As the Hope Bobcats have been preparing this week for its season-opener to host the Nashville Scrappers, Bobcats Coach Phillip Turner said his team’s morale is good and there are no major injuries.

He grades the Scrappers (1-0), who beat Magnolia 18-6 last week, as “a good ball club with some very good players.” To compete well with them, Turner said “We have to be able to tackle their athletes in space and run to the football.”

Nashville generated 421 total yards last week, 283 of those on the ground with its senior quarterback Sloan Perrin not throwing particularly accurately at a 40 percent completion rate, but frequently bursting out for tough runs.

One of the team’s running backs, Tre Hopkins, had a 100-yard game against Magnolia on 18 carries. Hope will have to keep him well under the 5.6 yards a carry he had for that contest.

Nashville is trying to get back to the playoffs after a down year, when it only one four games. It was the first time Nashville had not been since 1990.

A win against Nashville would put Hope (0-0) at 1-0 to start the season for the first time in a while. But Hope’s non-conference schedule is a tough one, Coach Turner points out, including dates against Nashville tonight, Ashdown on September 9 and Prescott September 16. “But it prepares our kids for the 5A-South Conference.”

Hope is trying to get back to the winning ways of its 2015 season when it won nine games and the conference championship. Since that season, the Bobcats have only won seven games.

Turner describes his team this year as combining good speed and athleticism with high effort. The standouts are junior Tyler Patterson at quarterback, senior Kaleo Anderson at several receiver positions and junior KDarius Gulley at running back and linebacker.

Kickoff is 7:30 tonight at Hammons Stadium.