The Brookhaven Academy Cougars close the home portion of their regular season schedule Friday night against the Benton Academy Raiders.

The Raiders are winless, with their closest game being a 10-point defeat by Deer Creek last week. Last season the Cougars beat Benton 37-8 on the road.

The roster numbers are low for Benton, but Brookhaven Academy coach Ron Rushing sees a scrappy group on film.

“They’ve got pretty much everyone playing both ways, but they give great effort,” said Rushing.

Benton isn’t the only private school in Yazoo County struggling with low numbers on the football field. Manchester Academy — located in Yazoo City — is playing eight-man football this season for the first time in school history. There are 22 MAIS schools playing eight-man football this season.

This will be the final regular season game on R.M. “Red” Stuard Field for the Cougar senior class of Sawyer Bowlin, Cade Brown, Justin Burt, Noah Diamond, Dawson Flowers, Cole Griffin, Charles Nations, Sonny Singh and Keegan Smith.

Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

Story by Cliff Furr