If there’s one thing Pleasant Home head football coach Ronnie Douglas said the team learned from last week’s narrow 14-13 win over rival Florala, is that as a whole, the team didn’t play their “best.”

“Unfortunately, we did not do that,” Douglas said. “Just like anything else in football it always comes back to turnovers and penalties. We had our share of those.

“In the first half, it was turnovers and in the second half, it was penalties,” he said. “You have to remember that you’re dealing with 14-18-year-olds. It’s hard to convince them that the other team is trying to beat you, and that you have to play your best.”

This Friday night, the Eagles (3-1, 3-0 in Class 1A, Region 2) will travel to play Class 2A’s Samson, who has a 2-2 record.

“We’re going to be bigger than most of the people we play,” Douglas said. “They’re not going to have a lot of size, but they get after it pretty good.

“They’re a little bit better on the defensive side than the offensive side of the ball,” he said.

Douglas said the match up this week against the Tigers will help the team because it will keep them focused on one game at a time.

However, next week begins the second half of the season’s region play. The Eagles will travel to play Brantley Sept. 30.

“It’s a tough week for us,” Douglas said. “You always want to win all of your region games. Every game you have on the schedule, you’re trying to win the next one. That’s how you’re supposed to look at it.

“This is the one we’re trying to win this week, and that’s all we’re trying to concentrate on,” he said.

When asked what the focus is this week, Douglas said it hasn’t changed.

“It’s no turnovers and cutting down on the penalties,” he said. “We had some penalties we shouldn’t have had (last week). We’ve got to keep working on that.”

Kick off in Samson is at 7 p.m.

Injury update:

Starting center Evan Yates has been cleared to return to action this week, Douglas said.