After finishing the first half of their region schedule Friday night with a 43-14 win over Southside-Selma and improving to 3-1 overall and to 2-1 in region play, the W.S. Neal Eagle football team will take on the Hillcrest Jaguars this week in a non-region game.
Hillcrest is currently 1-3 overall this season after picking up their first win of the season last week against Clarke County. The Jaguars defeated the Bulldogs 8-6.
W.S. Neal and Hillcrest have met 18 times and the series is currently tied 9-9 after W.S. Neal won last year over the Jaguars 38-17 in East Brewton.
“They are the best 1-3 team I have ever seen,” W.S. Neal head coach Doug Hoehn said. “They have played a very tough schedule. They lost a very close game to Andalusia. If I am not mistaken, they were leading UMS-Wright at halftime. They are big and physical and very fast. Earlier in the year I think turnovers were hurting them. I don’t think they did that against Clarke County so I think they have made improvements in that area.”
Hoehn said Hillcrest will be tough to deal with.
“They are bigger than us,” Hoehn said. “Hillcrest is led by quarterback, No. 17, Keyshawn Roach and he is a very good quarterback. They also have a good tailback and two good wide receivers.”
Against Southside Friday night, Hoehn said the Eagles had 511 total yards of offense with 448 coming on the ground and 63 in the air.
“Quenton Samuels led us with four touchdowns—three rushing and one receiving,” Hoehn said. “Malcolm Hawthorne had two rushing. Quantae Barksdale had a rushing two-point conversion and Malcolm had two rushing two-point conversions and Trey Taylor kicked an extra point.
“Lane Chavers had a touchdown throwing the ball.”
Samuels finished with 21 carries for a total of 223 yards while Hawthorne added 18 carries for 149 yards.
“Eddie Murphy and Rob Jones did a good job of blocking for us on the offensive line,” Hoehn said. “Defensively, Quantae Barksdale had another good game for us. He has played really well on both offense and defense for us. He did a good job of running the ball for us and another interception.”
Also on defense for W.S. Neal, Michael Williams had eight tackles and one sack. TyAnthony Alexander had four tackles with one for a loss while Miles Powell had five tackles.
Tory Brown had seven tackles and one for a loss.
“Tory played really well for us on defense,” Hoehn said. “Miles also had an interception as did Malcolm.”
Game time is set for 7 p.m. at Hillcrest High School in Evergreen.