Houston County ready to rebound against Greenbrier

WARNER ROBINS -- Houston County is looking to unleash some frustration still hanging around from last week's heartbreaking 24-17 defeat to Jones County when Greenbrier visits McConnell-Talbert Stadium on Friday for yet another GHSA Region 2-AAAAA contest.

"This is our first week to have a great response to last week, and it's good to be back in our stadium," Houston County head coach Von Lassiter said. "We want to play great, just to kind of respond to the way things went down last week."

The Bears (6-1, 5-1 Region 2-AAAAA) still had a chance to tie the game late against the Greyhounds, but their performance throughout the game was far from customary.

Houston County uncharacteristically struggled to catch the football and failed too many times at keeping quarterback Jake Fromm upright. The 17-point output was the lowest for the Bears since a 33-13 loss to Mundy's Mill in the 2013 playoffs.

Greenbrier (2-5, 1-5) enters Friday's game coming off its only region victory so far this season, a 14-10 triumph over Cross Creek, but the Wolfpack defense could be just what the doctor ordered for Houston County. The Bears rolled up 42 points last season against Greenbrier, which has surrendered an average of 49.6 points per game this year in three contests against teams from the Middle Georgia side of the region.

"They're fighting to stay alive in the region, and they had a big win last week against Cross Creek," Lassiter said. "They're wanting to build off of that win, and they would love to come win a big game on the road. I think they've done a good job of getting people in the right spots and getting the ball to them. We're going to have to play good defense. Hopefully, we'll throw and catch the ball well enough, run it when we need to, and I think we'll be in good shape."

The top-ranked Northside Eagles (7-0, 6-0) will look to avoid a letdown coming off of last week's trouncing of Warner Robins when they travel to face a Grovetown (4-3, 3-3) team still very much in the playoff race.

Warner Robins (5-2, 4-2) will also be on the road with little margin for error when it takes on Lakeside-Evans (3-4, 3-3). The Demons outlasted the Panthers 51-49 last season to help secure the final playoff position in the region and deny the Panthers a spot in the postseason.

This story was originally published October 22, 2015 at 9:05 PM with the headline "Houston County ready to rebound against Greenbrier ."