Sports Editor

Eufaula brings a Class 5A No. 4 ranking into Bulldog

Stadium tonight, but Pike County head coach Wayne Grant isn’t feeling any pressure.

"All the pressure is on Eufaula," said Grant. "They’re the ones that’s got the ranking and they’re the 5A school. We’re just a little 3A school. If they come down here to Brundidge and we beat them then that’s a feather in our hat. We have nothing to lose."

Eufaula is coached by new head coach Shayne Wasden and the Tigers were a semifinal team in last year’s playoffs. The Tigers return most of the offense from last season, including top rusher junior Charles Green. As a sophomore, Green rushed for 1,783 yards and 19 touchdowns.

"We’ve got to wrap Green up," said Grant. "We can’t let him get loose in the secondary or he’ll kill you."

As powerful as the Tigers’ offense appears on paper, the defense is just the opposite. Eufaula lost nine defensive starters from a team which gave up just 8.7 points a game last season.

"Supposedly they’ll be starting a lot of sophomores," said Grant. "We’re going to try and take advantage of that. Hopefully, we can move the ball, but I don’t want to get into a shoot out on the scoreboard with them."

Besides playing the game at home, the Bulldogs have one more advantage over Eufaula. Pike County played a full four quarter game against Charles Henderson High School last week, while the Tigers have only been involved in scrimmage situations.

"I told the players that if we had an advantage, then that was it," said Grant. "Eufaula hasn’t face an opponent."

Grant said practices this week have been focused on improving blocking and coverage in the secondary.

"We’ve had an opportunity to iron out some of the things we did wrong in the Charles Henderson game," he said.

Last week against CHHS the Bulldogs gave up a long pass play which led to the game winning touchdown by Trojan quarterback Kevin Stephens.

"We got turned around on defense last week," said Grant. "We can’t give up big pass plays like that again this Friday night."