By Adam Robinson
Sports editor

T.R. Miller will kick off their 2014 region schedule this Friday night as they travel to familiar foe Bayside Academy.
T.R. Miller is 2-0 after taking down Tallassee Friday in Brewton. Tiger head coach Jamie Riggs said Friday’s win over Tallassee was a good win.
“I think anytime you win against Tallassee you ought to feel pretty good,” he said. “The first word I thought about when I watched them on film and certainly after the game was just tough. They had some very good linemen. Their running back was as terrific as we thought he was. They played very hard. Obviously they are in good condition and I thought it was just a really terrific game. It was one of those games where it was just a really physical game. I can tell you that we were really beat up after the game and I would expect they would have some of the same issues. There was a lot of contact going on out there.”
Riggs said he thought one of the differences in the game was his team made some really good kicking game plays and he thinks that was the difference.
“I thought that was important,” he said. “We had one turnover as we dropped the ball down on the goal line. We handled the ball pretty well. They made us look like bad tacklers at times because their running back is so good. Overall, if you can beat a team like Tallassee, you have to feel good and I was pretty pleased about that.”
As for Bayside, the Admirals come into the game with T.R. Miller with a 1-0 record after defeating Faith Academy 34-19 Friday night. Riggs expects the game Friday to be like past games.
“I don’t know how many years we have played them, but it seems as if every game has gone right down to the wire,” he said. “I don’t see much difference between this game and all the rest of them. All of our personnel has changed a little bit, but basically they are still who they are and we are still who we are. I really think that, first of all, they are a little bit bigger than they have been. They have some younger players that have a little size to them. That jumps out at me.”
Another thing that jumped out to Riggs was Bayside’s quarterback.
“They have a really tall quarterback in No. 3 (George Barry),” Riggs said. “He does an excellent job of running and throwing the ball and controlling their offense. He is a great athlete. They do a great job of getting the ball to the people that they need to get the ball to, to make tacklers miss. Those parts have not changed.”
Riggs said if his team wants to win the game, he said he would think that they would need to block a little better than they have the first couple of weeks.
“We are also going to need to get some stops on defense,” he said. “We didn’t have a lot of them last year and really neither team made any stops on defense last year. We are going to have to hold in there with their kicking game because they have a great kicking game. They have a tremendous kicker, so if we can do that, I think it gets the game down to the end of the game like last year.”
T.R. Miller and Bayside Academy have met every year since 2008. The Tigers hold a 4-2 record over the Admirals with the losses coming in back-to-back seasons of 2010 and 2011. The Tigers have outscored Bayside Academy 196-167 in the series. The last three games have been decided by a total of six points.
T.R. Miller won last year 43-40 in Brewton and 37-35 in 2012 in Daphne. T.R. Miller lost 28-27 in 2011, 27-20 in 2010, won 28-24 in 2009 and 41-13 in the first meeting of 2008.
“I think that what makes the game like it has been is that both teams recognize that they are going to have to play their best to win the game,” Riggs said. “They just have people playing as hard as they can every snap. That makes for good football. They are very well coached and they know they are in for a tough match. I don’t have to say much to our players. I just tell them we are playing Bayside Academy and the ones that have been around know. It is not like we have to motivate our players this week. I think they understand what we are in for.”
Game time is set for 7 p.m. in Daphne.