Florala’s backs were against the wall at Rocky Bayou, Fla., Saturday afternoon, but the Wildcats never faltered.

FHS outscored Rocky Bayou 38-8 in the second half and went on to claim a 44-35 jamboree game victory and its sixth win in five seasons.

“It was good for us,” FHS head football coach Justin Jones said about the win. “We got to see a ball club who knows (the game) and are very intelligent and very well-coached. They run the spread and they’re pretty good at it.

“They have some really smart kids who know how to run it,” he said.

Florala scored four touchdowns on offense, one on defense, got two safeties and one interception in the second half.

“We made some mistakes in the first half that led to points for them,” Jones said. “Then, as the game went on, we kind of got the cobwebs out and started playing a little more of the football we wanted to play.

“It just worked out in the end that we scored a little more than they did,” he said.

Jones said the offensive line was the difference in the second half.

“They blocked well, but more than that, it was their aggressiveness,” he said. “They just played very physical football. That’s what we want.

“I thought they did a pretty good job,” he said.

When their backs were to the wall though, Jones said he liked the way the team handled the situation.

“It was nice to see how the kids responded to the challenge,” he said.

Even though they got a preseason game win, Jones said there’s still plenty of work to do in the next two weeks in the lead up to the Wildcats’ regular season opener against Central Hayneville on Aug. 31.

“We’ve got a long way to go as far as where we want to be, but I thought we had a pretty good start of getting where we want to be (against Rocky Bayou),” he said. “I was very proud of the way they played.”

Game notes: Austin West scored three touchdowns for Florala in the win. He had two touchdown runs of more than 55 yards each.