Following a tough loss to the Clarke Prep Gators in Grove Hill last Friday, the Escambia Academy Cougars are working to correct their mistakes to avoid a second loss this week against Jackson Academy.

The Cougars (1-1, 0-1) are hoping to bounce back this week after their defense played poorly against the Gators.

Cougars head coach Heath Gibson said he is focused on fixing the problems facing his team.

“We just have to go back to work, and fix ourselves,” Gibson said. “We have Jackson Academy coming this week, but I’m not really worried about them. I’m worried about Escambia Academy, and how we are going to bounce back and fix ourselves.”

Defensively, the Cougars had a breakdown against the Gators that allowed them to score 51 points.

Gibson said last week’s practice focused on offensive execution, so this week will be all about the defense.

“We just have to work on executing our assignments correctly,” Gibson said. “We talked about it last week, but it was offense. We broke down defensively, and we just need to get everything set right.”

On offense, the Cougars will look to put up a lot of yards after debuting their spread option.

Gibson said the offense will be successful and score a lot of points.

“I think it will help us score,” Gibson said. “Only times we didn’t score last week were when we hurt ourselves. We had right at 400 yards of offense and scored 30 points.”

For the Cougars, stopping Jackson Academy’s passing attack will be key.

Gibson said if his team is able to contain the pass then they should win.

“If we can slow their passing game down then we can win,” Gibson said.

Escambia Academy and Jackson Academy kick off at 7 p.m. Friday in Canoe.