Escambia County will hit the road this week to face second-ranked St. Paul’s Episcopal School in its final Class 5A, Region 1 contest of the season.

The Blue Devils are coming off a 26-2 homecoming loss to Williamson entering the contest. Both WHS and ECHS were scoreless in the second half of last week’s game.

ECHS (1-7) is facing a defending state champion Saints team that will be fresh coming off a bye week.

St. Paul’s only loss so far this season came at the hands of the Jackson Aggies.

“I feel strongly they’ll face each other again in the playoffs,” Blue Devils head football coach Royce Young said about the St. Paul’s-Jackson match up. “They’re just one of those programs that reloads every year. They’ll have six, seven or eight kids that’ll get scholarships.

“They’re just what most everybody aspires to be,” he said.

There isn’t just one person on St. Paul’s team that really stands out, Young said.

“They’re just a complete team,” he said. “They have size, speed and strength. The most impressive thing about this is the way they execute. They do everything right. It makes for a pretty strong football team.”

The week started off with a school holiday, which didn’t change the practice schedule for the Blue Devils, Young said.

“The players will come in (Monday) afternoon, and it’ll be a normal week,” he said.

Kick off in Mobile on Friday is at 7 p.m.