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The Opp Bobcats’ varsity team fought the Flomaton Hurricanes to a 7-7 tie and the junior varsity Bobcats came away with a 14-0 victory.

Opp won the preseason battle with the defending Class 3A state champions 21-7.

In the first half of the game, the Opp varsity team fought to a 7-7 tie with the Hurricanes.

“There were are a lot of things I was happy with and there were some things I want to see us improve on,” Opp head coach Brent Hill said. “I was very pleased to see a run press that was very sound. We were very physical.”

Hill said he felt like the offense played well also.

“I felt like the offense did a good job,” Hill said. “We had some chances early, but we messed them up. The kids came back, rallied and expanded from what was there. I found some improvements from a team that had to battle with injuries like we did a year ago and I think they grew up a little bit in this game.”

The focus is to continue improving, Hill said.

“It’s the beginning of the year,” Hill said. “The hard thing is we still have so much to improve on.”

In the second half, the junior varsity Bobcats tacked on points and held the Hurricanes scoreless.

“I was just so proud of the young kids,” Hill said. “We have 65 kids on our team and 10 are seniors. So we are a fairly young team and to see some of the guys who have to play scout team in practice get a chance to shine. One of the things we told them, just because the varsity is finished playing we don’t want to back down. We want to keep pushing. I was very proud of them. I thought they made some key plays. The young guys made some big hits on defense and made some big plays on offense. It was exciting seeing the young guys get a chance to play themselves.”

Hill said there is still areas that need to be addressed.

“There are still some issues,” Hill said. “We have to keep improving in coverage. Offensively, we had a turnover early that shouldn’t have happened. We also have to work on our short-yardage offense. We had the ball on the 3-yard line and didn’t get any points. We have to be able to score the touchdown or kick a field goal. We didn’t score the touchdown and we missed the field goal. There is still room to improve.”

Opp opens the season on Friday in Elba.