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STAR CORRESPONDENT

Happy Valley welcomes Hancock County to Warrior Hill on Friday night in non-conference action riding a two game win streak. The Warriors (2-3 overall) have overcome a three game skid to open the season and seem to have found their offensive footing, scoring 35 points or more in the last two contests.

Last week the Warriors rode 100 yards rushing and three touchdowns from senior RB Joseph Sowards in a 35-0 win over Unaka. In that contest sophomore QB Aiden Paul added 69 yards rushing and a touchdown and Jamie Esterline added 53 yards and a score.

“We had multiple guys involved,” Warriors head coach Jason Jarrett said. “Sowards had a good game and Jamie Esterline had one of his better games. When you get a taste of victory you get a little swagger and now we have a chance to make it three in a row. Staying healthy is the key. We had some injuries early and had to do some things differently.”

Two weeks ago the Warriors won a big conference clash with Eagleton Academy and took a 38-12 victory with Paul rushing for 217 yards and a pair of scores and the Warriors defense asserting itself by shutting down the Royals offensively.

Hancock County (1-5 overall) comes off a 36-32 conference victory over Cosby and will hope to make it two in a row when they invade Warrior Hill. The Indians fell to Cloudland 54-16 in week two and average 13.0 points per game offensively.

Defensively the Indians have averaged surrendering 40.0 points per game.

After a slow start in which Happy Valley scored just 18 points in its first three games has found its running game and scored 38 points against Eagleton and 35 against Unaka and will look to match those totals on Friday night.

“They have about 25 players, similar to Unaka in size,” Jarrett said. “They come off a good win against Cosby and we will have to play well in all phases of the game. In the Eagleton game we made some adjustments that have benefited us offensively and it helped us to allow our center and offensive line to develop a bit more.”

Game time is 7 pm.