There was a lot to be pleased with in Seymour’s 50-29 victory over Jennings County last Friday to get the Owls back in the win column.

Seymour’s defense stepped up, forcing three turnovers and taking one of them back for a touchdown. The ground game got going as the team rushed for a combined 261 yards, and freshman wide receiver Jaylan Johnson continued to showcase his special ability.

“Overall, I was pleased with our performance,” head coach Tyson Moore said. “I was a little disappointed in giving up 29 points. I thought we got a little complacent in the second half. Overall, much different team than we’ve put on the field in the weeks prior.”

Moore noticed a trend that Seymour’s two best weeks of practice came before the Columbus East game and Jennings County game, and those are the two Owls’ wins this season.

“I told the guys that each week, we need to have our best practices and I think if we can do that, we can churn out some more W’s,” Moore said.

That’s definitely the focus this week as Seymour gets set to host New Albany, who is 4-3 this season but 4-0 in the Hoosier Hills Conference.

Seymour is currently 2-2 in the HHC, which is good enough for fourth place.

The Owls hope the defense continues to play at a high level as it did last Friday. Moore was pleased with his defensive ends on Friday, especially Cameron Klakamp.

Johnson didn’t play at linebacker last Friday because he hurt his ankle in practice, so they kept him just on the offensive side of the ball. He’ll be playing both sides of the ball this Friday, though.

In his abscence on defense, young players like Nick Wheeler and Will Mahoney stepped up.

“As a whole, I thought our defense that first half played as good as we could’ve played,” Moore said. “It was our first time all season forcing a three-and-out on the opposing teams’ first possession… but defenisvely this week, we know we have to play on an even higher notch than we’ve been playing.”

Johnson had 8 catches for 188 yards and two touchdowns last Friday. Perry completed 11 passes, meaning 73 percent of them went to Johnson.

So far this season, the freshman receiver has 48 catches for 671 yards and 9 touchdowns.

Moore heard a quote about basketball players that he has related to Johnson.

“There are basketball players and there are ballers,” Moore said. “I relate that to football. There are football players and there are ballers. They’re just gonna go out and make plays that most people aren’t gonna make. He’s (Johnson) a baller and he just makes plays.”

Moore expects the Bulldogs to try to take Johnson away on Friday.

“New Albany is more athletic than a lot of teams we’ve played,” he said. “They might do some things defensively to not let him get the ball.”

That’s where the other receivers and the run game comes into play.

Seymour finally got its run game going last Friday, starting with the offensive line and finishing with the hard-nosed runs from Sam Allman and Alex Schlatterer.

“It was a great feeling,” Moore said. “It was great to watch the offensive line dominate and watch both of our running backs have awesome games.”

Moore and his staff are going to continue to challenge their team to run the football so Seymour doesn’t become one-dimensional on the offensive side of the ball.

“Going forward, we’re going to have to dominate the line of scrimmage if we want to have any success,” Moore said. “I felt that Friday raised that standard because it helps us in every asepct of the game. We know what we’re capable of going forward, We’re gonna have to really concentrate on making sure we continue to do things right and putting ourselves in the best possible position.”