ECHS plays tonight at Ladd-Peebles
Published 9:48 pm Friday, September 2, 2011
With rain on the forecast, Escambia County Blue Devils head football coach Mark Heaton is hoping it does not dampen the chances that Blue Devils fans will turn out for Saturday’s road game against the B.C. Rain Red Raiders.
The Blue Devils (0-1, 0-0) will face off against B.C. Rain at Ladd-Peeble Stadium as the bulk of a tropical depression begins to move through the area.
Rain or shine, the Blue Devils have prepared all week to visit Mobile and come away with a victory.
The extra day of preparation for the Saturday match up allowed the Blue Devils to get their roster as healthy as possible.
“We’ve had a great week of practice,” Heaton said. “This week allowed us to get our kids back to 100 percent after the physical game a gainst T.R. Miller. We took an extra day in shells to get our kids healty, so we are expecting good things.”
During practice sessions this week, the Blue Devils put their attention to correcting costly mistakes.
Avoiding penalties and turnovers was on every players mind, Heaton said.
“We’ve done a better job of concentrating on the line of scrimmage, and not jumping the snap,” he said. “The kids have really taken it to heart this week to stop the turnovers. We have had kids make a huge effort this week to carry the ball better and keep it high and tight. I think that the focus that we have put on that will help us.”
Excitement is still buzzing among the Blue Devils even with their first game being a loss.
With their first region game staring at Escambia County, the team will be ready to play, Heaton said.
“It took us the weekend to recover from that game last Friday,” Heaton said. “They are back playing at a high speed, and they have that energy about them that says they are ready to play. Our kids are going to be ready to play, and they will play hard.”
Community support has continued to grow for the Blue Devils since Heaton took over.
With the game on the road and rain in the forecast, Heaton said he wants to see fans make the trip to give their team that extra incentive to win.
It’s probably going to be wet,” Heaton said. “We just need the support and need people out there at Ladd-Peebles. Having that support behind us last week helped us with the effort to almost come away with a win. This is big for us with it being our first region game.”
The Blue Devils and Red Raiders kick off at 7 p.m. tonight at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile.