The Straughn High School Tigers escaped a road game against Excel with a win Friday night in what head coach Trent Taylor called a “trap game.”

“We won, but it certainly wasn’t very pretty,” Taylor said of his team’s 26-13 victory. “Excel had a whole lot to do with that. You hear coaches all the time talking about a trap game and I think we certainly fell victim to that tonight.”

Straughn struck first, scoring on their opening drive with a 1-yard touchdown from Jarvaris Samuel to go up 7-0 early.

Taylor said his team stalled following their early success and went in to halftime tied up with Excel at 7-all.

The Tigers found the end zone again on the first play of the second half.

On Excel’s next offensive play, a bad snap led to a fumble that was recovered by the Tigers. Straughn capitalized on the turnover, adding another TD to go up 20-7, following a missed extra point attempt.

Straughn found the end zone once more in the fourth quarter, putting their 26-13 win on ice, but Taylor said their uncharacteristically sloppy play has to be remedied before next week’s big game against the Tigers of T.R. Miller.

“We had a big win last week and we have a huge game next week,” he said. “We just didn’t execute real well on either side of the ball tonight. We certainly got some things we can key in on and do a better job. With Miller, there is a whole other circumstance that they bring to the table.”

Miller is the second in three consecutive region games for the Tigers.

With the victory, SHS earned a berth to host the first round of the state playoffs.

Straughn (6-1, 5-0) will take on T.R. Miller on the road in Brewton Friday night at 7 p.m.