Beauregard disregarrds Charles Henderson

TROY — Beauregard wasn’t interested in distractions Friday night.

The Hornets ignored playing at imposing Movie Gallery Veterans Stadium. They ignored playing on field turf for the first time. They even ignored the distractions of Charles Henderson’s homecoming.

They did not ignore the challenge in front of them. Beauregard (4-2, 3-1) didn’t just play better than Henderson, it played harder — and emerged with a 28-16 victory over the suddenly struggling Trojans.

“I am so proud of our kids,” Beauregard head coach Smitty Grider said. “We’ve been in position to win this kind of game in the past, but we lost some we should have had. This was a clean, hard-hitting game and we had a number of kids go down. But they stayed in there and gutted it out.”

The Hornets were led by quarterback Ameriol Finley and running back Kris James. Finley guided the shotgun spread attack capably. He completed 9 of 13 passes for 77 yards. He ran for 125 yards on 19 carries.

James was just as productive. He carried 27 times for 126 yards and three short touchdown runs of 4, 1 and 3 yards.

“Those two guys are the reason we’re in the offense we have now,” Grider said. “Finley can make things happen with his arm and his feet. Kris was our running back, but he’s a little undersized and I’m not sure we could run him between the tackles 35 times a game. But they’re both leaders and they make things go for us.”

But Beauregard’s defense was nearly dominant. The Trojans (3-3, 2-2) managed just nine offensive plays in the third quarter. A couple of uncharacteristic errors hurt Henderson as well. The biggest one came after Beauregard scored first on James’ 4-yard run up the middle two plays into the second quarter.

On the next play from scrimmage, CHHS running back Billy Neal was stripped of the ball on a 7-yard gain. Braden Dubose picked up the fumble near the 30 and returned it up the left sideline. He cut back toward the middle and scored the defensive touchdown for the Hornets, who led 13-0 with 11:02 left in the second quarter.

Henderson seemed to answer a wakeup call. Quarterback K.D. Edenfield led a 12-play, 80-yard drive that took 5:44 off the clock. Edenfield capped the march with a sneak over left guard. Dustin Smith’s extra point made it 13-7.

But the Hornets stormed right back. James broke a long run off left guard for 43 yards and a first down at the 4. Two plays later, he scored from the 1. A couple of Henderson offsides penalties set up a two-point sneak from the 1 by Finley, and it was 21-7 with 3:45 left in the half.

“That was a huge drive,” Grider said. “Answering their score after they got back in it was key. The kids just persevered.”

Charles Henderson, which has lost three straight after a 3-0 start, put itself in position to score before halftime. A big defensive play by Seneric McCurdy helped force the Trojans to settle for Dustin Smith’s 21-yard field goal right before the half, cutting Beauregard’s lead to 21-10.

The Hornets held the ball nearly six and a half minutes to open the third quarter, but didn’t get points as James fumbled at the Henderson 1.

But it certainly shortened the game. Henderson also saw a short punt deflect off a blocker and the Hornets recovered. That allowed them to squeeze another six minutes off the fourth-quarter clock before James scored from the 3 to make it 28-10.

Henderson’s last touchdown came with 1:35 remaining, another sneak by Edenfield.

“We’re just not playing good right now, for whatever reason,” CHHS coach Hugh Fountain said. “I don’t want to take anything away from Beauregard. They beat us. But it doesn’t look like we’re getting better. You need to get better every week and we haven’t, obviously.”