In a non-region game Friday night in East Brewton this week, the W.S. Neal Eagles will take on the Hillcrest Jaguars.
W.S. Neal comes into the game 0-4 overall and 0-3 in region play after falling to Escambia County 28-15.
W.S. Neal head coach Doug Hoehn said that once again, turnovers hurt his team.
“The kids played extremely hard,” Hoehn said. “We did a very good job of limiting our penalties. We had three the entire night and I think the kids played through the penalties and turnovers better and they fought through adversity. But the turnovers are still killing us. We had five turnovers and a muffed punt that led to three of Atmore’s scores. We have to stop the turnovers and give ourselves a chance. We played a good first quarter (WSN led 7-0 after the first quarter), but this time it was the second quarter that got us. The turnovers occurred in the second quarter. We just have to play four solid quarters.”
Hillcrest comes into the game this week against the Eagles with a 2-2 record, winning 27-26 in overtimes this past Friday night against Straughn.
Hoehn said the Jaguars are an “athletic bunch.”
“We watched them on film and they are similar to Escambia County,” Hoehn said. “They have a lot of kids that can run and they have some size. They are different from Escambia County in what they try to do. Escambia County wants to spread you out and do what they do while Hillcrest just plays smash mouth football and runs right at you. They are going to run right at you. They do spread a little bit, but I don’t think that is what they want to do. They just want to run right at you from what I can tell on film.”
Hoehn said on defense, the Jaguars are going to crowd the box.
“When we are on defense, they are just going to run the ball between the two tackles right at you,” Hoehn said.
Hoehn said heading into the non-region week five game, his evaluation of his team is that they have come a long way.
“In the wins and losses, that does not reflect it,” Hoehn said. “Turnovers are killing us and have kept us from being in positions to win games. If you look at the team compared to last year at the same time, we have scored 27 more points than they have scored last year and we last year they had given up 42 more points at this time last year.”
Hoehn said his team has been able to move the ball on everyone they have played this year.
“Just our turnovers have hurt us, but I think that is a big improvement over last year,” Hoehn said. “We have played a tough schedule up to this point. But if you take away the turnovers, up until this point, all four of those games would have been much closer. I think we would have a win or possibly two. We are improving and every game has been an improvement from last year’s team against the same opponent. We just have to limit the turnovers.”
Hoehn said his team is playing hard.
“They just have to learn, when they are fighting for extra yards, they have to secure the ball,” Hoehn said. “They have to understand the down and distance and what play it is. If you are fighting for an extra yard on second-and-five, you have another down to get the first down. They just have to understand that. We just have to have four solid quarters. We have played four games now and have played some folks at different positions. We have a couple of injuries, but the kids who have replaced them have a couple games under their belts now. We need to play four quarters of solid football. It is time for us to play four quarters of solid football.”
Game time is set for 7 p.m. in Evergreen.