NATCHEZ — Turnovers doomed the Adams County Christian School football team last Friday, in its 28-12 loss to Hillcrest Christian Academy.

With the Rebels now 1-1 on the season, head coach Paul Hayles said the turnovers would have to get corrected for their game tonight against Amite School Center.

“We fumbled the ball nine times and lost six of them,” Rebels head coach Paul Hayles said.

“We also threw an interception at the end of the game. Seven of our offensive drives ended in a turnover.”

Hayles said the key to correcting the turnover issue is mostly mental.

“Everything is prefaced on concentration,” Hayles said. “Are you holding the ball high enough and bringing the second hand in when contact comes?”

Aside from the turnovers, Hayles said he liked most of what his team did in the loss.

“We had some very well-thrown balls, I thought,” Hayles said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t catch them. We opened a lot of holes and gained a lot of yards, but the turnovers limited what we were able to do.”

Defensively, Hayles complemented his team’s ability to hone in on the football and play together as a unit.

“I liked the aggressiveness, and the fact that we were flowing to the football,” Hayles said. “Sometimes, though, we made the mistake of being overly aggressive, which left us open to some reverse-type trick plays.

“Overall, we’re pretty close to where we want to be, but still have room for improvement.”

This week, Hayles said practices have seemed more focused, and that he hasn’t noticed any negative attitudes carried over from the loss to Hillcrest.

“Sometimes when you lose, it adds a degree of focus that wasn’t there before,” Hayles said. “Not that we’ve overlooked anyone by any means, but we let something bite us (turnovers) that hasn’t given us problems in a while.”

Hayles said he expects his team to play much better against ASC tonight.

“They’re a downhill running team out of the Power I formation, but they will also spread you out from time to time, so we’ll have to be ready for that,” Hayles said.

Hayles listed several keys to the game tonight, and said his team will have to continue doing things they’re already doing well in order to win.

“Ball security is going to be important, obviously,” Hayles said. “I’ve been really pleased with the gang tackling. Our guys have made no assumption that anyone’s going down. That all goes back to us flowing to the football.”