This year’s Franklin County Feud is expected to be a battle as both Ozark and Charleston are off to 2-0 start, but both narrowly escaped with a win in week one, Charleston rallied late to claim a 29-23 victory against Dardanelle.
"Breaking in eight new starters offensively and eight new starters defensively," said Charleston coach Greg Kendrick. "So, we had to get our feet wet and those players got valuable experience. We felt like we grew tremendously, we thought we saw great improvement from week one to week two."
Ozark faced Gravette in their season opener and barely edged them by just three points.
"We learned to handle some adversity," said Ozark senior Dawson Dietz. "We are playing some young guys right now, so we just learned what it’s like to take a punch in the mouth and answer."
Each team took a step forward in week-two with more decisive victories, but they are expecting a tough test Friday night. Charleston is anticipating a fight against a Dawson Dietz led offense.
"I would say Dawson is probably the most accurate quarterback we have seen," said Charleston senior Sean Michael Flanagan. "Probably the most experienced and maybe for the rest of the year, or until playoffs. I would say he’s got the best arm knows what he is doing knows how to run the offense."
The Hillbillies are preparing for the Tigers’ speed and talent on both sides of the ball.
"They got the Flanagan, Wisdom, Caudle at quarterback," said Ozark coach Jeremie Burns. "They got big guys upfront and Ketter at running back, so they got a lot of guys returning a lot of size a lot of speed. It’s going to be a challenge for our secondary challenge for our defense, same with our offense they are going to mix it up give them some different blitzes."
Charleston looks to continue dominance of their county rival, as they've won four straight, but Ozark feels that they are ready to dethrone the Tigers.
"Since we lost last year I have been counting on this day," said Dietz. "That stung and we are looking for some revenge this year."
Ozark will host Charleston this Friday with kickoff slated for 7:00 p.m.