Charleston. The only difference was the Pioneers couldn't put the ball in the end zone against Siloam Springs until senior Nick Weeks scored on a 20-yard touchdown run with 6:32 left.

"I felt like we did some things a lot better offensively," Little said. "We were improved. We just couldn't get the ball in the end zone and score. You expect after three weeks of football that there's still room for improvement."

Senior quarterback CalebRamsey completed only 11 of 32 passes for 113 yards and tossed a pair of interceptions. Ramsey did rush 12 times for 83 yards and Weeks had 58 yards on five carries for a team total of 141 rushing yards. The Pioneers averaged 8.3 yards per rush.

Ramsey has completed 38 of 87 passes for 503 yards with four touchdowns and six interceptions. He's also rushed for a team-high 153 yards. Weeks has 105 yards rushing on 20 carries (5.3 yards per carry).

NOTES: Six different wideouts caught passes from Ramsey last week, led by Kevin Scherer's three catches for 18 yards. Mario Orozco leads the team with 12 catches for 204 yards while Justin Stewart has nine catches for 180. : Junior linebacker Eathen Ramsey leads the team with 26 total tackles while Weeks has 23 and Justin Wilks has 22.

Sports, Pages 10, 11 on 09/23/2009

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