This Friday night at W.S. Neal Stadium in East Brewton, either the Eagles of East Brewton or the Monroe County Tigers will get their first win of the season.
Both teams come into the homecoming game for the Eagles with 0-5 overall records and 0-3 region records.
W.S. Neal comes into the game coming off a 19-6 loss last Friday night on the road at Hillcrest-Evergreen.
“The kids played hard,” W.S. Neal Eagle head coach Doug Hoehn said of his team last week. “We limited the number of penalties and turnovers but we didn’t execute very well in the red zone.”
The Tigers of Monroe County come into the game this week with W.S. Neal with an 0-5 record after losing 6-0 to Excel Friday night at home.
So far this season, Monroe County has been outscored 19-101 and have been shutout two times with the most points scored in a game being seven.
“They have a good running back that runs the ball really hard,” Hoehn said of the Tigers. “We saw a good running back Friday night in Hillcrest’s No. 6. We are going to have to wrap up on this kid as he has the ability to break tackles just like No. 6 did for Hillcrest. We are going to have stop them to be successful on defense. Offensively, we can’t have broken assignments, especially close in the red zone. We have to lineup right and run the right play. We just have troubles sometimes when we are down there close. I don’t know if it is pressure or nerves, but we can’t drive the ball 60 or 70 yards and get down there and not get any points. We have made mistakes in our execution so we are going to have to address that to have some success on offense against them.”
Hoehn said preparing for a homecoming game depends on the team you have.
“Lots of times, if you have been somewhere for a couple of years, you have a senior-led team coming back, homecoming is not that big of a distraction,” Hoehn said. “If you have a young team, or if it is your first time at a school, sometimes homecoming can become a distraction. As a coaching staff, we are going to try and focus this week on not letting it become a distraction. For the football team, homecoming is the game. We have to concentrate on the game and let the other festivities be a lot lesser of a degree.”
With a win this week, the W.S. Neal Eagles can end a 20-game losing streak. It would also be the Eagles first homecoming win since 2008 when they defeated Calhoun 57-6.
Ironically, W.S. Neal’s last win was Sept. 25, 2009 at home against Calhoun. Also with a win this Friday, the Eagles will get their firs region win since week nine, Oct. 27, 2007 against T.R. Miller at home—a 14-8 win in OT.
Hoehn said a win for the team—and his seniors—would be big.
“I think a win would be very important,” Hoehn said. “For a couple of reasons, No. 1, you want to win your homecoming game. These seniors have not been able to do that the last couple of years. We need a win to improve our execution. That first win is always the toughest to get. I think if we get one under our belt, it would give our kids confidence to execute better.”
Game time is set for 7 p.m. with other festivities set throughout the day.