By By Matthew Nascone
Winning the games a team is supposed to win is a key point to a season for many coaches, and Escambia County High head football coach Kyle Davis is one of those coaches. His Blue Devils have one of those "must wins" this Friday in Evergreen as they face the Hillcrest-Evergreen Jaguars.
"Going into the season we looked at the schedule and broke the region into three categories," Davis said. "The first category were teams we should beat and that included Hillcrest, Southside-Selma and Monroe County. The second group were teams we would have a tough time beating and those were Miller and Thomasville. And the final group were teams we could beat and those two teams were W.S. Neal and Jackson. We already got one of the could beat when we took down Neal, now we just have to take care of business this week."
This game is pivotal to the playoff hopes the Blue Devils have for the 2006 season.
"I believe we need to win four games to make the playoffs, and if we go into that week five region break with a 2-1 record we will be doing all right. We have to win this game if we want to make the playoffs."
ECHS is coming off a devastating 49-20 loss to rival T.R. Miller at home, but Davis said his team will bounce back.
"The Miller game was the epitome of everything we cannot do in a game," he said. "We wanted to be close at the half, it was 35-14 at the half. We didn't want to turn the ball over, we turned it over six times. And we didn't want to give up the big play on defense and we let them score a touchdown on third and long right before the half. But we are looking forward to getting back to what we do this week. And that is play good, solid defense and explosive offense."
Kickoff is at 7 p.m. in Evergreen.