The Cougars of Canoe hit the road again this week traveling to Butler to take on the Patrician Academy Saints in an important region game.
The Escambia Academy Cougars (3-2, 1-1) are looking for answers on the defensive side of the ball after giving up 62 points in a loss to the Prattville Christian Academy Panthers last Friday in Prattville.
Cougars head coach Heath Gibson said this week in practice, the Cougars will change schemes and focus on stopping the run.
“This week, we are going to put everything into improving our defense,” Gibson said. “We are going to completely change schemes. We have been running a 4-4 defense, but we have to put more guys in the box, so we can stop the run. Patrician likes to go foot-to-foot and run a Wing-T and a double-wing offense, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them drop back and pass the ball like the other run-oriented teams have done against us.”
Play in the secondary has been a woe for the Cougars since the season began with quarterbacks being able to find holes in coverage. EA has had shown some bright spots in that area though intercepting several passes.
Gibson said he has his defensive backs constantly working to improve how they defend the pass.
“We just work every week on trying to put guys in the right places,” Gibson said. “We have been running a lot of zone coverages, and when we do run man coverage, we have been trying to give them assignments that don’t have them so confused.”
For more on this story, see Wednesday’s edition of The Atmore Advance.