DECATUR — While the record may not reflect it, Newton County High School head coach Gene Mitchell said he has seen some positives in his team despite an 0-4 start to the year.

Last week against Forest High School, the Cougars scored three touchdowns, the most they have in a game this season. Unfortunately for them, the Cougars also yielded 13 points in the third quarter en route to a 33-21 loss.

“We went in at halftime tied (14-14) with a good Forest team,” Mitchell said. “The third quarter eluded us — it’s been sort of our albatross all season. Our big thing is to try to get to halftime and still be in the game, so now we have to come back out in the third and continue to do those things that keep us in the game.”

It’s been a slow process for the Cougars, but Mitchell said he’s been impressed with his team’s mental approach in making sure to play hard each snap.

“I do think the last couple of weeks that we’ve seen improvement as far as playing harder, and we’ve encouraged our guys to keep playing hard until good things start to happen,” Mitchell said. “Some did last week.”

Mitchell also pointed to the offensive output as a positive sign after not scoring just seven points in the previous three weeks.

“Maybe now things are coming together for us offensively,” he said. “We did move the ball last week, and we have to continue to do that.”

The best news? Some injured players will be returning, Mitchell added.

“We were sort of plugging a leak in the levy with them out, and now we’re going to have some people again that we thought would be there all along,” Mitchell said.

Up next for Newton County is West Lauderdale High School (2-2), which presents a challenge for his team, Mitchell said, especially on defense.

“They’re throwing the ball around a lot, much more than in the past, and they’re pretty effective doing that, especially on the intermediate routes,” Mitchell said. “They have good receivers and their quarterback is doing a good job.”

Mitchell singled out running back Noah Nix as an big-play athlete for the Knights.

“He has great explosion and pretty quick feet making the jump cuts and avoiding contact in tight spaces,” Mitchell said. “He also has top-end speed and can take it to the house.”

Defensively, Mitchell said West will try to cause much disruption in the trenches.

“They do all kinds of different things on defense,” Mitchell said. “They will bring a lot of pressure with their linebackers, so we have our work cut out for us picking up their blitz packages and trying to maintain the line of scrimmage. They really do a good job on both sides of the ball.”

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. Friday at Newton County.

NEWTON HIGH SCHOOL

Newton High School will look to shake off an 0-4 start as it travels to Choctaw Central High School Friday for one of its two remaining non-region games.

The Tigers fell to Kemper County High School, 38-0, last Friday and have only scored nine points through the early part of the season: six against Southeast Lauderdale High School and three against Raleigh.

Kickoff will be at 7 Friday night. Head coach Keith Walton could not be reached for comment.

NEWTON COUNTY ACADEMY

After beginning the season 3-0, Newton County Academy ran into a tough MAIS Class AA opponent in Canton Academy as the Generals suffered their first loss this season, 18-0, Friday night.

After back-to-back weeks of scoring at least 40 points, the NCA (3-1) was unable to get the ball in the end zone against the Panthers. Now, the Generals will turn around as they travel to Oak Hill Academy this week for Oak Hill’s homecoming contest.

Kickoff is at 7 p.m. Friday. Head coach Robert Roberts could not be reached for comment.