Cougars, Volunteers to battle in region game

Escambia Academy and Monroe Academy will battle in a key AISA Class 3A, Region 1 match up in Monroeville.

The Cougars and Volunteers have been long-time rivals over a number of years as MA is the closest private school away from EA.

“It’s a very big rivalry for us,” Cougars head football coach Hugh Fountain said. “They’re not too far from us. A lot of our people know their people. It’s just one of those games that means a lot to our school.”

At present, MA is at the top of the region standings with a perfect 3-0 record. The Volunteers beat Autauga Academy 34-7 last week. EA lost 28-18 to AA on Aug. 28.

MA has outscored its opponents 247-65 so far this season.

Fountain said the Volunteers will pose a lot of problems for the team, especially on offense.

“They might be in the spread one play and in the next play, they’ll be in a power formation,” he said. “They give you a little bit of both. They’re big enough to do the power stuff. They have a lot. They’re big.”

Fountain said MA likes to run a five-man front on defense, which isn’t surprising as they’re pretty strong.

While this game is a rivalry contest, it does have postseason ramifications. EA is sitting in the third spot at the moment.

“We still have a few games to go,” Fountain said. “It’s hard to really tell where it would help you because at a point time we’re down one game because of the loss to Autauga. We feel like that this game has ramifications for us because we need to see if we have gotten better as a team.”

Leading up to the contest, the weather hasn’t cooperated fully as rain has doused the area over the last couple of days.

Fountain said the weather shouldn’t affect practice time.

“Time will tell as the week goes on,” he said. “Weather plays a part in it. Monroe is getting the same rain we’re getting. We’re just going to plug away at it”