The Fairfield Eagles football team hits the road for a third straight week when they face the Rusk Eagles this Friday night.

Rusk is posting a 1-2 record thus far this season and this week is its homecoming game, giving a little extra impetus to win over Fairfield.

The Eagles are 0-3 to date.

"We are mirror images of each other, trying to get things going," Fairfield head coach Darrell Piske says.

"They are better than their record, and so are we," he adds.

The Fairfield high school team lost by a big margin to China Spring the first week of the season, lost in the final minutes to Ferris and fell to Gatesville in a defensive battle last week.

Rusk is picked to finish second in District 18-AAA and returned 15 lettermen to the team, seven each on offense and defense.

The other Eagles run a split back offense, keyed by back Marcel Johnson who gained 900 yards last year and wide receiver Michael Kayton, 10 grabs for 152 yards last season.

Signals are called by quarterback John David Beard.

The offensive line is anchored by 6-3, 310- pound Taj Cleaver.

"Rusk is big and has a big line," Piske reports.

Key to the Rusk 50 defense is lineman John Trotter, who measures 6-3 and weighs 235 pounds. Last season Trotter made 52 tackles, 15 tackles for losses, three sacks and three blocked kicks.

Defensive back Michael Katan is 6-2, 180 pounds and runs 40 yards in 4.7 seconds. He picked off two passes last year.

Rusk coach Ted Patton is in his second season there—-he went 4-6 last year—-after directing Elysian to within a game of the state title in 2007.

As for the FHS Eagles, Piske says the team needs to improve on the small things, especially getting players to all execute their assignments properly at the same time.

He points out that in the loss to Gatesville last week, there were no total breakdowns, just lone missed assignments that hampered the offense.

Defensively, Piske was pleased with the Eagles play against Gatesville.

"We need to execute and continue to play good defense," the FHS coach says. "We've got to find a way to win."

The varsity game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Rusk.

Freshmen and junior varsity Eagles host the other Eagles Thursday night.