When asked what Escambia County’s mindset is for this week’s senior night contest against W.S. Neal, Blue Devils head football coach Rico Jackson said it’s to win.

“This is a big game for us,” Jackson said. “I feel like if we win, there’s a three-way tie for fourth place.”

At present, the Blue Devils sit 1-4 in Class 4A, Region 1. The only way ECHS could be in a three-way tie for fourth place is if it beats WSN and Satsuma loses this week at Thomasville.

Jackson said then it comes down to the many tiebreaker rules that are set in place.

“We just want to be in a place where we can get to that point,” he said about the tiebreaker situation. “We’re going to have to play well.”

The Eagles are sitting at 3-5 going into this week’s game. ECHS is 2-6 overall.

Jackson said a big key this week is to stop W.S. Neal senior running back Marvin Maddox.

“We need to stop their run game, and if we do that, then we’ll win,” he said. “We need to be physical, and go off the ball. If we play hard and consistently, we’ll have a chance to win.”

The Blue Devils are coming off a 28-6 loss to then No. 3 Carroll-Ozark.

In that loss, ECHS played better on defense, the coach said.

“We did play hard,” Jackson said. “The kids saw it, too. If we play and don’t turn the ball over, we can play with anybody.

“We just kind of ran into a buzz saw,” he said about last week. “We’ve got the toughest schedule I’ve seen in my life. We’ve played five ranked teams. Satsuma and Neal have good teams, too. There isn’t any fall off.”