By Tim Tassa -- Daily Staff Writer

WINCHESTER — It wasn't a sweltering August day — just an early season reminder of what the drudgery of those preseason practices felt like and the skills they enforced.

On Tuesday, three days after a game that witnessed too many missed tackles and assignments in Shenandoah's 17-7 loss to Albright, the team practiced a drill not accustomed to being on the game-week itinerary.

Appropriately, the exercise dons the moniker: "The Hornet Drill."

Think physical, high-impact blows: lineman against lineman, a single running back, linebacker and defensive back. Head coach Paul Barnes said Shenandoah calls for it every few weeks as a reminder of its blue-collar make-up.

"It's a mindset and we try to establish the mentality: 'Hey, this is how you tackle, this is how you block,' and we've got a couple drills that we set up and we did it in pre-season camp and we thought it was a good time to reintroduce them," Barnes said. "I think we would've reintroduced them no matter if we would have had a good game Saturday or not."

One thing is certain — satisfactory tackling tonight at Ferrum may result in a score more lopsided than last week's 10-point deficit.

"It's a very physical football team," Barnes said, "It's just going to be a hard physical game, that's the way it is."

Though the Hornets are 1-2, they share a fresh-start outlook beginning with today's USA South conference opener. Barnes emphasized during interviews on Wednesday that he has preached the importance of the first conference game as being as imperative as the last.

The friendly fire on the practice field is proof of that.

"Everybody knows how Ferrum is: they talk a lot, they always come to play hard. Just can't let them get in our head, that's the main thing — keep our composure," said running back Kevin Roberts, who was limited to just 41 yards last week. "They've always tried to get in our head before or during the game, so we just got to pay them no mind and play our ball."

Though the Hornets are treating it like a rivalry game, the series has been one-sided over the last three years. Ferrum defeated Shenandoah 44-21 last season, preceded by a 42-0 win in 2006 and 34-13 victory in 2005.

And like it was against the Lions, tackling was an issue in last season's matchup at Sprint Field at Shentel Stadium.

The Hornets enjoyed a 14-3 lead early in the game, before Ferrum scored 34 unanswered points. The Panthers managed an incredible 586 yards of total offense, including 465 yards on the ground. They were often successful on counter plays and quarterback options that netted running back Mike Vann 175 yards on nine carries and quarterback Matt Dobson 95 yards on 16 carries.

Vann, last season's conference rookie of the year, and Dobson are back this season.

"Basically it's all about execution — everybody's got to do their job," said linebacker Joe Lunsford, who led the Hornets with eight tackles last week.

"They like to run the football and run it at you. They use the option sort of like to get outside and make the big play," Barnes said. "So when they want big plays it's going to be the option and everything like that."

Dobson and quarterback Marcus Mayo, who also stars in basketball for the Panthers, have split time under center this season. According to Lunsford, the quarterbacks are similar, though Dobson provides experience in play-calling, while Mayo excels running the football.

Barnes called the Dave Davis-coached squad a power running team.

"It's going to be a balanced attack; they're both great quarterbacks, so whoever is in there we basically just have to stop them," Lunsford said. "We can't worry about it really because we're game planning the same for both of them."

The Hornets' failure to tackle and block effectively against Albright, Barnes said, was a product of poor technique — a correctable attribute on the practice field.

For players, the "hornet drill" promotes enthusiasm just as it reinforces the need for physicality.

"We take great pride in being a physical team, too," Barnes said. "Everybody will be challenging each other's manhood, I guess."

*Contact Tim Tassa at ttassa@nvdaily.com