A couple of longtime opponents will meet up in LaFayette on Friday as the Murray County Indians pay a visit to Jack King Stadium, hoping for better results against the Ramblers this time around.

LaFayette head coach Perry Swindall said he is hoping for another large pro-Rambler crowd this week.

“We love the crowd support we got last week,” he said. “It really made a difference and hopefully we’ll have another big crowd out this Friday.”

The Murray County program used to be a perennial playoff contender, and advanced to the Class AAAA quarterfinals as recently as the 2000 season. But the Indians have fallen on hard time since then.

Two stints in Class AAAAA hurt the Murray program, key transfers to rival programs damaged the Indians even more, and Murray is now dealing with the formation of the new North Murray High School program, which could have a lasting effect.

As a result, Murray has won just 15 games in the last six seasons with seven of those wins coming in 2005. The Indians have gone 2-30 in their last 32 games, although the first 20 of those games came as a Class AAAAA team once more.

Murray opened the 2009 season with a 10-0 win over East Hall, but was shut out 17-0 against an Osborne team last week that has won just 17 games in the last 15-plus seasons.

The Indians managed only 117 yards of offense (68 rushing, 49 passing) against the Cardinals while giving up 249 yards on the ground on 39 attempts.

Justin Anderson had 88 yards on 23 carries for the Indians, but left in the third quarter with an ankle injury.

Quarterback Austin Williams may be counted on to shoulder the load with the passing game if Anderson is limited or unavailable on Friday.

His two top targets are Luke Mealer and Zac Dills while Jake White would likely see the majority of the carries in Anderson’s absence.

On defense, linemen Tyler Timms and D.J. Winters will lead the charge while senior Tyler Bowling is a standout in the secondary.

“They are big on both sides of the ball,” LaFayette head coach Perry Swindall said. “I think we’ll have an advantage with our speed, but if we let them pound on us for four quarters, they will be hard to deal with. We need to jump on them quickly and limit their effectiveness.”

The series dates back to 1950 with Murray holding a slim 9-8 advantage with one tie.

The Ramblers spotted the Indians a 14-0 first-quarter lead last year before erupting in a 57-14 bludgeoning of Murray in Chatsworth.

Josh Morgan was 16-for-24 for 178 yards in the air for LaFayette. Dimitri Miles had 172 total yards and three TDs.