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BY NIC MILLER
STAR STAFF
nic.miller@elizabethton.com

After not playing last Friday due to COVID  implications for the second week in the 2021 football campaign, the Hampton Bulldogs are back in action this week.

The Bulldogs will be on the road this Friday night when they make the two-hour trek to take on the Cumberland Gap Panthers.

As previously mentioned, the Bulldogs will be back in action after taking the week off last week, and Hampton head coach Michael Lunsford spoke on how a situation such as this one affects his team.

“One thing that I preach to the guys is that we have to be able to overcome adversity, and this is just one more example of that. The main thing is that we are getting back to work and improving from this point on.”

And looking forward is what the Bulldogs are doing, as Lunsford explains that his team is getting prepared for the task ahead, saying, “Cumberland Gap is a team that favors the Wing T on offense,  so one thing we need to be focused on because of that is the misdirection plays. We also need to be responsible in taking care of our assignments and playing those assignments very well. ”

While the Bulldogs will be making a long trip to take on the Panthers, Lunsford believes that his team will not let the longevity of the bus ride affect their play on the field. “We have a lot of upperclassmen on this team that have had to make several road trips, so I believe that the bus ride will not be something that affects them all that much.”

Friday’s game for Hampton will mark the eighth week played by the squad, meaning that after their contest against Cumberland Gap High School, there are only two more weeks until postseason play begins.

But Lunsford says that his team is not looking that far ahead, focusing on the task at hand each week. “We are taking things one game at a time because when you start to look too far ahead, mistakes begin to be made. We are not really focusing on individual drills at the moment now, as everything we are doing is team-oriented to help us prepare for each team every week.”

Friday’s game between the Bulldogs and Panthers is set to kick off at 7:30 pm at Cumberland Gap High School in Cumberland Gap.