Pearl River’s Rebels head to Albany tonight to take on the Hornets with kickoff scheduled for 7.

This is Albany’s homecoming game.

PRHS (3-0) is coming off a 35-13 victory over Loranger, while Albany (1-2) dropped a 46-14 contest to St. Thomas Aquinas last Friday.

CRAIG DOMINGUE

Pearl River coach Joe Harris said Albany has played well against his club in prior seasons.

“We’ve been playing them for the last few years and they’ve played us tough,” Harris said. “It’s their homecoming, so they’ll probably be geared up.”

The two teams met last year with the Rebels winning, 34-8.

In the Rebels’ three wins this season, PRHS has shown it has a complete team. Pearl River opened the season with back-to-back shutouts over Pope John Paul II followed by Pine.

In fact, the Rebels defense held opponents without a point for the first nine quarters of the season until Lornager’s Nate Robinson rushed for a 3-yard score in the second period of last week’s game.

Against Loranger, junior strong safety Craig Domingue had his first two sacks of the season for Pearl River. This season, he is leading the Rebels with 36 tackles, 16 of them being solo stops and he has one of the Rebels three fumble recoveries.

Junior linebacker Blake Ladner and junior strong safety Kendall Twille have the others.

Harris said Domingue did what he had to during the off-season to get himself ready for this year.

“He was a sophomore that played some last year. He’s stepping it up. He worked his tail off all summer and never missed a day,” Harris said.

Ladner has 31 tackles, 10 solos and 21 assists.

Senior linebacker Stephen Arthur is second on the squad with 33 tackles, 18 individual and he has a sack.

Senior lineman Scott Schure has tallied 25 stops with 18 solos, while adding a sack. Senior Seth Craddock has 22 tackles.

The Rebels will be facing an offense that likes to use a lot of different formations. Albany second-year coach Brad Ficklin, whose team went 0-10 last year despite out gaining its opponents in 7-of-10 games, said his club has seven different formations it’ll use.

“We try to keep teams off balance because once we get predictable, we get beatable,” Ficklin said.

The Albany quarterback is Justin McKnight. In the two games he has played this season, he has 220 yards passing to go with 120 rushing.

The running back is Allen Garon, who has run for 350 yards and four touchdowns, while adding three interceptions on defense. The Hornets’ leading receiver is Logan Torrance, who has caught passes for 120 yards and a score.

Offensively, Pearl River runs the Wing-T. The Rebels have scored 109 points in their three games this season, but will be without a couple key players due to injury.

Senior Will Reed, who has rushed for 345 yards and three touchdowns, will not play tonight due to a thigh bruise and senior wide receiver/defensive back Jacob Maxwell is suffering from mononucleosis.

Last week, Reed had 181 yards rushing and a score.

Coach Harris said sophomore Cory Miller will see time at running back for Reed and Twillie will also see time as a running back.

Adding to Pearl River’s injuries, junior running back James Gillum is questionable with an ankle. This season, he has amassed 396 yards and run for eight TDs this season. Last week, Gillum was instrumental in all three phases of the game. On offense, he ran for 92 yards and a touchdown. He also returned a kickoff for a 95-yard tally and he intercepted a pass. In last season’s game against Albany, Gillum ran for 250 yards and three touchdowns.

They will be facing an Albany defense that bases out of the 4-3. Coach Ficklin said strong safety Courtney Williams leads the team with 24 tackles, while defensive tackle Donovan Moore has 13 stops and two sacks. Linebacker Ben McKinley has 17 tackles along with a 20-yard interception return for a score.