Straughn will face a much-improved Bullock County football team tomorrow night at Bryant Foster Field.

The third-ranked Tigers are coming off a 28-13 win over Ashford, which notched them one step closer to clinching a playoff berth. If SHS (6-1, 4-1 in Class 4A, Region 2) wins, then it will gain a spot in the postseason.

SHS head football coach Trent Taylor said even though the Hornets don’t have many region wins, they’re pretty “athletic.”

“I told our kids (Monday) that one thing’s very obvious is that they have a plan going into the game,” Taylor said. “The coaches over there are working and trying to get that thing turned around. They’re known for their basketball prowess, but it’s easy to watch a few plays and tell somebody’s taken a lot of time and pride making those guys better.”

Bullock County beat Barbour County 18-12 in its season opener to claim its only win this season. The Hornets are 0-5 in the region.

Taylor said this was a good week for the Tigers to work on themselves.

“Certainly, I don’t know what the thing in high school football is, but you don’t get to a point where you say, ‘oh well, OK, we’ve got this one in the bag,’” he said. “You can’t do that. They’re athletic enough. Those receivers out there are taller than anybody we’ve got. All it takes are a couple home run shots, and the next thing you know, you’re behind in an environment that’s very tough to come back from.”

After tomorrow night, the region picture will be as clear as ever.

Taylor said the way things are shaking up now is similar to that of the SEC West.

“There’s that one team (St. James at 5-0 in the region) that’s sitting there with a goose egg on the right hand column that’s got two very tough ones (Ashford this week and Trinity on Oct. 24) left to play,” he said. “The thing that’s obvious is that St. James, Straughn, Trinity, Andalusia and Ashford are still in the mix. The only thing that happened last week was that Catholic was eliminated. Those five teams are fighting for playoffs spots. Those (the contests against STJ and Ashford) are two games we’re glad we’ve played already.”

During last week’s game, Straughn senior wide receiver Brice Scott was hit pretty hard after a reception. He didn’t return to action.

Taylor said there wasn’t a clear diagnosis, but doctors in Dothan ruled out a concussion.

“That’s a good thing,” Taylor said. “We’re still going to hold him out this week. We feel like Alan George is plenty capable of filling that role. He’s had plenty of time as an X receiver. We just don’t feel like that’s anything to play with. Even though basically, you’ve got a pretty good corps group rested this week, that’s what we decided to do.”

Kick off tomorrow night is at 7.