Eagles to spar with Wildcats
Published 12:04 am Thursday, September 15, 2011
Pleasant Home and Florala will Friday night in an in-county rivalry game at Mathews Stadium at FHS.
The Eagles and Wildcats will meet for the 12th time on the football field. Pleasant Home currently holds a 7-4 edge over Florala.
For both teams, this is the last week of region play before the half-way point of the 2011 season.
Last week, Florala (0-3, 0-2 in Class 1A, Region 2) held Brantley to 14 points in the first quarter, but fell 47-7 in the end. Pleasant Home (2-1, 2-0) edged Kinston 14-13 with the help of a Bulldog missed extra point.
FHS head football coach Justin Jones said he is fully aware of Pleasant Home’s success this season.
“Pleasant Home’s coming off a two-game win streak and they beat two quality opponents,” Jones said. “They beat McKenzie, which is a very good ball club, and they beat Kinston, which I think is a very underrated ball club.”
Jones said despite falling to Brantley last week, the score wasn’t indicative of how the defense played on the field.
The only way Brantley had a two-touchdown lead were because of big plays, Jones said.
“Still, the big plays are what’s killing us,” he said. “If we can live to play another down, that helps us defensively.”
PHS coach Ronnie Douglas said he’s not over-looking the Wildcats this week.
“”They’ve played some pretty tough teams,” Douglas said. “Samson coming in they’re 2-1, and Brantley’s 3-0. With Georgiana, they lost to them, but it was real close at the half.
“They’re working real hard,” he said. “Anytime you play a region opponent, you’ve got to get ready for them.”
Against Brantley, Florala junior middle linebacker Ryan Jordan led the Wildcats in tackles with 11 solo tackles, one assist, one fumble recovery and one interception.
Jordan said he was able to rack up a number of tackles against Brantley because of what he does every day in practice.
“We do a lot of reps,” Jordan said.
When asked how he thinks the Wildcats will win against the Eagles, Jordan said they will play a full game.
“We’re just going to play full speed for four quarters and not give up,” he said.
PHS senior linebacker Dustin Taylor said he feels good about the Eagles’ chance at getting a win.
“I’m not going in there with a big head or nothing,” Taylor said. “I think we’re going to pull it out. We’ve got a lot of big people up front.
“We’ve stepped it up a lot on defense,” he said. “I’m thinking we should get the ‘W.'”
Kick off in Florala is at 7 p.m.