First-year head coach Ronnie Watson will be taking his ninth-ranked Sparkman football squad for Round 1 of the annual Madison City Schools portion of the Class 7A, Region 4 schedule on Friday when the Senators meet James Clemens in a showdown of two teams sporting perfect 3-0 region records.

Sparkman heads to Madison City Schools Stadium next week, too, to play Bob Jones.

The Senators are looking to stay perfect after a 5-0 start – and to avenge a 41-17 loss to the Jets last season, in coach Laron White’s final year at the helm.

“Last year, we hit a buzz saw,” said Watson, who had been the Sparkman defensive coordinator since 2018. “Our job is to make sure history doesn’t repeat itself. When you have as much talent as they do, sometimes you just don’t have the right matchups.”

The Senators were 4-1 headed into last season’s game against the Jets. Much like this year, the defense had feasted on its early season opponents with three shutouts and a 24-21 overtime loss at Austin.

This year, Sparkman opened with a 31-0 win over Hazel Green, a 65-0 win at Huffman, edged Austin 21-18, blanked Albertville 58-0 on the road and shut out Grissom 51-0 before last week’s open date.

RELATED: 5 Huntsville-area games to watch

The 2023 Senators are allowing 3.6 points a game – best in Class 7A and third-best in all classes.

“We have been getting good field position, thanks to our defense,” Watson said. “Our defense gets some three-and-outs with that bend-but-don’t-break attitude. People have gotten some drives on us, but we try to stay consistent and be mistake-free. We know if we make one mistake, it’s 6 points.

“This week, and in our off week last week, I haven’t seen a team as locked in as they are. Sometimes that can be a good thing and sometimes a bad thing. In our region, it always comes down to beating those teams like James Clemens and Bob Jones and Huntsville and Florence. We always have all of them circled. Whether we want to host a playoff game or just make it to that fourth spot and how it’s seeded always seems to come down to that last week.”

Senior middle linebacker Y’ves Ponder has led the way for Sparkman, notching 65 total tackles with 8 tackles for a loss. “He’s an awesome young man,” Watson said of the 5-foot-11, 240-pound senior. “He spends tons of film time. He pretty much runs our defense and gets everybody in the right spots. He’s a tackling machine, last year and this year, too. MaxPreps said he was the sixth-leading tackler in the state last year.

“Jamarion Matthews is a sophomore defensive end and he’s really come on this year. He had a great offseason. He’s one of the top guys in sacks and quarterback hurries. We knew he was big (6-2, 235) and talented, but these first five games he’s really come up and done some special things.”

Matthews has 9 sacks, 10 tackles for a loss and 27 total stops.

Junior linebacker Joshua Murphy has 45 total tackles with 2 sacks and 3 tackles for a loss with an interception for Sparkman.

Senior Jalyn Chambers has 31 tackles with 2 interceptions. “They call him ‘J-Rock’ around here,” Watson said. “He’s probably the most athletic guy no matter what phase of the game he plays in, and he plays in all three phases. It’s all about his football IQ. When you put that with somebody with his athletic ability he can be special.”

Chambers also gets some snaps at receiver and some in the backfield in the Senators’ heavy package and he occasionally returns kicks. “Sometimes, you are just trying to get your playmaker the ball,” the coach said.

The Sparkman offense, scoring 45.2 points a game, is the third-best in 7A.

Watson praised senior quarterback Josh Ward for his leadership on the team. The 6-3, 190-pounder has thrown for 633 yards, completing 46-of-67 passes for 9 touchdowns with 3 interceptions.

“You can’t get much better than Josh,” Watson said. “He’s been a three-year starter, really. His strength is really his decision-making and his football IQ. He watches film about as much as the coaches. He leads by example, on and off the field.

“Jayden Thomas, everyone calls him ‘Drip,’ is an awesome young man. He’s got over a 4.0 grade point average. Talk about work ethic – that kid is one of the first ones here and the last to leave. To be as small as he is (5-8, 170) and do the things he does on the football field sometimes is amazing.”

Watson also singled out Jayden Lamar, a 6-0, 150-pound senior center. “He’s one of our big leaders, on and off the field. He’s one that the guys look up to. He’s like the ‘alpha’ of the team.”

The Senators’ early season schedule had just one team that currently has a winning record in 4-2 Austin. In fact, three of the four shutouts came against teams that have yet to win a game and Grissom is 1-4.

James Clemens is 4-2 overall with losses coming to Class 6A No. 4 Muscle Shoals and No. 6 Mountain Brook.

Jets quarterback Ty Marsh has passed for more than 1,000 yards with 10 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. Cam Berry leads a balanced run game with more than 300 yards and DJ Williams has more than 200. Ty Doughty has 30 catches for 480 yards and 4 touchdowns.

“They are a good team,” Watson said. “They have a great staff over there and they have a lot of talent, a lot of athletes.

“We talk about limiting turnovers, limiting penalties and letting the game play out. If you’re not helping the other team, you’re helping yourself. We want to make the other team work just as hard as you are to win the football game.”