Midway through a question, Port Neches-Groves coach Brandon Faircloth heard something about a return to Friday night games after a compressed District 22-5A football schedule.

“That’s probably the most exciting thing of the week, honestly,” he exclaimed. “Friday night game, Friday night schedule, pep rally, all those kinds of things, that’s why one of the reasons playing football at PNG is exciting.

“To be there Friday night in front of your fans, obviously playing [Port Arthur] Memorial is a big game, not every kid gets to be in these scenarios. I’m excited for our players, and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Four game dates into district play (three for PNG), Friday night football is back.

Along with that, for Memorial (4-0, 4-0 in 22-5A) and other teams, is an extra day of rest after playing two games last week, one Monday and the other Saturday.

“I think it’s very important,” Titans coach Kenny Harrison said. “We get an extra day of work. It was rough stretch there playing four games in 18 days. To have an opportunity to get an extra day to prepare gave our kids a day of rest a little bit and gave us time to put together a quality game plan together for a very quality opponent.”

A slice of normalcy will resume when a huge turnout at The Reservation witnesses a next-door rivalry that’s only into its second year. The Titans have a 1-0 advantage, having stopped the Indians’ comeback efforts in a 33-28 win at Memorial Stadium.

The stakes remain the same — first place — but the venue will be different. It’ll be Harrison’s first time as a head coach to take a team to pay the Indians a visit.

“It’s going to be a lot of electricity,” Harrison said. “ I remember my senior year (1990 season at Thomas Jefferson), we went to Port Neches and played, and that was the first time in a couple of years that Port Neches and Thomas Jefferson played each other. We ended up beating them 28-5. I just remember a great atmosphere.

“With our fan support and their fan support the same as this time, I think every kid would want to play in a game like that who’s serious about high school football.”

Some of the playmakers are the same from 2016. For PNG (4-0, 3-0 in 22-5A), there’s run-and-pass threat Roschon Johnson and running back-slash-wide receiver Preston Hughes, just to name a couple. For Memorial, running back Elijah Hines, who ran for 303 yards and five touchdowns in the last meeting, and quarterback Keitha Jones, a wide receiver last year.

“They understand everything that’s at stake,” Harrison said of Hines and Jones. “They understand they’re the workhorses, and they’ve worked extremely hard up to this point. I look forward to them leading us to a victory tomorrow.”

Memorial’s defense has held opponents to 96 total yards per game, but has survived big tests in its past two outings, beating Nederland in a game that came down to the final possession and Lumberton after digging from a 13-0 deficit.

“First, it starts with the front seven,” Harrison said. “Our captains on defense are Braydon Williams and Jomard Valsin — our kids feed off those two guys. They do a very good job of being effective in the running game and controlling the line of scrimmage.”

PNG’s offense presents another test to Memorial. The Indians rack up 537 total yards per game to lead the district (Vidor is second at 393.7), and Johnson has almost thrown for 1,200 yards through four games (647 of them to Preston Riggs). Johnson ran for three touchdowns, two of them in the final 10 minutes, at Memorial last year.

“I don’t think you can ever be a step ahead of them, as fast as they are,” Faircloth said. “I was really proud of the kids’ effort in the fourth quarter. I thought they were in good shape. We found some plays. Fourth quarters come back to adjustments that you make or finding some things late in the game that didn’t work in the beginning of this game. But that has nothing to do with this year. They have a new team and we have a new team. We don’t worry a whole lot about what happened last year.

“We don’t care what the score is, we’re going to play for 48 minutes and try to be at our best.”
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I.C. Murrell: 549-8541. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews